Switch emulator maker Yuzu agrees to pay $2.4 million to Nintendo, removes source code from GitHub

Tropic Haze, the maker of Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu, has agreed to settle with the Japanese company. One of the terms is an admission that the software was “primarily designed” to circumvent copyright protection.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

According to a joint motion filed in the US District Court for the District of Rhode Island (via The Verge), Tropic Haze will pay Nintendo $2.4 million in monetary damages. This comes just over a week after the Japanese publisher filed a lawsuit against the makers of Yuzu.

In addition to compensation, the permanent injunction requires Tropic Haze to:

• Permanently stop working on Yuzu and distributing its code or features, as well as hosting websites and social media accounts that promote the emulator;
• Surrender the domain name yuzu-emu.org to Nintendo;
• Delete all copies of Yuzu and “all circumvention tools used for developing or using Yuzu,” and hand over all circumvention devices and modified Nintendo hardware to Nintendo;
• Stop working on other emulators, including Citra (used to emulate Nintendo 3DS games).

At the time of writing, Tropic Haze has already removed the source code for both Yuzu and Citra from GitHub. The team will also have to shut down its Discord server and Patreon page.

Tropic Haze also shared a farewell post on social media, saying that the team has always been against piracy and Yuzu project started out of passion and love for Nintendo and its consoles.

“But we see now that because our projects can circumvent Nintendo’s technological protection measures and allow users to play games outside of authorized hardware, they have led to extensive piracy,” the statement reads. “In particular, we have been deeply disappointed when users have used our software to leak game content prior to its release and ruin the experience for legitimate purchasers and fans.”

It is also worth noting that in its lawsuit, Nintendo specifically blamed Yuzu for roughly 1 million pirated copies of Zelda games.