Shiv Telegram Media News: Switch Emulator Yuzus Developers End Work, Settle with Nintendo for US$2.4 Million
2 min read
Tropic Haze, developers of the popular Yuzu emulator for the Nintendo Switch console, have recently come to a settlement with Nintendo after a legal battle over copyright infringement. According to reports from CourtListener, Polygon, and the Yuzu Twitter account, Tropic Haze has agreed to pay Nintendo a hefty sum of US $2.4 million and to cease all development and support for both the Yuzu emulator and the 3DS emulator Citra.
The lawsuit was filed by Nintendo, accusing Tropic Haze of creating software that circumvented the Switch’s protection measures against pirated copies of games. Nintendo specifically highlighted the widespread distribution of pirated copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that were playable on the Yuzu emulator. Users on the Yuzu Discord server were reportedly linking or uploading pirated copies of Switch games, fueling the growth of piracy.
In response to the legal action, the developers of Yuzu took drastic measures. They deleted their code repositories, shut down their Patreon page and Discord servers, and took down their website. It was also reported that Yuzu developers had been distributing bespoke fixes to make specific games more compatible for paying users on Patreon.
Yuzu, which was developed by the creators of the Citra emulator, had gained popularity since its debut in January 2018. The Nintendo Switch console, released in March 2017, has been a major success, selling 139.36 million units as of December 31 last year. This makes it the third best-selling console of all time, following behind the PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo DS.
The settlement between Tropic Haze and Nintendo marks the end of a chapter in the emulator community and serves as a reminder of the legal risks involved in creating and distributing software that bypasses copyright protections.
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