Last Month, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Tropic Haze LLC, Yuzu Emulator maker, saying the emulator facilitated piracy. Tropic Haze has now retained the services of a lawyer. However, neither Tropic Haze nor Yuzu has made an official statement on the matter.
The development was confirmed through a waiver of the service of summons. The lawyer that will be defending Tropic Haze at the docks is Michael Daly of Pierce Atwood LLP. Pierce Atwood is a 130-year-old law firm that has handled thousands of cases.
ALSO READ: Star Wars FPS Game Previously Reported Canceled Unaffected By EA’s Layoffs
The waiver of the service of summons states that the defendant “must file and serve an answer or a motion under Rule 12 within 60 days” from the date Nintendo first filed the lawsuit against Tropic Haze—which was on February 27, 2024. However, if the motion was sent outside the United States, the defendant has until 90 days to serve an answer.
Nintendo accused Yuzu emulator of “illegally circumventing” its software encryption. In addition to seeking the shutting down of Yuzu emulator, Nintendo is seeking damages for alleged violations, especially on Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom which the Japanese video game maker said was available over a week before its official release.
Also, the Japanese game maker said the game was illegally downloaded over a million times on pirate websites. Tears of the Kingdom eventually became the fastest-selling game in the series. It sold over 10 million units worldwide in just three days. The company’s latest earnings report shows that the game has now sold over 20 million units.
ALSO READ: 4 Rare Accessories That Will Change Your Gaming Culture Forever
At the time of writing, Yuzu emulator was still freely available from the app’s official website. On February 10, 2024, Yuzu published a post where it announced that it had completed “major code refactors resulting in almost full applet support”.
Nintendo wants to prove that Yuzu emulator benefits from piracy
It has been widely established that emulators are not illegal. They are designed to make it possible for people to purchase a game rip the content and play on a platform other than the console it was designed for. However, most use cases of emulators are illegal.
Without establishing that Yuzu enables and benefits from piracy, Nintendo doesn’t have a case against the creators of the emulator. Therefore, it is not surprising that Nintendo has tried to do just that in the way its court filing was framed.
In Nintendo’s court filing, the Japanese game maker claimed that Yuzu’s Patreon support doubled around the release of Tears of the Kingdom. In other words, this was trying to directly point to how Yuzu’s business model benefits from and helps piracy flourish. Also, it claimed that Yuzu emulator by Tropic Haze facilitated piracy “at a colossal scale”.
ALSO READ: How To Play Nintendo Switch With Xbox Controller—2 Critical Devices You Need
The Japanese company claimed that emulator spoiled Tears of the Kingdom for players who legitimately purchased the game. It claimed “many fans of The Legend of Zelda were forced to avoid social media to prevent seeing spoilers and preserve their surprise and delight for the actual game release”—and pulled in social media posts from X users to support their claim.
Even if the Japanese company succeeds in shutting down Yuzu, it is hardly enough to stop the piracy of Switch games since Yuzu is not the only emulator that plays Switch games. However, many may argue that it may scare others from trying.
Advocates of video game conservation will likely be furious that the Switch maker is trying to kill Yuzu. But people will likely react differently to this news depending on where they are standing.
