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Nintendo Switch emulator creators to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in damages (Update)
- Nintendo and the creators of the Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu have mutually agreed to a settlement.
- Tropic Haze has agreed to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in damages.
- As part of the settlement, Tropic Haze won’t be able to offer or market Yuzu or any of its source code in the future.
- Yuzu is shutting down effective immediately.
Update: March 4, 2024 (3:52 PM ET): The team behind Yuzu has now issued a public statement via its X (formerly Twitter) account confirming that the service will be shut down effective immediately.
— yuzu (@yuzuemu) March 4, 2024
Original article: March 4, 2024 (1:53 PM ET): Last month, Nintendo issued a lawsuit against Tropic Haze and its Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu. The two parties have now mutually agreed on a settlement that involves monetary relief and a permanent injunction.
According to court documents, Tropic Haze has agreed to pay the gaming firm $2.4 million in damages. But the terms of the settlement expand past just monetary relief.
In addition to the payout, Tropic Haze was issued a permanent injunction that bars it from offering or marketing Yuzu or any of its source code in the future. On top of that, the company’s members are all prohibited from creating software in the future that could be used to avoid Nintendo’s technical protection. Finally, the binding court order demands that Tropic Haze relinquish any website domains and information related to its emulator under its control.
Proposed court order on the settlement would call out Yuzu as being “primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing technological measures” and therefore violating the DMCA pic.twitter.com/NOpe6G2i38— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) March 4, 2024
Nintendo took legal action against Tropic Haze on February 26, filing a suit with the US District Court of Rhode Island. The company accused Tropic Haze of violating the Anti-Circumvention and Anti-Trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). When the lawsuit was filed, Nintendo claimed that Yuzu enabled game piracy “at a colossal scale.”