Nintendo Sues Yuzu Emulator After Zelda Was Pirated 1 Million Times

Expert Verified By

Nintendo Begins Large Scale Emulation Crackdown!

Story Highlight
  • Nintendo has sued the Yuzu emulator for facilitating the piracy of Switch games.
  • The gaming giant is planning to shut down Yuzu completely.
  • Nintendo states that the latest Zelda title was illegally downloaded 1 million times before launch.

Nintendo is known to be extremely harsh and strict when it comes to pirating its games. The company has previously taken legal actions in such cases, with Gary Bowser ending up as a famous example of the gaming giant’s wrath.

Currently, Nintendo games can be emulated quite easily on PC. The company has now turned its attention toward the Yuzu emulator, suing it for facilitating piracy on a massive scale.

Why it matters: Nintendo has never taken the topic of emulators lightly since it has historically spoken out against this practice.

The company suggests that Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was pirated at least 1 million times before release.

Nintendo isn’t just pursuing this case for legal damages, but it is aiming to put Yuzu in the ground. The giant wants to permanently wipe Yuzu off the market as it aims to take away its URLs, domain names, chatrooms, and social media presence.

Nintendo also wants the rights to yuzu-emu.org, possibly leading to Yuzu being permanently removed from the internet. Therefore, this is not an average case that can simply be based on allegations.

The company isn’t suing Yuzu by alleging that it has stolen game keys. That would be a direct allegation without basis, which might have given Yuzu a basis to countersue for defamation.

Instead, Nintendo is suing the emulator for facilitating piracy. Nintendo’s main claim is that Yuzu is providing detailed instructions on how to run the unlawful Switch games via the emulator.

Following that, it makes the confident claim that developers have extracted Switch games.

Nintendo Switch
Nintendo Switch OLED Console

Even if Nintendo asks to subpoena the required documents to connect the dots, the case might not be devastating for Yuzu. However, this sets a dangerous precedent for other emulators.

Previously, Nintendo got in the way of Dolphin’s anticipated Steam release. The gaming giant has shown no signs of stepping back from its pursuit of emulation companies.

Yuzu has been a popular emulator of choice for many. The Nintendo Switch is the only modern console that can be easily emulated on PC, so we expect its successor to come with more safety measures.

However, for the time being, Nintendo is looking to deal with existing emulators.

Was our article helpful? 👨‍💻

Thank you! Please share your positive feedback. 🔋

How could we improve this post? Please Help us. 😔

Gear Up For Latest News

Get exclusive gaming & tech news before it drops. Sign up today!

Join Our Community

Still having issues? Join the Tech4Gamers Forum for expert help and community support!

Latest News

Join Our Community

104,000FansLike
32,122FollowersFollow

Trending

Former PlayStation Exec Says Stellar Blade Succeeded Due To Combat, Not Character Design

A former PlayStation executive has weighed in on Stellar Blade, stating that its combat is the biggest reason why the game succeeded.

MindsEye Officially Being Refunded On PlayStation As Players Compare It To Launch Cyberpunk 2077

PlayStation is now offering refunds for MindsEye despite its reputation for being too strict about refund policies.

Stellar Blade Launches To 168K Concurrent Players on Steam, a PlayStation PC Port Record

Stellar Blade has peaked at 168K concurrent players on Steam, the highest amount of any PlayStation title on PC.

The Witcher 3 Reportedly Getting A Third Expansion In 2026

Polish podcasters Rock and Boris have heard that The Witcher 3 is soon to get its third expansion sometime during 2026.

Capcom Thinks $80 Pricing of New Titles is Appropriate But Doesn’t Aim To Follow Trend

Capcom believes that the $80 price for new games is appropriate, but doesn't aim to follow the trend, at least for now.