New documents filed Monday, February 26 reveal that videogame giant Nintendo is taking action against the creators of the popular emulator tool Yuzu.

The copyright infringement filing, from Nintendo of America, states that the Yuzu tool (from developer Tropic Haze LLC) illegally circumvents the software encryption and copyright protection systems of Nintendo Switch titles, and thus facilitates piracy and infringes copyright under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Nintendo alleges that Tropic Haze’s free Yuzu emulator tool unlawfully allows pirated Switch games to be played on PCs and other devices, bypassing Nintendo’s protection measures.

The official Yuzu website suggests that the tool is to be used with software you yourself own: “You are legally required to dump your games from your Nintendo Switch” — but it’s common knowledge, that this is not how these tools are primarily used.

  •  synae[he/him]   ( @synae@lemmy.sdf.org ) English
    3•7 months ago

    I’m very uninformed here, haven’t gamed in a few years. But I’ve got a question- is yuzu software that is run on a rooted Switch device, or similar like a steam deck? Or do you run it on a computer? Or perhaps, it’s all of the above.

    Anyway, thanks in advance if someone could give me a high level overview

    •  Cethin   ( @Cethin@lemmy.zip ) English
      5•7 months ago

      Steam Deck is just a Linux computer, but it runs on any computer running Linux, Windows, or apparently Android, with capable hardware. It looks like it isn’t ready for Mac yet, though Ryujinx supposedly is.

      It doesn’t run on a rooted Switch as far as I’m aware, but I don’t see the point in that. There’s no need to emulate the hardware if you’re actually using the hardware.

    •  skankhunt42   ( @skankhunt42@lemmy.ca ) English
      4•7 months ago

      Yuzu, to my knowledge, is PC only.

      To get the information you need to use it, you’ll either download it illegally or hack a switch (legally?) To get encryption keys and dump a copy of your game.

      •  unfnknblvbl   ( @unfnknblvbl@beehaw.org ) English
        5•7 months ago

        It runs on Android now, which might be what’s gotten Nintendo extra annoyed here, since there are some relatively affordable Android handhelds that can run Switch games at close to full speed with some tweaking.

        Having said that, I have an Odin 2 handheld, and it would have been cheaper and easier to just buy a Switch and the games I want to play.

      •  synae[he/him]   ( @synae@lemmy.sdf.org ) English
        2•7 months ago

        I heard about the keys and the other website that serves them, seems an extremely important detail. I imagine the game dumps/copies are available as disk images of some sort online?

        Thanks a lot for the info, skankhunt42!