Nintendo Sues Yuzu Emulator Makers Over Piracy Concerns

Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against Tropic Haze, the developers behind Yuzu, one of the most popular Nintendo Switch emulators. The case was submitted in a Rhode Island district court and, according to Game File reporter Stephen Totilo, Nintendo alleges that Yuzu directly enables and encourages piracy of its games.

For those who may not be familiar, Yuzu has been around since 2018, only months after the Switch itself launched. It’s an open‑source emulator that lets you run Switch titles on platforms Nintendo doesn’t officially support, such as PCs, Android devices, Linux systems, and even the Steam Deck. If you’ve ever used the 3DS emulator Citra, you’ll recognize the same team behind Yuzu. On paper, it sounds like a dream for players who want flexibility, but Nintendo sees it very differently.

The company argues that Yuzu bypasses its security protections and decrypts game files, making it easy for pirated ROMs to run. In fact, many piracy sites openly recommend Yuzu as the go‑to emulator for playing illegal copies of Nintendo games. The situation escalated earlier this year when The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaked online two weeks before release. Reports suggest over a million copies were downloaded illegally and played through Yuzu, which only strengthened Nintendo’s case.

In its lawsuit, Nintendo is asking the court to ban Yuzu’s development and distribution entirely. They claim the emulator cannot be used in a legal way and point to the developers’ financial gains as proof. According to the filing, Yuzu was earning more than $30,000 a month through Patreon and had already made at least $50,000 from paid downloads. Nintendo argues that this revenue was built on piracy and that the company has spent heavily on anti‑piracy measures as a result.

This isn’t Nintendo’s first battle in court. The company has a long track record of aggressively protecting its intellectual property. Past cases include a $2 million judgment against RomUniverse in 2020, a $10 million civil lawsuit against Team Xecuter’s Gary Bowser in 2021, and multi‑million‑dollar claims against ROM sites like LoveROMs and LoveRETRO. Some cases ended in settlements, others in permanent injunctions, but the message has always been clear: Nintendo doesn’t tolerate emulation projects it believes cross into piracy.

Of course, the legality of emulators is complicated. Technically, emulators themselves aren’t illegal, and many argue they’re vital for preserving older games and making them accessible on modern hardware. Yuzu’s developers have claimed their project was intended for homebrew and educational purposes. But when the majority of users are playing pirated ROMs, Nintendo insists that it crosses the line. The court will now have to decide whether Yuzu itself is unlawful or if the issue lies in how people use it. Anti‑circumvention laws, which prohibit bypassing DRM protections, could also play a major role.