Rhode Island based software developer Tropic Haze has agreed to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in damages after the video game creator filed a lawsuit against the software company over the development of its Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu.
Per the settlement, Tropic Haze has also agreed to be permanently enjoined from its work on, hosting, and distribution of Yuzu and its code or features. Tropic Haze has also agreed to end its hosting of websites and social media in promotion of the software, which Nintendo argued was a violation of their copyright protection.
Tropic Haze's Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra is also affected by the settlement.
Nintendo's lawsuit, filed in late February, noted Yuzu allowed for the play of encrypted Nintendo Switch games on devices other than a Nintendo Switch, arguing the development or distribution of software by Yuzu "violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's prohibition on trafficking in devices that circumvent effective technological measures, because the software is primarily designed for the purpose of circumventing technological measures."
Yuzu addressed the settlement in a Monday statement. "We write today to inform you that Yuzu and Yuzu's support of Citra are being discontinued, effective immediately," the company wrote. "Yuzu and its team have always been against piracy." "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," they continued. "In particular, we have been deeply disappointed when users have used our software to leak game content prior to its release and ruin the experience for legitimate purchasers and fans."
The company noted the projects were started in "good faith, out of passion for Nintendo and its consoles and games" and did not intend to cause harm to the video game juggernaut.Loading...
Yuzu noted software piracy was not their project's intention and encouraged the end of video game piracy. "Effective today, we will be pulling our code repositories offline, discontinuing our Patreon accounts and Discord servers, and, soon, shutting down our websites," they continued. "We hope our actions will be a small step toward ending piracy of all creators' works." "Thank you for your years of support and for understanding our decision," Yuzu concluded.
Video game emulators are designed to mimic and reproduce the behavior of a video game console's software on an emulating platform and have become a prominent practice in video game culture. Video game emulation has raised concerns over software piracy as titles can be easily reproduced and shared among users of emulators.
