Well, here we go. Nintendo have formally filed a lawsuit against the creators of the popular open source Switch emulator yuzu. Nintendo certainly aren't holding back on this one either.
Looking over the document filed February 26th, Nintendo give an example in their complaint with The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom saying that it was "unlawfully distributed a week and a half before its release by Nintendo" and that copies of it were "successfully downloaded from pirate websites over one million times before the game was published and made available for lawful purchase by Nintendo".
A major part of the argument is how Nintendo say that "Yuzu unlawfully circumvents the technological measures on Nintendo Switch games and allows for the play of encrypted Nintendo Switch games on devices other than a Nintendo Switch". Nintendo go on to talk about how yuzu allows working around all the protections they put in place, and that "to be clear, there is no lawful way to use Yuzu to play Nintendo Switch games, including because it must decrypt the games’ encryption".
To work yuzu needs certain things from a Switch console, of which the early models had an exploit where this was possible. The yuzu install guide mentions specifically you need a "HACKABLE Nintendo Switch", which Nintendo argue in the suit that "Users obtain the prod.keys either through unlawful websites or by unlawfully hacking a Nintendo Switch console". Because of how yuzu works Nintendo state it "turns general computing devices into tools for massive intellectual property infringement of Nintendo and others’ copyrighted works".
What's not particularly great for the yuzu team is a quote included in the suit from the project lead Bunnei, where Nintendo quote Bunnei saying "users probably just pirate a yuzu folder with everything" when replying to another user about the Quickstart Guide as it can be confusing for people. For context, this is a quote from the yuzu Discord server, but a follow-up post from another developer mentions directly after it "just to clarify on that last statement, we do not endorse, nor support piracy and the users who do won't receive assistance". Still, it's giving Nintendo easy ammo.
Nintendo are going after damages (which look to be quite high in monies), plus they want the yuzu website domain transferred to Nintendo control and the total shut down of yuzu as a whole.
This is going to get messy for yuzu, and for the future of emulation.
Via Stephen Totilo on X.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: ElectricPrismScumbag Nintendo moment.
This is a war on content preservation. They are trying to "burn all the books" of the library of Alexandria.
They don't want you to be able to play old games, or have access to old cultural content, old movies, old music, old anything...
This is the New Global Cultural Revolution. And Nintendo is their white knight to set legal precedent to take away your private property rights.
They are replacing your "rights" with "privileges" -- and when you are a bad boy they will just "turn off your privileges" to the things you worked and paid for.
not only that, sony tried to remove movies from people who purchased then, it failed with discovery content but then they did it again with animes from funimation after they acquired it and shut down the service.
i dont doubt nintendo will do the same in the future.
5 Likes, Who?
Quoting: elmapuli dont doubt nintendo will do the same in the future.Technically speaking, they already have - they've closed the stores for several past consoles at this point, with plenty of games now completely lost to time for legitimate buyers.
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It is important to understand that most companies signed onto an international agreement when the DMCA was passed. This isn't just an American thing. As a librarian, I remember when the DMCA first passed. We pretty much considered it the death of preservation as we then knew it. It's quite possible future generations will look back on our civilizations and find nothing of intellectual value because it's all locked behind outdated, non-functional DRM.
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"unlawfully hacking a Nintendo Switch console"
It is my console, I bought it, I can hack it with a fkin Katana if I want.
It is my console, I bought it, I can hack it with a fkin Katana if I want.
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Quoting: wurschti"unlawfully hacking a Nintendo Switch console"Over in Japan, you can go to jail for up to five years and pay fines of up to ~$46,000 for modifying save-data on any games-console. No doubt Nintendo wants this to be a global thing, hence that language.
It is my console, I bought it, I can hack it with a fkin Katana if I want.
5 Likes, Who?
ElectricPrism Feb 28
(In recent history Nintendo paid Japan Influencers __NOT__ to cover PalWorld in Japan -- you know ... instead of actually make a **good** Pokemon game that has the same features. Nintendo can't even fathom that their fans are (1) not children and (2) 30 and 40 years olds. As if everywhere outside their xenobubble is exactly like Japan where adults don't have time for fun.)
Exactly, when all entertainment is a service then Music on Spotify, Movies on Netflix, can quietly remove content and dictate to the masses what is and isn't morally acceptable (we use to have a word for this for err... the last several thousands years I think it began with a ch).
And then what happens when a multi-million dollar disaster "AAAA" game (as ubisoft calls it) is unable to compete against Baldurs Gate 3, Stardew Valley, Earthbound or some other garage made game? ** Poof **
As Pink Floyd's 'Welcome to the Machine' song puts it:
Quoting: elmapulsony tried to remove movies from people who purchased then, it failed with discovery content but then they did it again with animes from funimation after they acquired it and shut down the service
Exactly, when all entertainment is a service then Music on Spotify, Movies on Netflix, can quietly remove content and dictate to the masses what is and isn't morally acceptable (we use to have a word for this for err... the last several thousands years I think it began with a ch).
And then what happens when a multi-million dollar disaster "AAAA" game (as ubisoft calls it) is unable to compete against Baldurs Gate 3, Stardew Valley, Earthbound or some other garage made game? ** Poof **
As Pink Floyd's 'Welcome to the Machine' song puts it:
What did you dream?
It's all right we told you what to dream
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hardpenguin Feb 28
Quick, fork it and store it somewhere safe!
6 Likes, Who?
hardpenguin Feb 28
Quoting: D34VA_`fsck Nintendo`Some bad sectors will be found for sure
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Quoting: ElectricPrism(In recent history Nintendo paid Japan Influencers __NOT__ to cover PalWorld in Japan -- you know ... instead of actually make a **good** Pokemon game that has the same features.Rumour has it that a talent agency in Japan may be forbidding those working for them from mentioning Palworld "out of consideration" for The Pokemon Company, too.
Quoting: ElectricPrismNintendo can't even fathom that their fans are (1) not children and (2) 30 and 40 years olds. As if everywhere outside their xenobubble is exactly like Japan where adults don't have time for fun.)And Nintendo has always been very well aware of that - even back in the 1980s, 40% of Nintendo's market were in the 24+ age-bracket (this link comes from the memoirs of the first editor of Nintendo Power magazine - the whole thing is a very interesting and eye-opening read, and quite a bit of it is still relevant to the best of my knowledge).
Quoting: ElectricPrismAnd then what happens when a multi-million dollar disaster "AAAA" game (as ubisoft calls it) is unable to compete against Baldurs Gate 3, Stardew Valley, Earthbound or some other garage made game? ** Poof **That wouldn't surprise me one bit - we already saw, with Palworld, the press siding with the industry and openly stating that it shouldn't have succeeded without them getting behind it, instead of celebrating an indie success-story that's done phenomenally well.
Quoting: D34VA_`fsck Nintendo`
Quoting: hardpenguinSome bad sectors will be found for sureThey're rotten to the core.
Last edited by Pengling on 28 February 2024 at 9:03 am UTC
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Quoting: Penglingi was busy thinking if switch2 would have an retro compatibility at the begining then get it axed later on, but you are right, i completely forgot about that.Quoting: elmapuli dont doubt nintendo will do the same in the future.Technically speaking, they already have - they've closed the stores for several past consoles at this point, with plenty of games now completely lost to time for legitimate buyers.
and want listen to something dirty? well they hold pokemons hostages nowadays.
if you want to transfer then to the new games you have to pay an online subscription to host then, you have an maximum ammount of pokemons that you can transfer each day, and no guarantee that they will be playable in the next game meaning you may have to pay even more time until they relase an game where they are playable again.
1 Likes, Who?
On another note: I find it very telling that the yuzu github page doesn't seem to have been hit by a dmca notice.
Indicates to me that nintendo are far less sure of their legal legwork than they pretend to be.
Indicates to me that nintendo are far less sure of their legal legwork than they pretend to be.
7 Likes, Who?
Quoting: ElectricPrism(In recent history Nintendo paid Japan Influencers __NOT__ to cover PalWorld in Japan -- you know ... instead of actually make a **good** Pokemon game that has the same features. Nintendo can't even fathom that their fans are (1) not children and (2) 30 and 40 years olds. As if everywhere outside their xenobubble is exactly like Japan where adults don't have time for fun.)
i partially agree...
i doubt most fans are 20~30~40 as people say, they have that impression because most of their friends are into pokémon, but i doubt the franchise changed the audience completely.
in any case, if they are all adults they should act like such and not purchase any shit poorly made games.
even if they arent child, that may be the reality on japan (most child) and i dont think they should try to change stuff to please people that dont even consume their games, dont get me wrong they need to improve the graphics, fix the bugs, quality of life and make an world building as compeling as palworld have (i mean the interactions you have with the pals, palworld is the closest thing we have to the world building that the the pokemon anime sold).
what i disagree is with some people that think the game should no longer be an TBS, im totally ok with they doing spin offs in other genres, maybe they can even make those spin off as frequent as the main series if they make an sucess, but they should neve drop the tbs games.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: elmapuli was busy thinking if switch2 would have an retro compatibility at the begining then get it axed later on, but you are right, i completely forgot about that.I wouldn't be surprised if they did that too, to be honest!
Quoting: elmapuland want listen to something dirty? well they hold pokemons hostages nowadays.Yeah, my other half is into Pokemon and has had plenty of frustrations with that whole setup.
if you want to transfer then to the new games you have to pay an online subscription to host then, you have an maximum ammount of pokemons that you can transfer each day, and no guarantee that they will be playable in the next game meaning you may have to pay even more time until they relase an game where they are playable again.
0 Likes
If I buy a game or any other product, it should be my business how and where I use it. Period. The same way if I buy a chair, the vendor can't dictate to me that it should only be used on certain parts of my house and not on others. If I buy a game, it's my business on what devices I play it. It could void the guarantee, I'm fine with it, but you can't tell me I can't use it how I want.
Nintendo is just another declining company. It sees it's business model and profits being threatened and so it does anything necessary to protect them. It will fail in the end.
Nintendo is just another declining company. It sees it's business model and profits being threatened and so it does anything necessary to protect them. It will fail in the end.
6 Likes, Who?
I can understand Nintendo going after emulators of their very current consoles.
If I can play Switch games on my PC, why would I buy a Switch?
Makes sense from a business perspective to try and combat that - and if there is legal grounds to do it on, why not.
It is dumb of them to sell their games only on their hardware, but that's just Nintendo.
Preservation is not a legal right, unfortunately.
Or rather, it becomes legally "okay" to emulate only once something is no longer maintained (such as MMOs shutting down), at least from what I understand according to US law.
Which is never the case for current gen consoles.
But I'm not really worried about this.
Just like hackers will always be a thing, so will be emulation. The audience is simply too large for that not to happen.
Would be a shame if it was forced to become an underground thing only to be found by those "in the know". But the audience that is interested in emulation to begin with is almost automatically "in the know", so would always find ways to acquire the emulators & files needed.
If I can play Switch games on my PC, why would I buy a Switch?
Makes sense from a business perspective to try and combat that - and if there is legal grounds to do it on, why not.
It is dumb of them to sell their games only on their hardware, but that's just Nintendo.
Preservation is not a legal right, unfortunately.
Or rather, it becomes legally "okay" to emulate only once something is no longer maintained (such as MMOs shutting down), at least from what I understand according to US law.
Which is never the case for current gen consoles.
But I'm not really worried about this.
Just like hackers will always be a thing, so will be emulation. The audience is simply too large for that not to happen.
Would be a shame if it was forced to become an underground thing only to be found by those "in the know". But the audience that is interested in emulation to begin with is almost automatically "in the know", so would always find ways to acquire the emulators & files needed.
3 Likes, Who?
If Yuzu is shut down, this will be another "you don't have to be right, you just have to be rich" example.
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Maybe not putting so much effort into making the game unable to play on anything else then switch it would be better to spend the money supporting more devices through yuzu project, so it doesn't need to do special hacks to actually allow the games to be played on something else.
But in case of Nintendo that is probably just a dream.
But in case of Nintendo that is probably just a dream.
0 Likes
This Ars article explains quite well why even though Nintendo most likely would lose if taken to court, the most probable outcome of this lawsuit is Yuzu being shut down, at least in its current form (in which its development is centralized by a single entity).
1 Likes, Who?
Holzkohlen Feb 28
All my homies hate Nintendo.
1 Likes, Who?
soulsource Feb 28
Quoting: ElectricPrismcan quietly remove content and dictate to the masses what is and isn't morally acceptableSorry for off-topic (is it?), but this immediately made "The Rush - Temples of Syrinx" play in my head.
Quoting: The Rush - Temples of SyrinxWe've taken care of everything
The words you hear, the songs you sing
The pictures that give pleasure to your eyes
It's one for all and all for one
We work together, common sons
Never need to wonder how or why
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