Nintendo sues Switch emulator creator for facilitating piracy “at a colossal scale”

Nintendo is suing the creators of Switch emulator Yuzu, and claims more than 1m copies of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom were pirated ahead of its release.

The lawsuit is against Tropic Haze, the creator of the Yuzu game emulator, which Nintendo said allows users to play its games illegally by circumventing its software encryption.

As such, Nintendo claimed Yuzu facilitates piracy “at a colossal scale”, with pirated versions of Tears of the Kingdom used as an example.

Nintendo said the game was illegally distributed a week and a half before its official release.

“Infringing copies of the game that circulated online were able to be played in Yuzu, and those copies were successfully downloaded from pirate websites over one million times before the game was published and made available for lawful purchase by Nintendo,” reads the lawsuit, spotted by games journalist Stephen Totilo.

It adds that “many” pirate websites specified the game file was playable on Yuzu, and that Yuzu's Patreon support doubled during this time.

“Defendant [Tropic Haze] is thus secondarily liable for the infringement committed by the users to whom it distributes Yuzu,” submits the lawsuit.

Nintendo is seeking damages for alleged violations and for the emulator to be shut down.

Despite piracy, Tears of the Kingdom sold over 10m units worldwide in three days to become the fastest-selling game in the series.

As for the most recent Nintendo earnings reportthe game has now sold over 20m copies since its release.

Nintendo is notorious for clamping down on piracy, most notably with its lawsuit against hacker Gary Bowser. In a recent interview, Bowser said he believes his sentence was designed to send a message to others who may cross the company.