Nintendo has long been notorious in issues related to copyright and intellectual property, almost not hesitating to sue any individual or organization if it sees a threat to its business operations. Most recently, the company filed a lawsuit against the developer emulator Yuzuaccusing Yuzu of helping “turn ordinary computers into tools for large-scale infringement of intellectual property rights of Nintendo and others’ products.”
Yuzu is one of the first emulators Nintendo Switch. People have been using it to play Pokémon: Let’s Go since 2018, but it wasn’t until The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Launched last year, Yuzu is really known to many gamers, and also attracted the attention of Nintendo. Because just one day after Tears of the Kingdom released, Yuzu developers said players can play the game on multiple devices without hacking.
Of course, for most gamers, they just do whatever doesn’t cost money, but with Nintendo, it’s a completely different story. The lawsuit describes Yuzu as “a software that allows users to play illegally fake game.” Although Yuzu has posted instructions on how to prevent copyright infringement on Discord, according to Nintendo, the emulator itself is the problem.
“Pirated copies of the game are playable in Yuzu and over 1 million The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom pirated version of the game was downloaded from dark web sites before it was released and legally purchased by Nintendo. Many pirated websites even note: the game can be played on Yuzu.”
Yuzu is not the first emulator to be accused of abetting copyright infringement. In 1999, Sony sued Connectix, the developer of Virtual Game Station – an emulator specifically for PlayStation. However, at that time, Connectix won the lawsuit against Sony because, according to the court, “Sony only has the right to control the market for gaming devices developed or copyrighted by Sony”, but emulators do not.
To prevent similar arguments, Nintendo asserted: “To be clear, there is no legal way to play Nintendo Switch games on Yuzu. Many players of The Legend of Zelda even have to avoid using social networks to avoid spoilers and wait until the game is officially released.”
Due to “irreparable harm,” Nintendo is demanding permanent closure of the emulator and website yuzu-emu.org, as well as statutory compensation of $2,500 for each violation of anti-corruption provisions. DMCA anti-piracy and anti-piracy and $1,500 for each copyright infringement by Nintendo.
