On the 27th of February, 2024, it was discovered that Nintendo would be suing Topic Haze LLC, developers of the popular Switch emulator Yuzu, for damages to their business model.
This lawsuit, which was filed in the United States District Court of Rhode Island, was created in response to an alleged claim that users of the Yuzu emulator were playing the 2023 game The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom a week before release.
The lawsuit would make further claims that spoilers for the game spreading across social media affected sales and that Tropic Haze LLC was directly profiting off of this via a surge in Patreon donations.
The lawsuit requested that the developers of Yuzu be held liable for damages they received and also requested a complete shutdown of the emulator. This request had the internet and social media on the edge of their seats as the ruling of the case could potentially affect all emulators going forward.
This lawsuit was short-lived as it was discovered on March 4, 2024, that Topic Haze LLC and Nintendo would be settling out of court. The court consented judgment in favor of Nintendo. With Tropic Haze to pay a gigantic 2.4 million dollar fine to the game publisher. This sum was agreed upon by both parties.
Image via the United States District Court of Rhode Island
While the monetary fine and details are available to view in the following link, documents pertaining to the “final judgment” and “permanent injunction” of the case are not available at this time. As such, it is currently unknown if Yuzu will have to undergo any punishment other than the fine.
Due to this, it is currently unknown if Nintendo’s secondary request for the complete and total shutdown of the Yuzu emulator will be abided by as well. More details are expected to emerge in the coming weeks.
UPDATE: The Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu will in fact be shutting down. All distribution of Yuzu or its source code will now be prohibited by Nintendo. Development of the emulator will be stopped and its website shut down. The full details can be read in the following court document.