While many see Nintendo as a “family-friendly” gaming company, and they are in many respects, they have never been afraid to go after people who try and steal from them in various ways. Over the many decades of their success, The Big N has gone after hackers, hardware IP thieves, and all sorts of projects that “infringe” on their properties. For example, if you were to try to do a crowdfunding project for a fan film about a property they own, They would have it taken down, and we’ve seen that happen in the past! Today, they announced another lawsuit coming, this time after the Yuzu Emulator for Switch.
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Emulators allow people to play certain types of video games on platforms they weren’t “native” to. That means that they could, say, play a PlayStation game on the Switch or a Switch game on the PC. These emulators have been how gamers can “dance outside the lines” and play games without playing for new consoles and sometimes not buying the games outright. The problem? Well, it’s a bit of a “gray area” in the realm of video game legality. However, Nintendo has always seen it as theft of the highest order, and that’s why they’ve officially filed a lawsuit against Yuzu for its Switch emulation.
They’re not only claiming that it illegally goes around the software protection they have built into their games but that it “facilitates piracy” and basically encourages people to “steal games” from other platforms instead of buying them outright and supporting the various people who made the games.
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To further boost their case, they took notice of certain insider reports, including ones from prevalent Nintendo support Stealth, to note how things like the Yuzu emulator can lead to fans having things ruined because screenshots and spoilers can be posted through the emulators to social media:
So, does The Big N have a case here? It’s honestly hard to say. On the one hand, they have gone after pirates of all types before and have won certain cases. But others have pointed out to us that they’ve gone after emulators like this in the past and have failed.
The problem for them here is about “intent.” Think of it like this. We can give you, the reader, a bat, and a bat can be a deadly thing, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to do such a thing with it.
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Yes, Yuzu “provided the tools for piracy,” but it’s the pirates themselves that did the crime. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
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