Nintendo has yet again issued a series of DMCA takedowns across GitHub that specfically target popular Nintendo Switch emulators. Nintendo's reasoning is to protect its copyrighted IP and prevent unauthorized distribution.

It's common knowledge that most emulators worth their weight do not themselves include any cryptographic keys - with most requiring users provide their own. However, Nintendo has previously insisted that such emulators facilitate copyright infringement rather than claiming them to be illegal as such, and as of now, no court has formally ruled that using or distributing emulators without games violates copyright.

Of course, emulators offer many benefits rather than simply "facilitating piracy". One of the big ones, being of course; game preservation - allowing future generations to experience games that might no longer be available for purchase or that have been delisted. Emulators can also be a great help to users with accessiblity needs, providing alternate input options for those that need it.

What do you think? Is Nintendo justified in its crusade against emulators or should they take a step back?

Source

 

[subcon959]

It doesn't matter what's legal or illegal, it only matters how wealthy and powerful you are.

 

[RyanTheArchivist]

i'm not sure how that logic makes any sense, while there is alot of people who use emulators for piracy there are also lot's of people who use it playing their dumped copies, I quite literally use melon DS to record gameplay because i don't have a DS capture card and the compatibility is alot better than the wii u vc inject.

both sides of the coin exist, it's just that unfortunately one side is obnoxiously loud and proud of their endeavors and this started during the eshop shut down, or at the very least was already going on amplified because of it.

Yeah and sadly most people use it for piracy. Thats why we can't have nice things.

Post automatically merged: Feb 15, 2026

Hey, I'm just telling you what the law says. Like I said someone would actually have to demonstrate commercial harm in a court of law for them to be illegal, but the legal mechanisms to so are there. Copyright law is very much about practicality. It's designed to be vague and flexible.

Well remmeber none of these emulators they just took down were custom. They were all forks of emulators they already legally took down.

 

[TankedThomas]

Nintendo can fuck right off. Most of their recent releases can barely even run on Switch 1, anyway, and the Switch 2 is a scam (unless you buy the Japanese-only version, but then that doesn't change the terrible game prices and DLC practices).

I've been playing Princess Peach Showtime, for example (terrible game, by the way, though I know a grown man isn't obviously the target audience but still). The game runs at a mostly stable 30fps... and feels terrible. If you overclock the Switch, you can get it running at 720p60 (stable closer to 50-55fps though) or about 1080p40. There's zero reason that game has to run so poorly. It doesn't look particularly good (which isn't to say it looks bad but there's no way it's graphically demanding), and it's a very basic game overall. Nintendo just don't care for optimisation any more... or making good games.

Mario and Luigi Brothership, aside from being one of the most boring games I've played in a long time, performs like crap too, even when overclocked. And that's putting aside that overclocking is the only way to get decent performance in half the recent releases unless you want to buy a Switch 2, but instead of allowing developers to overclock the system, they want you to buy an overpriced piece of junk + paid upgrade instead.

Why not just emulate at that point? I know plenty of people LEGALLY emulated Tears of the Kingdom so they could play it at a decent framerate. My brother was one of them. Even if we assume emulators are mostly used for piracy (we don't have statistics to prove that but it seems likely), that doesn't take away from all the legitimate uses. I've dumped plenty of games to run on emulators myself.

Unfortunately yes, but yet another reason for Switch emulator is able to setup another Animal Crossing island without deleting your own on your Switch. Only one island per Switch. What a joke.

I believe they finally patched that with the recent major update... proving they could have done it from the start, proving all the tards who defended that practice completely wrong.

While I agree with your point, something being used for piracy is enough to make it illegal under copyright law. As long as Nintendo can demonstrate emulators have a commercial impact on published works that includes TPMs then they can been deemed illegal in court, An emulator's potential legitimate uses don't matter.

At least for the US and Canada. Pretty sure most other first world countries are similar.

Unlike you and half the people in this thread, I'm not going to pretend to be a lawyer. However, it is unlikely that emulators have any provable impact on Nintendo's bottom line.

 

[ZeroT21]

These ninjas probably got salty over their loss with the Palworld case and decided to pick easier targets to bully

 

[Space_Goddess_Samus_Aran]

Fuck em. They can vanish idrc. Protecting their stuff is understandable, but they are exaggerating.

 

[auntnadia]

There should be laws to stop billionaires from bullying law abiding people with their excessive, greedy, mountains of money. The only victory for a normal person I can think of was that Costa Rican shop owner called Mario whose life they tried to ruin because he opened a grocery store in his own name when Miyamoto was still a schoolboy. He would have been shut down if the Costa Rican legal system didn’t allow him affordable representation from scumbags.

 

[Taleweaver]

It's quite interesting that you guys keep saying this, but as another user already pointed out, do you have to data to backup your claims?

Also, if they are so concerned about piracy, why haven't they done anything about the countless sites literally distributing their keys for anyone to use? Some have been running for almost 5 years.

Occam's razor: given two options, the most likely outcome can be presumed truth.

And really... Over the years Ive seen site some sites close, or have their links return nothing anymore. Saying that they're not done anything is just that they'd done nothing effectively (countless minus a dozen still equal countless)

 

[ut2k4master]

That's not relevant, and as an argument, it's a slippery slope. PCs can be used for piracy. Your phone can be used for piracy. When you really think about it, your operating system doesn't stop piracy and thus can be used for piracy. Regardless, emulators are legal as long as they are not distributing copyrighted files; Nintendo shouldn't be able to do anything to them. The Big N is overstepping and abusing the DMCA when attacking emulators.

"can be used for" and "are used for" are two different things

Post automatically merged: Feb 15, 2026

Nintendo switch games deserve to die with switch if Nintendo doesn't want to preserve it via emulation.

the system is still being actively sold and the switch 2 is fully compatible with switch 1 games. "preservation" my ass, at least admit that you just want stuff for free

 

[NinStar]

"can be used for" and "are used for" are two different things

Post automatically merged: Feb 15, 2026

the system is still being actively sold and the switch 2 is fully compatible with switch 1 games. "preservation" my ass, at least admit that you just want stuff for free

Even if all he want is to "play games for free", it by extension helps digital preservation because more people are having access to a digital good.

 

[LokeYourLord]

Even if all he want is to "play games for free", it by extension helps digital preservation because more people are having access to a digital good.

I'd suggest you don't even entertain his room temperature IQ argumentation to begin with, it only confirms him in his high moral superiority corporate boot lickery his type loves engaging in. I've stopped doing that since it's ultimately meaningless, because these people don't understand that corporations and these billionaires aren't your friends and don't give a single crap about you, whether you suck up to them or not. You're a useful tool to them, but you're ultimately still in the same boat as all of us are, and if our boat drowns, you'll drown with us, the corporations & billionaires won't extend a hand out to you to save you from drowning.

Also, his argumentation falls flat right at the start with his nonsensical crap about

"can be used for" and "are used for" are two different things

, because, just to tear this extremely bad argument apart: these apply to both at the same time. An operating system is as guilty of this, as an emulator is, and an emulator is as innocent, as an operating system is. Both can be used this way, and both ARE being used this way, none of them are more or less guilty of it than the other is. But Sucktendo can't start bullying Microsoft into anything they want at all, and we all know they would if they could. It's just that it is easier to bully small projects like emulators that have a narrower scope, than an entire operating system from a mega corporation. The difference here isn't in legalities, because laws are often vague and often written by those with a lot of money to pay their way through them and carve themselves out while affecting everybody else, but about who has more money to bully the opponents into submission. If this wasn't the case, then there wouldn't already have been a few precedent cases that were won in favour of emulation already. There's not many, but there are, ultimately proving that if you can't bully your way through court with money, then the argumentation on a rightful basis, falls apart. There just aren't more cases these days because we all know exactly why that is, unless of course your a corporate boot licker to the extreme.

Corporate slaves, such as there sadly are a few of in this thread, don't understand this and will never understand the implications of this until it is too late or affects them as well at some point. I recently had a friend of mine who was so borderline obsessive about this, admit outright he was wrong all these years, because when he became nostalgic and wanted to play a few old games on consoles he didn't own anymore and discs that didn't work anymore, guess what he had to resort to? His corporate shlong riding competition he held with himself, since none of us in the friend group cared otherwise, ended then and there. And that's all that needs to be said about this.

 

[Shenglong200x]

The problem with Nintendo is that they're only making piracy more likely. They recently changed their official partnership guidelines to forbid content except on real hardware, which, to be brutally honest, isn't really possible to confirm, and 90% of their Virtual Console solution on current hardware requires Switch Online.

Throw in the absolutely abysmal reputation TPC has garnered, from the glitches and barely acceptable minimum effort releases to their ongoing attempts to claim ownership of every mechanic possible that POKeMON uses and erase their biggest rival from existence, and Nintendo's own recent DLC stance, where they'll sell you the most desirable parts of a game at a frakking premium and even added a Premium Pass to Switch Online, even if they don't call it that.

Microsoft has half a dozen tiers of XBOX Game Pass, has had since the XBOX One, but every single one of them is warranted and gives you plenty for the price. Nintendo has two tiers of Switch Online, and the value for money gets more and more questionable every day.

The big reason I don't have a Switch 2 is that Nintendo's strategy on piracy is Scorched Earth. You pirate a game on Switch 2, or even are implied to have tried to run something slightly questionable, like an out of region game or homebrew, your console is D-E-A-D, and Nintendo's stance is 'And it's your fault, thief, and if you get a new console, we'll just kill that one too', and if one of the Switch emulators announced Switch 2 support tomorrow, and Nintendo found out, I bet you $1,000 that Nintendo won't just try DMCA the ability to download it, they'll shut down any and all sites that host it or the roms it uses.

Well, if you can play Switch 2 games without Damocles' Sword hanging over you every time you put in a card, well, how are they meant to ensure all people pay the full $100+ each for the right to get a full game?

 

[munnimann]

The true lesson threads like these teach us has nothing to do with copyright or the ethics of online piracy. Instead it shows us how easy it is for people to assume a moral highground based on technicalities that don't even apply to them. People on this forum will play pirated games on emulator, lie about it, and then, with a straight face, proclaim that emulators are intended to be used legally and feel morally superior about it. All while fully knowing that they themselves are not using it "legally". It's both moral hypocrisy and magical thinking. Friedrich Nietzsche would be disappointed of you.

A coward says "I pirate, but technically emulators are legal, so I’m morally fine."

An honest person says "Yes, I pirate. I want the games and I don’t want to pay."

 

[PatrickD85]

What do you think? Is Nintendo justified in its crusade against emulators or should they take a step back?

Let's preface this with; This is my own opinion, yours can differ and thats perfectly fine. I'm not here for the entire yes/no debate. Comparing an emulator to knives/guns/etc simply is that, comparing two completely different things with each other. It's like comparing a toaster to a car or a pig ... it just simply makes no sense to do that.

For a system which is still receiving many, many, many new games, and emulators having whatever chance of lowering the software sales I totally get it. In essence they are protecting software sales (which is good for developer however big or small).

Hardware wise the Nintendo Switch (and 2) are selling like damn hotcakes. And sure software is what makes most of those hardware sales happen in the long run (which makes Nintendo more money), so protecting those to be on their hardware, not through an emulator, makes all the sense in the world.

And even though a lot will say "but that is not the main focus for emulators" ...
Well the major amount of emulator usage is focused around one thing; Piracy. No numbers, but this is just common sense.
You can claim otherwise, but if you say emulators have a main other focus ... well you must be living in a parallel universe or something.

Think of it like this;
if the Nintendo Switch (2) was fully emulated now, would someone go out and buy the hardware?
- Probably not. We have an emulator which can do it all for ....freeeee. People like free.
Would that be a good sign for a developer (however big or small) thinking of releasing to the console?
- Not really, as they could miss quite a bunch of sales due to that.
So developers might decide to not release on the console. There goes your games support.
- Less software sales normally equals less hardware sales.

In the end it's a vicious circle.
If a lot of people circumvent paying for software, it hurts software, which hurts hardware, which hurts companies and in the end will hurt the consumer.

Before I close because I know those are going to be called into this;
1 - preservation; the Nintendo Switch once again is an active console being sold today all over the world. Preserve what at this point in time really?
2 - modding; to mod something you need access to the source material (the software).
Which is still actively being sold when it comes to (most) of the Nintendo Switch game library.
It's a different can of worms, but my main point is, it's still being sold. Protecting it makes all the legal sense in the world.

Let's close this with; No i'm not a Nintendo shill even though I run a Nintendo fan site. When they do something appalling like closing a fan project which uses no assets, no code, does not make money or even is just a video proof of concept, we'll call them out as that is just petty.

Also I'm not against emulation at all, but fighting emulation of a currently mass used (and appreciated) console, I totally get it and simply can not fault them for that.

 

[MPRTwice]

I get what you are trying to say, but it's also rather flawed.

A classroom with a set amount of students, is a totally different thing compared to an entire population of people. Companies like Nintendo don't even get to see majority of people face to face to address problems, like you can with your students. We as the population are one unit of people. Not every situation can you easily isolate down to specific people. It's the same reason why consumer standards, law, etc. impacts everyone, and not just specific people. Even if you want to be a smart ass and say "well those things are different depending on where you live." Even if that's true, EVERYONE in those specific locations have to abide by the rules set. Nintendo cannot easily distinguish the bad apples from the good apples, ALL over the world. So we either make the standards as one unit of people, or we break the shit out of them as one unit of people, then deal with the consequences of that. You don't have to like it, but that is just how the cookie crumbles.

the flaw here is your failed attempt to refute. "If a company is as popular as Nintendo, shouldn't it be scrutinized more, not less?"

No excuses. I can isolate down to helping one specific person out of well over three hundred I meet with in person daily, with zero backup. That includes years where I work at least twenty-three and a half hours per day.

I also address every concern, every parent, and every student, etc. in the education business I own. And I had no problems keeping it open during Covid, whereas larger organizations that had far more revenue (due to extortion) went under.

If Nintendo can afford to make money, it can afford one-on-one services. Even corrupt educational centers, which have far less revenue than Nintendo and over a hundred thousand, and even close to half a million more students than faculty, can afford that and must provide in-depth support to each, in person, _all_ of the time, by law. But, Nintendo failed, just like your argument.

That's why I can distinguish between the near one hundred percent majority opinion that tkd is for foot-tag, and even the AI that gathers those results internationally, versus what I know _is_ True about Tae-Kwon-Do being the best way to learn how to punch effectively, by far:

I can also distinguish, across the entire world, Who is a born-again Believer, and who is not, in an instant. Thus I knew you were addicted to profanity and sensed it in The Spirit before I even read your message; We sense each other in The Spirit. Nintendo does things the way of men: _that_ is their intentional flaw, as well as yours:

"But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible."


Speaking of how the cookie crumbles, my ability to one-shot all of the best combat sports champions of all time is _because_ I make no excuses. If you wish to whine about me outpunching the coach of world boxing champion Aaron Pryor and karate association world champion Jerry Trimble, and his four best adult students, at the same time in a very tight space, using only Tae-Kwon-Do punches, and holding back on them severely even under the effects of a brown recluse bite, and having a six hundred million dollar contract offer, and _still_ refusing what you are incapable of being offered in the first place, it is because you felt too lazy to put in the effort; that's just how the Boxing gloves crumble from the inside when I use them and how the bags fly: by me doing things God's Way, rather than man's way.

"profanity is reserved for the uneducated and undisciplined" - A Believing Nineteen Sixties Green Beret, Chemist, and Medical Physicist that looks about forty years old right now, and says Tae-Kwon-Do is the best strictly because it is the most obedient one to God out of all Martial Arts, and has himself taken them all _except_ Tae-Kwon-Do/tae-kwon-do and applied them to hand-to-hand combat training with the U.S. military for Vietnam Tunnel Rat Warfare.

 

[icegod]

I don't use emulators, I love the real deal. But I feel the community shouldn't release emulators, capable of playing retail games, for consoles that are still available in stores. Playing games that you're still able to buy, isn't preservation, it's piracy, simple as that.

 

[MPRTwice]

It doesn't matter what's legal or illegal, it only matters how wealthy and powerful you are.

that's what bothers satan; he knows I can be the richest man in history, and yet I choose not to be. That puts him in a bind; he knows that no matter what tycoon or other "powerhouse" he chooses, I have the power to overcome them and overpower them at any point in time _if_ I were to sell my soul. Just like the UFClowns don't like it when I sit down at the bench, in casual clothing, and give that Believing smile that Says: "as proud as you are, God sent a Christian into this room that could overpower you whenever He feels like it, so you know, "no pressure" when it comes to you saying you are "the best" and "can do whatever you want".". It's a pressure game; satan doesn't like that, but I do it to annoy him and limit his pride, so that others don't have to be so upset over the iniquity.

Multi Billionaires...don't exactly feel as "all-powerful" when I am around them and they see my work, and at least one has been open to Christianity and abandoning the tycoon life when she witnessed my work in action. Something about Inner Peace that she said multi billions could not bring, and yet I have it. That is a great moment to speak to them about The LORD. There is no room for pride when looking at that with a desire to help them also find Inner Peace.

I follow The Best, I have the power to lay my life down and let the world pretend to act superior to me, and the power to take over the world, thus, my choice to follow God _is_ Free Will; I am Pro-Choice-to-be-Pro-Life-and-do-Good:

"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."

 

[omega59]

Companies need to grow balls and deny nintendo requests.

 

[CYYAN]

I don't use emulators, I love the real deal. But I feel the community shouldn't release emulators, capable of playing retail games, for consoles that are still available in stores. Playing games that you're still able to buy, isn't preservation, it's piracy, simple as that.

I like the Switch 2 experience (even though highly restrictive and will likely never be modded), but Switch 1 runs games terrible, the real deal is awful when emulators can play 8K, higher FPS, with mods, larger controller options, and so many more features consoles lack.

It's totally worth dumping your game and updates and keys from console to play on PC if you can't afford a Switch 2 or need to take games to the next level.
Hell, my Ayn Thor Max runs Switch games better than the Switch 1, and it fits inside my pocket.

If you bought the game who cares, shouldn't be restricted to not enjoying it fully.

 

[emmauss]

I'm all for stopping theft. That said, do it correctly. That means not punishing people who bought their entire game roster legally (like me and a few others).

Even as a teacher, I do not punish students that do well in class for a group acting wild. That's wrong. And one could only guess how hard that is to do. But it isn't an excuse. If a teacher can do that in a post-modern classroom with wild behaviors and limited monetary resources by himself, Nintendo has no excuse, to rip the band-aid off in that direction.

The classroom analogy doesn't work that well here. A teacher is only managing a small group of people, barely 50. That group is already heavily restricted in their freedoms, and the punishments for breaking the rules are metted out immediately. As a teacher, you know how to differentiate the best from the good, make investigations into each person and determine the guilty from the innocent.
How do you think Nintendo can do that? How would they separate the guilty from the innocent

Post automatically merged: Feb 15, 2026

The problem with Nintendo is that they're only making piracy more likely. They recently changed their official partnership guidelines to forbid content except on real hardware, which, to be brutally honest, isn't really possible to confirm, and 90% of their Virtual Console solution on current hardware requires Switch Online.

Throw in the absolutely abysmal reputation TPC has garnered, from the glitches and barely acceptable minimum effort releases to their ongoing attempts to claim ownership of every mechanic possible that POKeMON uses and erase their biggest rival from existence, and Nintendo's own recent DLC stance, where they'll sell you the most desirable parts of a game at a frakking premium and even added a Premium Pass to Switch Online, even if they don't call it that.

Microsoft has half a dozen tiers of XBOX Game Pass, has had since the XBOX One, but every single one of them is warranted and gives you plenty for the price. Nintendo has two tiers of Switch Online, and the value for money gets more and more questionable every day.

The big reason I don't have a Switch 2 is that Nintendo's strategy on piracy is Scorched Earth. You pirate a game on Switch 2, or even are implied to have tried to run something slightly questionable, like an out of region game or homebrew, your console is D-E-A-D, and Nintendo's stance is 'And it's your fault, thief, and if you get a new console, we'll just kill that one too', and if one of the Switch emulators announced Switch 2 support tomorrow, and Nintendo found out, I bet you $1,000 that Nintendo won't just try DMCA the ability to download it, they'll shut down any and all sites that host it or the roms it uses.

Well, if you can play Switch 2 games without Damocles' Sword hanging over you every time you put in a card, well, how are they meant to ensure all people pay the full $100+ each for the right to get a full game?

There's no way you can pirate any switch 2 game on the switch 2. The only way to play pirated switch 1 games on the switch 2 is to use the mig, and at that point, you are actively pirating a game, because it's been confirmed that playing your own dumped games on the mig doesn't can't any problems on your switch 2. The software protections on the switch 2 are more or less the same on the switch 1. You run a game with a flagged cert, your license is revoked. Same with the switch 1.
Also, there no way to brick your switch 2 while playing any game on it. Or even using the console. Your console is only dead if you mess up with the hardware yourself. Even a banned switch 2 is not dead.

 

[DragonBall7]

How do you think Nintendo can do that? How would they separate the guilty from the innocent

Why should they even have to go that far? Piracy exists everywhere, and good media sells.
Nintendo goes to ridiculous lengths, going after emulators, sheet music, game mods, game genie, youtube videos, nothing that will actually improve their image or sales.

Imagine if they poured that many resources into a better online experience, something which can't be pirated and they lack in severely compared to other consoles.