Yuzu is one of the best Nintendo Switch emulators, both for the support it offers in general, the level of performance it offers and the number of games it supports, but it is also evident that it has been used as game hack tool from a large N notebook and run them on a PC with higher performance, superior graphics quality and mod support.

Emulators as such are not illegalthat is, they are not inherently breaking any law, but using ROMs that contain the games they run can lead to a violation of intellectual property laws, and this is exactly what Nintendo has taken to sue those responsible for Yuzu, the emulator. that, according to the Japanese company, “facilitates piracy on a colossal scale.”

In your demandNintendo says that those who are responsible for this emulator They are fully aware of Yuzu’s uses on a general level, stating that the emulator’s website clearly indicates that decryption keys must be used in order to decrypt Nintendo Switch games. Even Nintendo says so “include links that lead to software tools facilitating illegal key extraction.”

The Japanese company’s argument goes on to explain that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was distributed illegally before its release, and that illegal copies were uploaded to the Internet and made available to anyone who had the Yuzu emulator installed. According to data that Nintendo has, these illegal copies they have been downloaded about 1 million times before the game’s release.

Can Nintendo force Yuzu’s demise?

Arguments that the Japanese company has They are quite solidbut there’s one that stands out in particular among all the ones I’ve just explained to you, and that’s the link to Nintendo that the emulator website has links to tools that allow you to extract keys decryption tools needed to hack Switch games.

This is the most serious issue facing those responsible for Yuzu in this lawsuit, and what could really end up putting them on the ropes. Offering an emulator is, without further ado, not a crimebut facilitate access to pirated games or tools Allowing this hacking is an activity that could land us in court and expose us to significant financial penalties.

Currently the team behind this emulator made no commentsand at the time of writing the Yuzu website remains unchanged. I imagine we’ll see some movement from them in the next few days, but I’m not clear on exactly what they’ll do. The source code is also still available on GitHub.

AI generated cover image.