Nintendo settles Switch emulator Yuzu lawsuit
Nintendo won its lawsuit against Switch game emulator maker Tropic Haze, responsible for the popular Yuzu, and will receive over $2 million in damages. Both parties agreed on the settlement in lieu of a full trial, and the court issued Tropic Haze with a permanent injunction as well.
Permanent injunctions are court orders that force a person or company to cease a specific action. The permanent injunction will prohibit Tropic Haze from distributing Yuzu or any software that circumvents Nintendo's anti-piracy protections and will force Tropic Haze to destroy any materials tied to Yuzu - including materials used to make the software run - and prohibits Tropic Haze from using the Yuzu domain indefinitely.
The settlement will see Tropic Haze pay Nintendo $2.4 million, an amount that includes estimated attorney fees and damages that the court believes Yuzu caused Nintendo based on information the Big N provided in the original suit. One piece of evidence Nintendo submitted showed that The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was playable on Yuzu a week before the game officially launched and was downloaded over 1 million times on the emulator.
"With Yuzu in hand, nothing stops a user from obtaining and playing unlawful copies of virtually any game made for the Nintendo Switch, all without paying a dime to Nintendo or to any of the hundreds of other game developers and publishers making and selling games for the Nintendo Switch," Nintendo said in its complaint.
By agreeing to the settlement, Tropic Haze also agrees to abide by it worldwide, which means if they pop up in another country under another name, they risk violating the order. Such violations would put them in contempt of court and expose them to other legal actions and penalties.
Nintendo’s action against Tropic Haze is the latest in a string of anti-emulation measures it’s taken. In 2023, Nintendo sent a cease-and-desist order to Valve in a successful bid to stop the Steam maker from putting Dolphin – emulation software that lets users run Gamecube and Wii games – on the platform.
