We all know Nintendo as the company that would literally sue a mushroom in the woods if it resembled a Toad. So, it should come as no surprise that the Yuzu emulator was on the business end of a pretty big lawsuit. According to new reports, Tropic Haze, the company behind the Yuzu emulator, had settled with Nintendo on its massive lawsuit and forked over millions of dollars along with a lot more.
The Yuzu Emulator is what allows you to emulate Switch games. You’re able to back up the ROMs on the Switch cartridges and run them on different hardware. This practice allows users to fully unlock the games by running them at higher resolutions or frame rates. Imagine running Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom at 4K 60FPS.
But, Nintendo sued the company behind the Yuzu emulator, and it settled for millions of dollars
Nintendo brought this case to the US District Court of Rhode Island back on February 26th. The company stated that the Yuzu Emulator facilitated piracy “at a colossal scale.” While emulation doesn’t directly translate to piracy, there’s always the chance that software could be shared illegally. This was the driving force behind the lawsuit. Nintendo doesn’t even want the possibility of its games being passed around without proper payment.
Now, the dust has settled, and Tropic Haze has agreed to settle rather than drag the case out any further. The company will have to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in damages. Not only that, but the company is no longer allowed to market Yuzu or any of its services. That’s not it, but Tropic Haze also needs to relinquish its website and domains. Nintendo didn’t only slap the company on the wrist, it basically amputated its entire arm.
This will, undoubtedly, upset the emulation community. Many people enjoy Nintendo games, but the hardware present on the Switch just isn’t up to par with the gaming standards. We’re basically getting the same graphical detail offered by the Xbox 360 and PS3 from nearly 20 years ago. Nintendo’s own first-party games look nice on the console, but even then, they look dated. In any case, now that Tropic Haze has settled, Yuzu is the next emulator buried by Nintendo.