Nintendo Strikes Down Yuzu Emulator In $2.4M Settlement: What Does This Mean For Game Preservation?

Tropic Haze LLC has agreed to settle a legal dispute with Nintendo ADR NTDOY by paying the Tokyo-based video game company $2.4 million.

The company will also cease all activities related to its Yuzu emulator, including hosting, distributing code, and promotion, according to a court filing presented on Monday, March 4, in the District Court of Rhode Island spotted by Game File's Stephen Totilo. 

See Also: Yuzu Emulator Under Fire: Nintendo Sues Over Alleged 1 Million Pre-Release Zelda Downloads

Tropic Haze will also plans to surrender the domain name yuzu-emu.org to Nintendo and delete all copies of Yuzu and related circumvention tools.

"We started the projects in good faith, out of passion for Nintendo and its consoles and games, and were not intending to cause harm," Tropic Haze stated. "But we see now that because our projects can circumvent Nintendo’s technological protection measures and allow users to play games outside of authorized hardware, they have led to extensive piracy."

"We have come to the decision that we cannot continue to allow this to occur. Piracy was never our intention, and we believe that piracy of video games and video game consoles should end," Tropic Haze emphasized.

The agreement, pending court approval, has broader implications beyond the demise of Yuzu, as it could jeopardize the future of Switch emulation altogether.

The motion for final judgment, agreed upon by both parties, asserts that Yuzu violated copyright laws, even though it didn't contain Nintendo code. If accepted by the court, this could establish a precedent that threatens other Switch emulators.

While emulator proponents argue for their role in preserving older titles, critics see them as facilitating piracy.

Nintendo's lawsuit claimed that Yuzu enabled over a million people to play leaked of the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom before its release, impacting sales.

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