Back in March, Nintendo effectively shut down the popular Switch emulator Yuzu after a judgment concluded that the software was “primarily designed” to circumvent and play Switch games. But Nintendo’s not done: A recent mass takedown on Github resulted in the removal of 8,535 repositories that contained Yuzu code.
The takedown request echoed the arguments that Nintendo used in court: that these “reported repositories” offered or provided access to Yuzu code. Because Yuzu circumvents the encryption measures that Nintendo uses to prevent unauthorized copying of Switch games, it’s in violation of the DMCA. The notice has a special note at the top: “Because the reported network that contained the allegedly infringing content was larger than one hundred (100) repositories, and the submitter alleged that all or most of the forks were infringing to the same extent as the parent repository, GitHub processed the takedown notice against the entire network of 8,535 repositories, inclusive of the parent repository.”
Nintendo has never been shy about pursuing legal action against those who allegedly violate its copyrights. In fact, the 3DS emulator Citra was also de facto shut down by the Yuzu judgment, as it’s made by the same developers who are now legally barred from working on any project that infringes on Nintendo copyright. However, while Nintendo seems determined to stamp out Yuzu, the emulator’s code is still out there online–even in other Github repositories–and judging by previous such efforts, it’s unlikely that the company will be able to erase it entirely.
In other recent emulator news, Apple recently unveiled a new slate of App Store rules that made it possible for game emulators to be published and downloaded, at least in the short term.