Yuzu Creators Pay $2.4 Million to Nintendo as Settlement Fee

Tropic Haze, the creators of the Switch emulator Yuzu, will pay Nintendo $2.4 million to settle their lawsuit. Yuzu’s creators will also pull the program and source code, as well as close down the website and social media channels. [Thanks, OatmealDome!]

As mentioned above, Yuzu’s website will shut down, and they will no longer distribute the source code or the program. Citra will no longer be available either. For reference, Yuzu was a fan created emulator program for people to play Switch games on. Nintendo sued Yuzu’s developers, stating that the program circumvents the Switch’s encryption, as well as facilitates wide-spread piracy.

According to the lawsuit, people pirated The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom over a million times before the game actually came out. During this time, thousands of members joined Yuzu’s Patreon, paying the creators for their service. Not only does Nintendo not make any money back from the game, but it can also ruin other players’ experiences when pirates post spoilers or content from the game prior to an official release. 

Yuzu’s developers put out a message in the official Discord server for the program. It started with saying that Yuzu’s team has always been against piracy and the project started from a place of passion. They did not realize at the start that people could use Yuzu to circumvent Nintendo’s protective measures and play pirated games. The message also stated that they’re disappointed some people chose to leak game content before the official release. They pulled the program and source code, as well as discontinued the Patreon and Discord server, because they discourage piracy and believe that it should cease to exist.

Yuzu is no longer available, and the creators have to pay Nintendo a $2.4 million.