Developers of Switch emulator Yuzu settle with Nintendo in court for $2.4 million less than a week after being sued

A screenshot of the home page of the Yuzu Nintendo Switch Emulator, on the day of the joint filing with Nintendo for $2.4 million in damages.
A screenshot of the home page of the Yuzu Nintendo Switch Emulator, on the day of the joint filing with Nintendo for $2.4 million in damages. (Image credit: Yuzu)

Following last week's Nintendo lawsuit against Tropic Haze LLC, developers of Switch emulator Yuzu and 3DS emulator Citra, Tropic Haze LLC has folded in only six days. While this move isn't technically a ruling coming at the end of a long court case, the evidence of the original lawsuit was clearly so damning that Tropic Haze had no choice but to surrender immediately in the form of a joint filing, which we'll discuss in more detail below.

We first spotted this update on the lawsuit through The Verge, and their coverage also includes a full copy of the two documents comprising the Tropic Haze-Nintendo joint filing. The first document, "Tropic Haze Joint Mot Consent Judgment", is a 4-page brief with both parties agreeing to the $2.4 million settlement and permanent injunction, which in this case is ceasing all Yuzu (and presumably Citra) development immediately. The second, "Tropic Haze Judgment", is the 7-page proposed final judgment with that injunction.

Yuzu won't just be ceasing development beneath this injunction. The Yuzu Team has also agreed to be permanently enjoined from hosting, distributing, or promoting Yuzu. This includes on its website and via Patreon, which were both still up as of this writing. Both will presumably be taken down soon, particularly since the yuzu-emu.org domain name will be surrendered to Nintendo as part of this agreement.

The reasoning for this quick settlement can be boiled down to evidence found back in the original lawsuit.

A section of the lawsuit states "the harm to Nintendo caused by Defendant and Yuzu goes far beyond users making unauthorized copies of games they have lawfully purchased. On information and belief, the vast majority of Yuzu users are using Yuzu to play downloaded pirated games."

Pages 20 through 24 of the original lawsuit highlight the fact that Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was playable on Yuzu on launch day, a feat that would have been (and clearly was) impossible without lead developers using pirated pre-release copies of the game for development. Fan-funded development through Patreon even saw a surge with Tears of the Kingdom's pre-release leak.

Nintendo's argument goes as far as to directly cite a PC Gamer piece where Switch emulation developers were interviewed about "the race to perfectly emulate Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom," showing how flagrantly pirated copies were being used for development.

While it's unclear how this may eventually impact other emulation projects, including the also-open but Patreon-funded Ryujinx Switch emulator, Nintendo is pushing for the judge to agree with the following statement:

"Developing or distributing software, including Yuzu, that in its ordinary course functions only when cryptographic keys are integrated without authorization, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition on trafficking in devices that circumvent effective technological measures, because the software is primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing technological measures."

While the lawsuit itself locks in on piracy and the enabling of piracy as an issue, statements seen like this in the joint filing and the initial lawsuit also point toward Nintendo being firmly against all emulation, even those done with legally-owned copies of games, based solely on the DMCA's circumvention argument. What this means for the rest of the scene is not yet clear, but other emulation devs speaking out in an Ars Technica piece don't seem discouraged. 

To Nintendo's credit, other emulation devs also seem thoroughly unsurprised that Yuzu's very open flirtation with new-game piracy met with this fate.

Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

  • TerryLaze
    "Developing or distributing software, including Yuzu, that in its ordinary course functions only when cryptographic keys are integrated without authorization, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition on trafficking in devices that circumvent effective technological measures, because the software is primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing technological measures."
    There are tools that can decrypt the games beforehand so the only thing the emulator devs need to do is to not include any decryption in their emulators.
    Add a statement that it only works on "homebrew" games that are not encrypted and they are completely legal.
    Reply
  • usertests
    It's possible to develop and distribute software anonymously and break all the "rules" that emulator groups follow. It might even be possible to have anonymity as a legal defendant if a judge agrees to it.

    Patreon is presumably the weak link because of money laundering laws. Someone knows who you are.
    Reply
  • oofdragon
    Whatever, I'll never buy Nintendo potatoes.. I mean hardware, neither pay for the software since I find it much overpriced for mobile games. Long are gone the days Mario and Zelda were good games. Now there are some good third parties but since potatoes let me out of choice there's Yuzu to save the day. Nintendo is the only to blame really.
    Reply
  • oofdragon
    Btw.. how's Nintendo into hardware's still? Can't they learn a thing or two with Sega? It would be for the best if they decided to partner with Sony and Microsoft. Imagine Zelda for PS5 VR or running on a 4090 with path tracing. Really, RIP NINTENDO SOONER THE BETTER
    Reply
  • JamesJones44
    oofdragon said:
    Btw.. how's Nintendo into hardware's still? Can't they learn a thing or two with Sega? It would be for the best if they decided to partner with Sony and Microsoft. Imagine Zelda for PS5 VR or running on a 4090 with path tracing. Really, RIP NINTENDO SOONER THE BETTER
    In one post you say you don't want to pay for their software, but then turn around and complain about their hardware?

    Why not just say I hate Nintendo and want them to go out of business, because in your statements there is 0 way for them to make money from you.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    oofdragon said:
    Btw.. how's Nintendo into hardware's still? Can't they learn a thing or two with Sega? It would be for the best if they decided to partner with Sony and Microsoft. Imagine Zelda for PS5 VR or running on a 4090 with path tracing. Really, RIP NINTENDO SOONER THE BETTER
    dumb post tbh.
    Nintendo is the oldest maker.
    They have a dedicated fanbase becasue Nintendo games & console are "worth" the cost.

    Also fact...Nintendo is ONLY console maker who risks anything.

    Nintendo tries new stuff. they tried motion controls with wii, they gave us portability w/ wii u & perfected both in Switch.

    MS & Sony only know how to follow up known fads.

    Nintendo does bad stuff for sure (example 1: i shouldnt have pay monthly fee to make backups of games).
    Reply
  • Joseph_138
    They shouldn't have caved. Emulators have already been successfully defended in court in other cases.
    Reply
  • UnforcedERROR
    oofdragon said:
    Btw.. how's Nintendo into hardware's still? Can't they learn a thing or two with Sega? It would be for the best if they decided to partner with Sony and Microsoft. Imagine Zelda for PS5 VR or running on a 4090 with path tracing. Really, RIP NINTENDO SOONER THE BETTER
    You should relay this opinion to Nintendo. I'm sure they're learning the lesson SEGA did by consistently outselling the PS5 on an inferior technological platform.

    I'm joking, it's obvious.

    Look, Nintendo hasn't been conventional in their approach since the DS, and they've yet to falter. Western audiences aren't the same as Japanese ones. Nintendo has focused on user experience over raw horsepower for 3 generations, and it hasn't hurt them in the slightest. You may take issue with the fact that they're not pushing more pixels, but most people play games for enjoyment, not for the fidelity.

    Before you rationalize this away as me being a Nintendo fan, the most recent console I own from them is a SNES. But, you know, I've never prescribed to the weird console war stuff that most people do, I've only ever bought into a platform if it had games I was interested in. Doesn't mean I don't appreciate a company like Nintendo trying to innovate how we interact with gaming as opposed to pushing out the next fastest component.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    It's always Nintendo.
    Reply
  • Gauche Cockney
    *Sigh* it is the collateral damage that Citra, only 3DS emulator available, gone
    Reply