Nintendo is going after the development team of an emulator. A legal case was filed by Nintendo yesterday, alleging that the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, has caused damages to the company by allowing for its games to be played illegally before release. The suit also claims that the company behind the emulator, Tropic Haze LLC, makes a profit by facilitating piracy, noting that during the leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Yuzu's Patreon saw a large increase in users. Nintendo's legal team makes a case that Tropic Haze profits from and popularizes video game piracy.

NEW: Nintendo is suing the creators of popular Switch emulator Yuzu, saying their tech illegally circumvents Nintendo's software encryption and facilitates piracy.
Seeks damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator. pic.twitter.com/SGZVI6Cs0x

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) February 27, 2024

In the legal document, Nintendo refers to an emulator as, "a piece of software that allows users to unlawfully play pirated video games". They also assert that the Yuzu team is aware of the emulator's use in the context of piracy, and do not try to hide that aspect. In addition, Nintendo's legal team states that extracting your own keys from a Nintendo Switch console--a requirement to run any Nintendo Switch emulator--is illegal.

Source

 

[Foxi4]

I don’t think there’s any hope this time because of 2 points:
1. allow leaked game to be played before release
2. making money from patreon

point 1 makes a big difference because other emu like rpcs3 and cemu are old and its developed long after both consoles are dead, while yuzu just straight up let you play leaked game before release.

So does a hacked Switch.

 

[ZeroT21]

Nintendo with a market value over $50 billion has nothing to than to go pick a fight

 

[Xzi]

Y'know, a move like this toward the end of Switch's lifespan might suggest Nintendo intends to change very little about their codebase, so Yuzu could theoretically be easy to fork into an emulator that supports Switch 2 games as well. Kinda like Dolphin with GCN and Wii.

 

[chrisrlink]

the problem is scotus has been making bad rulings based on what their party believes and not actual law Nintendo is probably banking on them reaching up to scotus and undoing Sony v bleem though if they do i hope they make a no exceptions ruling (which will backfire on nintendo since they use emulators themselves)

 

[Foxi4]

Y'know, a move like this toward the end of Switch's lifespan might suggest Nintendo intends to change very little about their codebase, so Yuzu could theoretically be easy to fork into an emulator that supports Switch 2 games as well. Kinda like Dolphin with GCN and Wii.

From what I hear over the grapevine this is correct. The new Switch is an incremental upgrade.

 

[Xzi]

From what I hear over the grapevine this is correct. The new Switch is an incremental upgrade.

Oh, Ninty...I never have to tell you to never change, because I know you won't anyway.

 

[MrSandstorm]

Y'know, a move like this toward the end of Switch's lifespan might suggest Nintendo intends to change very little about their codebase, so Yuzu could theoretically be easy to fork into an emulator that supports Switch 2 games as well. Kinda like Dolphin with GCN and Wii.

You might've just made the most important point to this discussion. Preventing their "new" console releases from being emulated day-1 sounds like a very strong reason for that kind of company to pull this BS. The timing seems to suggest it as well. Yuzu's been around for years but is only being targeted now that a new console seems close to announcement, rumored to be based on a Tegra chip just like the current Switch, and with very similar (if not straight up identical) code running on it.

 

[Lumstar]

Maybe. Maybe not. The DMCA features an interoperability exemption. Yuzu developers are welcome to reverse-engineer methods of decrypting software and sharing those methods so long as those methods are not in and out of themselves infringing on copyright. That’s why developers insist on clean room implementation. If decryption is necessary to achieve interoperability between the program in question and another program, it is permitted.

It sounds like tools to have a Switch communicate with a computer are okay, though I'm not sure what that could be used for.

The ability to play pirated commercial games independently from a Switch, isn't interoperability.

 

[Foxi4]

Oh, Ninty...I never have to tell you to never change because I know you won't anyway.

From what I’ve gathered, the system will be based on an NVidia T239 (codename Drake (?)) which is supposed to be a cut-down version of the T234. The highlight is (very modest) raytracing capability, but the obvious conclusion is that the underlying code base will be largely the same. In all fairness, the same can be said about the PS5 and the Series X - they’re evolutions of the PS4 and Xbox One as well, purposefully so. We can expect around 1.6 TFLOPS, so about on-par with the Steamdeck, with a side of rays. You’ll be able to play your favourite PS4 games on the go soon, and they’ll be shiny. That’s assuming Nintendo allows it to run full tilt, which they probably won’t.

It sounds like tools to have a Switch communicate with a computer are okay, though I'm not sure what that could be used for.

The ability to play pirated commercial games independently from a Switch, isn't interoperability.

Of course it is. What do you think a video game is? The decryption layer allows interoperability between Yuzu and the game itself. Without it both binaries are completely useless.

 

[gnmmarechal]

I don’t think there’s any hope this time because of 2 points:
1. allow leaked game to be played before release
2. making money from patreon

point 1 makes a big difference because other emu like rpcs3 and cemu are old and its developed long after both consoles are dead, while yuzu just straight up let you play leaked game before release.

You know that Cemu was released *before* the Wii U's end of life, and so was RPCS3?

 

[Lumstar]

From what I’ve gathered, the system will be based on an NVidia T239 (codename Drake (?)) which is supposed to be a cut-down version of the T234. The highlight is (very modest) raytracing capability, but the obvious conclusion is that the underlying code base will be largely the same. In all fairness, the same can be said about the PS5 and the Series X - they’re evolutions of the PS4 and Xbox One as well, purposefully so. We can expect around 1.6 TFLOPS, so about on-par with the Steamdeck, with a side of rays. You’ll be able to play your favourite PS4 games on the go soon, and they’ll be shiny. That’s assuming Nintendo allows it to run full tilt, which they probably won’t.
Of course it is. What do you think a video game is? The decryption layer allows interoperability between Yuzu and the game itself. Without it both binaries are completely useless.

Pretty good. A novel legal argument.

 

[Xzi]

From what I’ve gathered, the system will be based on an NVidia T239 (codename Drake) which is supposed to be a cut-down version of the T234. The highlight is (very modest) raytracing capability, but the obvious conclusion is that the underlying code base will be largely the same.

What about DLSS support? Arguably much more important for a portable system than raytracing, but something that could still be emulated with full-sized Nvidia GPUs of course.

 

[Impossible_Igntiz]

deserved yuzu sucked anyway

finally someone normal here

 

[Foxi4]

What about DLSS support? Arguably much more important for a portable system than raytracing, but something that could still be emulated with full-sized Nvidia GPUs of course.

Let’s be real, with a chip like that DLSS is all you’re *really* getting, don’t expect widespread real time global illumination - that’s too resource intensive.

 

[Subtle Demise]

This is the thread where everyone pretends Yuzu isn't used for piracy

Got a quote to back that up? Or just building strawmen? I hope Yuzu, Ryujinx and MigSwitch put Shitendo out of business forever.

 

[SomeKindOfUsername]

The document brings up how Bunnei admitted that people who use Yuzu pirate the keys. That's probably the catalyst for this whole thing and will likely be the biggest point of contention. It's the silent agreement that everybody who uses emulators does so using their own dumped files, so to have the lead developer of the emulator saying something like seems like a major issue.

 

[Morricorne]

I have always said and I will continue to say. F..k Nintendo is not only a duty but also a pleasure these days. Even Sony doesn't deal with backups like Nintendo. The cancer of the gaming industry.
Nintendo, give me my money back for pkmn Violet which I bought at the premiere and it worked terribly. I also want to return the rest of the games I bought in your eshop. Because they work like crap. I forgot, it's impossible.

 

[HRudyPlayZ]

Let's just hope that
A, They don't succeed making Yuzu bankrupt and that their patreon money is enough for the case.
B, That there isn't a completely corrupted judge that will outright ignore the precedants and make Nintendo win.

Anyways, got the repo fully backed up with the git history and all that, if it goes bad, i hope someone will be able to continue the work, i'll gladly make a bot that automatically rehosts the repo over and over again on Github.

 

[Foxi4]

The document brings up how Bunnei admitted that people who use Yuzu pirate the keys. That's probably the catalyst for this whole thing and will likely be the biggest point of contention. It's the silent agreement that everybody who uses emulators does so using their own dumped files, so to have the lead developer of the emulator saying something like seems like a major issue.

I’m pretty sure that Rizla knows their papers are used to smoke pot, and loads of it. That’s the users doing that, Rizla’s not in charge of what perfect strangers use their product for. It’s a bad look, to be sure, but not necessarily a hole in one.

 

[Xzi]

Let’s be real, with a chip like that DLSS is all you’re *really* getting, don’t expect widespread real time global illumination - that’s too resource intensive.

Of course, but any DLSS support will be a big step up from Switch rendering at 540p or less.