Last month, Tropic Haze, the creator of the Yuzu emulator for the Switch console, was sued by Nintendo, which claimed that Yuzu «promotes piracy on a colossal scale». Now, both parties have reached a mutual agreement on a monetary settlement and a permanent injunction. Tropic Haze will pay Nintendo $2.4 million.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island has granted Tropic Haze a permanent injunction prohibiting it from offering or selling Yuzu or any of its source code in the future.
Its members are also prohibited from creating any future software that circumvents Nintendo’s technical protection, and Tropic Haze must turn over all website domains and information related to the emulator.
This permanent injunction is a binding court order, and any violations by Tropic Haze or its members will subject them to the full extent of the court’s contempt powers, including punitive and monetary sanctions.
In its initial lawsuit documents, Nintendo claimed that last year’s biggest Switch release — The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, was pirated more than a million times in a week and a half in May.
With Yuzu in hand, there is nothing stopping a user from obtaining and playing illegal copies of virtually any Nintendo Switch game, all without paying a single penny to Nintendo or any of the hundreds of other developers and publishers who create and sell Nintendo Switch games.
In essence, Yuzu is turning ordinary computer devices into tools for massive infringement of the intellectual property of Nintendo and other copyrighted game developers and publishers.