Nintendo is suing a well-known emulator for Switch games and is apparently still angry about the leak of the latest Zelda.
What is the lawsuit about? As reporter Stephen Totilo reports, Nintendo of America is suing the company Tropic Haze, the maker of the emulator “Yuzu”.
In the lawsuit shared by Totilo on scribd.com, Nintendo describes emulators as software that allows users to “illegally play pirated video games that were only released for a specific console on a general-purpose computer.”
Furthermore, it states that Yuzu unlawfully circumvents the technical measures of the Nintendo Switch, and with Yuzu in hand, nothing prevents a user from “obtaining and playing illegal copies of practically any game developed for the Nintendo Switch.”
Moreover, according to Nintendo, there is no legal way to use Yuzu to play Nintendo Switch games, as Yuzu would need to decrypt the games. Without this decryption by Yuzu, it would also not be possible to play unauthorized copies of games on PCs or Android devices.
Nintendo seeks damages for the Zelda release
What does this have to do with Zelda? On May 12, 2023, after a long wait, “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” (short: Zelda: TotK) was released – a significant moment for Nintendo and Zelda fans. TotK was supposed to build on the enormous success of “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” (short: Zelda: BotW).
However, just under two weeks before the official release of Zelda: TotK, the entire game was leaked online. Not only were there screenshots and gameplay videos, but illegally pirated versions of the game were also circulating that were played on PC.
- Our colleagues from GamePro reported on the leak
Nintendo cites the leak of Zelda: TotK as an example and states that the game was downloaded over a million times between May 1 and May 10 alone. Since the game had not yet been officially released at that time, each of these downloads is considered a piracy.
According to Nintendo, those pirated copies were also playable on Yuzu. Images included in the lawsuit show that Zelda: TotK was played on Yuzu before the game’s release.
What is Nintendo demanding? Nintendo wants money and is seeking statutory damages of $2,500 for each “public offering, providing, or other marketing of circumvention devices.”
Additionally, Nintendo is seeking $150,000 for each violation of Nintendo’s copyright, or alternatively a claim for “actual damages as well as the defendant’s profits from these violations in an amount to be proven in the trial.”
Nintendo is known for taking a very hard and targeted approach against copyright infringement and leaks of its products. This was also felt by the streamer Alanah Pearce in the context of the “Zelda: TotK” leak.
The Twitch channel of the 28-year-old was suspended in the middle of a stream because Nintendo apparently imposed a copyright strike against her. However, she had not played the game in advance or shared leaks; she had merely reacted to the official preview footage from a YouTuber: Twitch: Nintendo is so desperate against leaks that it caught an innocent streamer
