New documents filed Monday, February 26 reveal that videogame giant Nintendo is taking action against the creators of the popular emulator tool Yuzu.

The copyright infringement filing, from Nintendo of America, states that the Yuzu tool (from developer Tropic Haze LLC) illegally circumvents the software encryption and copyright protection systems of Nintendo Switch titles, and thus facilitates piracy and infringes copyright under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Nintendo alleges that Tropic Haze’s free Yuzu emulator tool unlawfully allows pirated Switch games to be played on PCs and other devices, bypassing Nintendo’s protection measures.

The official Yuzu website suggests that the tool is to be used with software you yourself own: “You are legally required to dump your games from your Nintendo Switch” — but it’s common knowledge, that this is not how these tools are primarily used.

  • Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    They should go one step further and ban the programming language as well the emulator was created in. That will show them!

  • JustUseMint@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Thanks for the Streisand effect Nintendo. Hadn’t even heard of this until now. Now I’m downloading everything, and I’ll be donating to the devs if possible. And telling my friends to do the same. I will continue not giving you money for over 10 years now.

    Eat shit.

    • u_tamtam@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      I agree with the sentiment and everything, but the whole gaming console industry has gone to crap after they started putting hard drives/storage in them with the goal of needing you to be online and not owning anything anymore. They are all equally despicable for that. Which makes emulation even more essential, just for preserving those games into the future when the online front will inexorably shut down.

      • JustUseMint@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I agree with this as well. However, Nintendo is like the Disney of lawsuits for the gaming industry. No one, and I mean NO ONE protects IP like they do.

    • ArtVandelay@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I can’t boast of your 10-year track record, but my next 10 years started today. I canceled my Nintendo online and I’m selling my switch. Fuck Nintendo

    • oopy_soup@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      What are you playing on? I would play my switch more if the games weren’t so expensive.

    • edifier@feddit.it
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      4 months ago

      Sold my switch years ago, I’m not playing switch games atm but I really can’t stand Nintendo’s policies like this!

  • Destide@feddit.uk
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    4 months ago

    Might as well set the groundwork to make it easier to shut down any emulators for the new console. Can’t have old steam deck and others taking the handheld market

    • the post of tom joad@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      nintendos shitty hardware is the only thing keeping me from buying their excellent games. I would rather buy a steam deck and deal with all the associated bullshit getting an emulator working rather than purchase nintendo’s terrible plastic shit.

      i sound angry, but thats because i am. i love their games, would give them my money to play them. BUT NOT on crap hardware. never, ever again, nintendo.

      harrrumph

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I don’t have a problem with the tech being old as long as the games are good, but the failure rate of their joycons and pro controllers is abysmal! I got a converter to use a PS5 controller on the Switch and it’s much better!

  • Fake4000@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    From what I understood, is that the team’s Patreon page is a means of making financial gains of emulating the Switch. This could be the reason why Nintendo is suing.

    Vanced NFT memories.

    • CleoTheWizard@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Well Vanced was a lot different, they were actually redistributing code from YouTube. They were asking to be sued and they got off really easy.

      Whereas here, no code is being used afaik. They don’t even include the keys for the decryption for the console. So the only thing this can do is: decrypt game files once provided keys and then run an emulated graphics pipeline and logic process for said game.

      Now I can see an argument about how Yuzu is specifically built to emulate the Switch which is a current product. Which makes this sketchy. But also it’s an emulator. What’s better is that breaking the law is not required to use the emulator. You can get your own rom rips and keys and use them with the emulator which gives it a legal purpose as a 3rd party application.

      This is Nintendo just trying to scare them Id bet. Not a zero chance that Yuzu could lose though.

  • nintendiator@feddit.cl
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    4 months ago

    The official Yuzu website suggests that the tool is to be used with software you yourself own: “You are legally required to dump your games from your Nintendo Switch” — but it’s common knowledge, that this is not how these tools are primarily used.

    Yeah, so what?

    It’s, legally speaking, not Yuzu’s domain to regulate what I can lawfully do within my own home with hardware I bought , or not. It’s not even Nintendon’t’s domain, and they are literally a Yakuza branch.

  • Luckaneer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    4 months ago

    I wonder if they’re going after Switch emulators now because the emulation capability is matching the product lifecycle, and that the patreon page makes the Yuzu team legally targetable.

    If we’re in for a repeat of GC -> Wii in the sense of the Wii being a more powerful GC, then Yuzu is potentially already close to being able to emulate the next gen Nintendo console out of the gate.

    If that is the case, that’s just par for the course when you’re dealing with nearly decade old hardware.

  • synae[he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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    4 months ago

    I’m very uninformed here, haven’t gamed in a few years. But I’ve got a question- is yuzu software that is run on a rooted Switch device, or similar like a steam deck? Or do you run it on a computer? Or perhaps, it’s all of the above.

    Anyway, thanks in advance if someone could give me a high level overview

        • owen@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          It’s mainly meant for desktop I think. I suspect you need a very powerful android

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      Steam Deck is just a Linux computer, but it runs on any computer running Linux, Windows, or apparently Android, with capable hardware. It looks like it isn’t ready for Mac yet, though Ryujinx supposedly is.

      It doesn’t run on a rooted Switch as far as I’m aware, but I don’t see the point in that. There’s no need to emulate the hardware if you’re actually using the hardware.

    • skankhunt42@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      Yuzu, to my knowledge, is PC only.

      To get the information you need to use it, you’ll either download it illegally or hack a switch (legally?) To get encryption keys and dump a copy of your game.

      • unfnknblvbl@beehaw.org
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        4 months ago

        It runs on Android now, which might be what’s gotten Nintendo extra annoyed here, since there are some relatively affordable Android handhelds that can run Switch games at close to full speed with some tweaking.

        Having said that, I have an Odin 2 handheld, and it would have been cheaper and easier to just buy a Switch and the games I want to play.

      • DarkSirrush@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        PC only implies it’s a windows program, yuzu runs on any x86_64 and ARMv8a or newer device.

      • synae[he/him]@lemmy.sdf.org
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        4 months ago

        I heard about the keys and the other website that serves them, seems an extremely important detail. I imagine the game dumps/copies are available as disk images of some sort online?

        Thanks a lot for the info, skankhunt42!

        • skankhunt42@lemmy.ca
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          4 months ago

          .xci files are physical switch game images and .nsp files are updates or games from the eShop. Everything is online somewhere.