Nintendo Takes Down Over 8,500 Yuzu Switch Emulator Clones

Nintendo has struck GitHub with a single DMCA notice that has effectively taken down over 8,500 Yuzu Switch emulator clones on the site. The company filed a lawsuit against the popular Nintendo Switch emulator creator Tropic Haze this March, resulting in $2.4 million in damages and Yuzu’s website being pulled offline. That didn’t stop people from re-uploading the software to GitHub in order to still make it available online.

As reported by TorrentFreak, Nintendo caught wind of the Yuzu clones and swiftly issued a DMCA notice that pointed out more than 100 repositories allegedly offering the emulator, leading GitHub to remove around 8,535 repositories containing versions of the emulation software.

GitHub explained:

“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.”

While emulators are perfectly legal in most cases, Nintendo struck Yuzu and Tropic Haze on the grounds that it allowed users to download and play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom almost a month before the game was out in stores, citing piracy as its main argument. Since Tropic Haze also created the popular Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra, that was also taken down in the midst of the lawsuit.

Nintendo recently hit Garry’s Mod with a takedown notice as well, forcing the game to remove all Nintendo content. The company is known for being incredibly protective of its intellectual properties. A former Epic Games executive recently revealed that Nintendo was approached to discuss Metroid‘s Samus Aran as a potential character in Fortnite, though Epic pulled out of the idea after Nintendo demanded that Samus remain exclusive to Nintendo Switch.

Source: TorrentFreak