Switch emulator Yuzu abruptly shutters after Nintendo files suit

Yuzu, the popular Nintendo Switch emulator, shut down today, days after Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the developers.

At the same time, Yuzu’s parent company Tropic Haze and Nintendo filed a joint motion to settle the lawsuit, with Yuzu paying Nintendo $2.4 million. They’ll also destroy all copies of Yuzu — as well as 3DS emulator Citra — and give Nintendo control of their Yuzu URL, though this settlement is currently dependent on a judge’s approval.

Nintendo has frequently pursued legal actions against perceived threats to its intellectual property, including the prosecution of Switch hacker Gary Bowser and rom hosting websites, including Rom Universe. The proposed settlement asks that the court specify, “Developing or distributing software, including Yuzu, that in its ordinary course functions only when cryptographic keys are integrated without authorization, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition on trafficking in devices that circumvent effective technological measures, because the software is primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing technological measures.”

When you visit Yuzu’s site at the time of this writing, all you’ll see is a statement about Yuzu’s discontinuation. The developers say they do not condone piracy. They add, “In particular, we have been deeply disappointed when users have used our software to leak game content prior to its release and ruin the experience for legitimate purchasers and fans… Effective today, we will be pulling our code repositories offline, discontinuing our Patreon accounts and Discord servers, and, soon, shutting down our websites.”

One crucial point in Nintendo’s complaint appeared to be that Yuzu’s developers were profiting from its distribution via their Patreon. Legal cases involving emulation have been relatively permissive up to now, but Nintendo’s complaint specifically mentioned the use of the software to play leaked copies of Tears of the Kingdom. The implications of some of the language in the settlement could mean other emulators are vulnerable to legal action in the future.