The makers of the Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu owe Nintendo $2.4 million after reaching a settlement with the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom developer, following a lawsuit over the open source emulator just last week. Both Nintendo and Tropic Haze, the company behind Yuzu, filed for a final judgment and injunction on Monday. according to court documentsafter Nintendo accused the Yuzu makers of copyright infringement, circumventing Nintendo’s Switch protections, etc sale these bypass technologies like Yuzu, among others.
However, the settlement is still subject to a judge’s approval.
Yuzu is a free Nintendo Switch emulator released in 2018 months after Nintendo released the Nintendo Switch. This is software that allows people to play Nintendo Switch games on their computers or phones – including Tears of the Kingdom, which Nintendo cited in its lawsuit, saying Yuzu allowed people to play leaked copies of the game early. Specifically, Nintendo said that due to the leaked copies, more than a million people played the game before its release date. Yuzu itself doesn’t offer pirated or leaked games, but Nintendo has targeted the company because the emulator is one of the few ways to play these games.
Beyond the money, the terms of the settlement dictate that Tropic Haze must cease operations on Yuzu entirely – it cannot distribute it in any way, nor can it market it on its website or social media. Yuzu also has to give up its domain name.
In a statement posted on Discord, yuzu maker Bunnei confirmed that everything yuzu-related will be taken offline.
“Piracy was never our intention and we believe that piracy of video games and video game consoles should end. Starting today, we will be taking our code repositories offline, suspending our Patreon accounts and Discord servers, and soon closing our websites,” Bunnei wrote. “We hope that our actions will be a small step towards ending piracy of the works of all creators.”
The website, Patreon page and GitHub repositories for Yuzu and the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra have all been taken offline. The Discord channel remains online.
A Nintendo representative pointed Polygon to the Entertainment Software Association when asked for comment on the settlement. Lawyers for the emulator maker did not respond to a request for comment.
The Tears of the Kingdom The publisher is known to be strict with its intellectual property. Nintendo has won several lawsuits against pirated gaming sites like RomUniverse, being awarded more than $2 million in damages. Nintendo also famously took action against a suspected Nintendo Switch hacker named Gary Bowser, who was arrested and charged with selling Switch hacks. Despite being released from prison, Bowser still owes Nintendo $10 million; In prison, he paid Nintendo $175 with money he earned in the prison library and kitchen.
The lawsuit between Nintendo and Yuzu has reignited a debate about emulation – whether the act of emulation is inherently illegal. Of course, emulation fans don’t think so: many people see Yuzu and other emula tors as an important tool for video game preservation. Nintendo obviously disagrees.
To update: Bunnei, one of Yuzu’s creators, posted a message on the group’s Discord page about the settlement, saying that all Yuzu code, Patreon accounts and Discord servers would be shut down. We have updated this story to include part of that statement. Here is the full message:
Hello Yuz-lers and Citra fans:
We are writing to you today to inform you that Yuzu and Yuzu’s support for Citra will be discontinued effective immediately.
Yuzu and his team have always been against piracy. We started the projects in good faith, out of passion for Nintendo and its consoles and games, and had no intention of causing harm. But we now see that our projects have led to extensive piracy because they can bypass Nintendo’s technological protections and allow users to play games outside of authorized hardware. In particular, we were deeply disappointed when users used our software to leak game content before release and ruin the gaming experience for legitimate buyers and fans.
We have come to the conclusion that we cannot allow this to continue. Piracy was never our intention and we believe that piracy of video games and video game consoles should end. Starting today, we will be taking our code repositories offline, shutting down our Patreon accounts and Discord servers, and soon closing our websites. We hope that our actions will be a small step towards ending piracy of all creators’ works.
Thank you for your support over the years and your understanding of our decision.
Update (4:58 p.m. ET): This story has been updated after Yuzu and Citra makers took the code, Patreon page and website offline.