Nintendo gets rid of yet another Switch emulator without filing a complaint

And a lesser Switch emulator. Nintendo continues his purge, this time it’s Suyu who pays the price, Yuzu’s heir in the end. The video game giant didn’t need to file a complaint, or even write a legally backed letter of complaint: Fear is enough.

In early March, shortly after Yuzu, the popular Nintendo Switch emulator on PC and Android, was discontinued, a team of enthusiasts took up the project. Titled Suyu in a similar, barely concealed homage, this new software seeks to “mark.The continuation of Yuzu, the world’s most popular open-source Nintendo Switch emulator This venture was very short-lived.

Nintendo nipped the project in the bud. The video game giant didn’t even have to file a complaint, it was enough to write some sort of letter to Suyu’s host, GitLab. Call for violations of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) By the authors of Suyu, Nintendo ordered GitLab to cut off access to the emulator. The platform executed and blocked the developer account.

Nintendo ends the emulator project with a simple letter

Now Nintendo has to write a simple letter to remove the emulator. “GitLab received a DMCA takedown request from a rights holder’s representative and followed the standard process described here“, GitLab spokesperson Kristen Butler explained to our colleagues at The Verge.

In this letter shared on Suyu’s Discord, the sender of the takedown request relies on the fact that Yuzu may have violated Article 1201 of the DMCA by circumventing Nintendo’s technical security measures. However, this article suggests that the request must refer to the work concerned with copyright infringement, which is not the case here.

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A Nintendo representative didn’t even bother to back up his claim. He didn’t need it: the fear of actual legal action was enough to make GitLab fold. Legally, the request has no merit, but the platform is free to choose the content it hosts and unilaterally eject Suyu, which it did.

Nintendo distributes DMCA requests everywhere

In Yuzu’s case, Nintendo went through the legal system. It is unclear whether the firm initially tried to shut down Yuzu’s operations through DMCA requests, as in Suyu’s case. This would not be surprising, since Nintendo’s lawyers were merciless: the agreement to end the proceedings included a payment. $2.4 million in loss.

This isn’t the first time that Nintendo’s lawyers have done this: in July, Mario’s home ordered Steam to ban the Dolphin emulator. Valve complied, not wanting to get involved in expensive litigation. Dolphin Emulated Gamecube Games: Intolerable for Nintendo, which was re-released Mario Sunshine At a higher price two years ago.