After the controversy surrounding more than two decades of Steam Workshop submissions related to the sandbox game in Garry’s Mod and Nintendo intellectual property, Nintendo is once again handing out DMCA takedowns.
Nintendo previously pursued legal action against Tropic Haze, the developers of the Yuzu emulator for the Nintendo Switch console. Tropic Haze ultimately succumbed in its legal dispute with Nintendo, agreeing to pay Nintendo a settlement sum of $2.4 million and dissolving the Yuzu emulator.
However, as the saying goes, once something is on the internet, it’s virtually impossible to remove completely.
Which is true as forked variations of Yuzu exist, such as Suyu and Sudachi. However, there’s always the option of using Ryujinx, which not only boasts superior compatibility and performance but has also never angered Nintendo executives by monetizing the emulator through hiding preview builds behind a Patreon paywall.
Nintendo on the other hand are determined to obliterate Yuzu and erase any trace of its existence.
This is why Nintendo has taken action against Discord with DMCA takedown requests aimed at the official servers of Yuzu forks. Despite Suyu and Sudachi Discord servers not hosting any Yuzu-related code, and their emulators attempting to differentiate themselves through heavily modified code, Nintendo still decided to interfere with them to some extent.
Currently, Nintendo has submitted an extensive DMCA request to GitHub, resulting in the removal of 8,535 repositories that contained clones of the Yuzu emulator. This action has undoubtedly eradicated a significant network of repositories associated with archiving the emulator.
In the DMCA notice, Nintendo asserts that these Yuzu emulator repositories facilitate piracy of Nintendo Switch games by circumventing the console’s technological safeguards.
Nintendo alleges that Yuzu enables users to play unauthorized copies of popular Switch titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom which the big N claimed one million copies of Tears of the Kingdom were downloaded prior to its release in their lawsuit with Tropic Haze.
A solitary DMCA notice submitted to GitHub set off a cascade effect, resulting in the removal of over 8,535 Yuzu repositories, all within the span of sending an email. Had the lawsuit against Yuzu not been initiated and resolved so swiftly, and if Nintendo hadn’t articulated its legal stance so clearly, GitHub’s approach to the takedown might have been more challenging.
But considering how fast Discord themselves cucked out to Nintendo, I doubt anything would’ve changed honestly. I’m certain that Nintendo will soon shift focus towards platforms such as archive.org for hosting the Yuzu emulator soon enough.
GitHub indicates that it reached out to the owners of the affected repositories to offer them a chance to make adjustments, and it provided information on DMCA counter notices and access to legal resources.
While the process of eradicating every single GitHub repository will undoubtedly require more time, Nintendo may not be particularly concerned, given the diminishing returns. Allocating resources toward addressing emerging threats could be deemed a more effective strategy, however.
In December of last year, speculation arose regarding an upcoming product that seemed quite familiar to those who enjoyed homebrew on Nintendo handheld consoles of old. A flashcart for the Nintendo Switch marketed as a backup and development device.
Dubbed the Mig Switch, it was rumored to feature ample memory for storing multiple ROMs and would enable users to choose which “backups” to play without requiring any soldering. Additionally, a tool named Mig Dumper, designed for backing up original games, was said to be released separately.
Videos and reviews of the Mig Switch have begun surfacing online. The flashcard works seamlessly with any model of Switch console, similar to Yuzu, the end user isn’t bound to purchasing games to play them on a Nintendo Switch.
Consequently, Nintendo has already begun efforts to remove Mig Switch and Mig Dumper reseller websites from Google search results. This includes those whose screenshots are displayed below, accompanied by Nintendo’s takedown notice.
As of the current moment, approximately 75 domains have been singled out for deindexing. Nintendo employed DMCA anti-circumvention notices, which, unlike regular DMCA notices, lack a counter notice process.
Meanwhile, Mig Switch appears to be contending with competition from UnlockSwitch, a device with similar functionality. It’s unclear whether UnlockSwitch is a clone of Mig Switch or vice versa.
The creators of Mig Switch claim that UnlockSwitch is a pre-order scam and that their review units are essentially Mig Switch devices. Deciding which side to believe, requires little to no brainpower. The R4 cartridge for older Nintendo DS systems was commonly duplicated and resold.
For quite some time, the gaming console scene lacked a catalyst for innovation within the piracy community. This trend was cemented with the releases of the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 consoles.
However, the overwhelming popularity of Nintendo’s intellectual property and console hardware demonstrates that Switch emulation and innovation are here to stay. Consequently, targeting a single emulator like Yuzu only serves to scatter the scene, with numerous forked versions continuing to be developed, making it much harder to target and take down.
Despite efforts to disrupt social platforms, accessible archives, and repositories, new ones will inevitably emerge in greater numbers.
Successors like Sudachi have eliminated certain legally questionable code, yet they continue to enable Switch emulation. As long as passionate Nintendo fans seek to enjoy Switch exclusives on their PCs, Switch emulation will endure and thrive.
Additionally, consumers who are frustrated with Nintendo’s anti-consumer business practices and the inaccessibility of their extensive gaming library of whom Nintendo are more than happy to charge you for overpriced HD re-releases, are likely to drive the expansion of the piracy scene on the Nintendo Switch.
The introduction of a flashcard has rendered both hard mods and softmods obsolete.
