Last week, a lawsuit was filed by Nintendo against the creators of the Yuzu emulator, whom they hold responsible for widespread piracy of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom prior to its release. On March 4th, the parties concluded an out-of-court settlement.
Settlement Details
Under the agreement, the creators of Yuzu admitted that their actions caused damage to Nintendo and agreed to pay the company $2.4 million. They also ended the development of the emulator and its further distribution.
The Yuzu team has already closed all emulator-related repositories on GitHub, and soon they will cease support for their Discord servers, deactivate their Patreon page and shut down all project websites. Along with Yuzu, Citra (a 3DS emulator) also came to an end.
Legal Restrictions
By signing the agreement, the developers waived their rights to appeal the decision and are subjected to a permanent court prohibition, essentially marking the end of Yuzu in its current form.
Specifically, the makers of Yuzu are now forbidden from distributing or selling the emulator or its source code, as well as developing other similar utilities that circumvent Nintendo’s technical protection.
A Farewell Message
In their farewell message, the creators of Yuzu lamented that their emulator was used for piracy: “We hope our actions will be a small step towards the eradication of piracy by any means necessary,” they said.
Implications
Given the settlement between Nintendo and Yuzu occurred before a legal decision was arrived at, the resolution doesn’t have legal consequences for future emulation lawsuits. However, Nintendo’s victorious stand may trigger a series of claims against other emulators.
