Game Over For Yuzu Switch Emulator After Nintendo Scores A $2.4M Kill Shot
One of the most popular Nintendo Switch emulators, Yuzu, will no longer be under active development, after the team working on the project settled theirlawsuit with Nintendo for $2.4 million. As part of the settlement, the Yuzu team will also be handing over all code and assets related to the emulator to Nintendo. It also seems that Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra is going to shutdown, thanks to the particulars of this settlement.
The Yuzu team went on X to announce the news of the settlement, saying “Hello yuz-ers and Citra fans: We write today to inform you that yuzu and yuzu's support of Citra are being discontinued, effective immediately.” The team shared that it was disappointed that their software was being used to pirate games, and that it was also the reason that several high-profile games were leaked before their official release. This was no doubt something written to make amends with Nintendo.
This case got a lot of attention from the emulation community, as whatever decision reached by the judge might have big implications for the emulation of games in the United States. Many were hoping that the Yuzu team would bring the fight to Nintendo in order to set a clear precedent that emulating games is legal. However, many in the community are happy to see the status quo continue without any major repercussions.
Nintendo is probably hoping that this deals a damaging blow to Switch emulation but, being an open-source project means that the code for Yuzu is already out there. It will undoubtedly be forked, and work will on it will continue. With the only impact being a slowdown of development by a new set of coders. There are also other emulators that have also been around that seem to be comparable to Yuzu in performance, such as Ryujinx.
