The developers of the popular Switch emulator, Yuzu, have reached a settlement with Nintendo, agreeing to pay $2.4 million and permanently shut down the emulator. The joint filing by Nintendo of America and Tropic Haze LLC, the company behind Yuzu, outlines the terms of the settlement, pending final judgment.
According to the proposed final judgment and permanent injunction, the Yuzu developers will be barred from offering, providing, marketing, advertising, promoting, selling, testing, hosting, cloning, distributing, or trafficking in Yuzu or any source code or features of Yuzu. Additionally, the Yuzu website will be shut down, and the developers must turn over any physical circumvention devices or modified Switch consoles to Nintendo.
The settlement comes after Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Yuzu, accusing the emulator of illegally circumventing the Switch’s game encryption keys. The lawsuit alleged that Yuzu contributed to one million illegal downloads of the game Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom before its official launch.
The Yuzu development team released a public statement confirming the discontinuation of Yuzu and its support for the sister emulator, Citra. The statement emphasized that the projects were started in good faith, out of passion for Nintendo and its consoles, with no intention to cause harm. However, they acknowledged that the projects led to extensive piracy, especially in leaking game content before release.
The developers expressed disappointment over users misusing their software and emphasized their commitment to ending piracy. As a result, they decided to pull their code repositories offline, discontinue Patreon accounts and Discord servers, and soon shut down their websites. The statement concluded with gratitude for years of support and understanding of their decision.
While the settlement awaits final judgment, the Yuzu case underscores the ongoing challenges surrounding emulator development, piracy concerns, and the legal implications of circumventing technological protection measures. Emulation enthusiasts express concern about potential repercussions for other emulator projects, as the developers’ decision may impact the emulation community.
Source: gamesradar.com
