The Nintendo Switch wins the battle against emulation, but not the war

Game news The Nintendo Switch wins the battle against emulation, but not the war

If you’re a fan of emulation or at all interested in Nintendo news, you’ve probably heard the news: the Japanese giant has decided to take legal action against the developers of the most popular Nintendo Switch emulator on the market. , Yuzu, to getFacilitated large-scale piracy“. The punchy action was launched after a dismal outing for Box: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Illegally downloaded over a million times Even before it is released in proper form. A situation that also recalls the case of SEGA’s Sonic Frontiers, was also demonstrated on emulators such as Yuzu or Rujinx even before its official release. We could almost say that it still took time before reacting head on, but Nintendo finally pulled out its weapons and filed a complaint in Rhode Island on February 26, partially shared online. Yuzu’s operator, Tropic Haze, is accused of causing the damage.irreversible“provide”The console gives anyone in the world the means to illegally decrypt and play virtually any Nintendo Switch game – including current generation and Nintendo’s most popular games – without ever paying a dime to Nintendo or the game itself.“

Tropic Haze Capitulates: The End of Yuzu and Citra

This is a new step for Nintendo in its fierce fight against game emulation and piracy. In the past, the publisher has already won several lawsuits, most recently against RomUniverse, a site that directly hosted pirated video game files, and was forced to pay more than $2 million in damages and destroy all its copies of Nintendo games. was Giant also attacked a certain Gary Bowser, arrested and charged for selling the Switch hacks and is now free with a $10 million debt. The Japanese are unclear, but the legal ambiguity surrounding Yuzu’s exploits did not guarantee her victory at trial.

However, before bothering to fight, Yuzu proves Nintendo right, Tropic Haze not only agreed to pay Nintendo $2,400,000, but also claims that Yuzu “Primarily designed to bypass and play Nintendo Switch games“. The company will no longer work on its emulator, and now refuses to host the platform, distribute its functionalities, and host websites promoting it. The company transfers the domain name yuzu-emu.org to Nintendo, and deletes “All workaround tools used to develop or use Yuzu – such as TegraRcmGUI, Hekate, Atmosphere, Lockpick_RCM, NDDumpTool, nxDumpFuse and TegraExplorer“, handing over all to Nintendo”Physical barrier devices” and “Modified Nintendo hardwareIn short, Yuzu is now banned from the club and With it comes the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra, which was created in April 2014 and was still receiving updates as of February of this year.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Yuzu and his team have always been against piracy. We started projects in good faith, out of passion for Nintendo, its consoles and its games, and we meant no harm. But now we see that our plans have resulted in widespread piracy by circumventing Nintendo’s technological protections and allowing users to play games outside of authorized hardware. In particular, we were very disappointed when users used our software to leak game content before release and spoil the experience for legitimate buyers and fans – Yuzu posted on Discord

And for many, it’s a huge blow to the preservation of the games. Some actually believe that if yuzu lends itself to questionable practices, Citra is more about preserving archive games, which will no longer be available at official Nintendo stores after the 3DS eShop closes in March 2023. A direct result of this drastic decision: A flood of new emulation software, scattered across social networks and left at the disposal of practice enthusiasts hoping to take over from the Yuzu juggernaut.

Imitation, a legal but controversial practice

It is always good to remember that imitation is first and foremost a completely legal practice. By definition, it only allows games designed for one specific platform to run on another, often by emulating the original hardware through software. She has ardent supporters, Who advocates for the importance of video game heritage and the promotion of innovation ; And then there are owners, for whom imitation raises major concerns about copyright infringement. This is the reason why some emulators are also developed in collaboration with publishers/developers, thus legitimizing their use. A Twitter thread from Internet user MisterDorian, a CM and journalist, explains that Yuzu does not directly provide pirated games and believes that ethically, “Accusing emulators of encouraging piracy is like accusing VLC or any video player of doing the same”. Today if Yuzu loses support from Tropic Haze, the emulator remains open source, and can therefore be used by anyone who wants it.

In the United States, there is also case law between Sony and Blim, a 1999 case that resonates today, Blim is also a company specializing in emulation. Unhappy with the large presence it could command among consumers, Sony filed lawsuits alleging copyright infringement and counterfeiting. The Japanese accused Blim of stealing its technology while the latter claimed to have used commercially available equipment and denied anti-competitive practices. This was at a time when Sony was much less inclined to see its games ported to the PC, imposing licensing fees estimated at $10 per product. “We prefer platform agnostic. If Sony fails to maintain its grip on PlayStation, we developers will start reluctant to pay royalties.“, Robert Stevens, studio spokesman for Boss Game Studios, revealed in a Forbes column regarding the affair. Eventually, in 2000, the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement, allowing Blim to continue operations under certain conditions.. Nevertheless, the case had a significant impact on the debate surrounding the legality of video game emulators and reinforced the legal ambiguity surrounding them. And due to legal costs that were too heavy to bear, Blim eventually had to close its doors after a few months. Losing first, the older one ate the younger one last.

Why did Yuzu surrender?

On the subject of emulation, Nintendo’s position is very firm, The Company strongly opposes any form of imitation. On her Q&A page, she states:

“While we recognize gamers’ passion for classic games, supporting emulation also means supporting illegal piracy of our products. Where possible, Nintendo and its licensees try to find ways to bring legitimate classic games to current consoles (for example, through Virtual Console titles).

Misinformation is circulating on the internet regarding the exception regarding backup and archiving. This is a very narrow limitation that applies to computer software. Video games include many types of copyrighted works and should not be classified solely as software.

If Yuzu doesn’t offer illegal downloads of Tears of the Kingdom directly, Nintendo accuses its developers of allowing piracy and laments that “Law Abiding Consumers” is “Forced to avoid social media to avoid seeing spoilers and maintain their surprise and joy when the game is released” Following the game’s leak. Giant also features words used in Yuzu’s Quick Start Guide: “To start playing professional games, Yuzu needs some system files from the hackable Nintendo Switch console to play properly.“. a quote that questions the decryption methods revolving around Yuzu and their goodwill.

But why does Yuzu give up without a fight? If Yuzu gave up so quickly, it is precisely because he chose to avoid a scenario that would have justified enormous legal fees to lead the case to victory at trial. Richard Hogg, a practicing attorney who hosts the Virtual Legality podcast, suggested to The Verge: “That’s a lot of money ($2,400,000 in damages), but it’s a known amount, and I suspect the advice they were getting was that their exposure was high and they had a good chance of losing after paying lawyers for a long time.”

If Yuzu is banished, Switch emulation is still far from banished. It remains to be seen how long Nintendo will wait before taking on Ryujinx, another emulator that has so far avoided legal action. If it wants to be uncompromising, the giant will also have to contend with the R4 cards that are now making the rounds on the Internet, supplied with their tiny micro SD that already has thousands of potential buyers buzzing.