Support us on Patreon to keep GamingOnLinux alive. This ensures all of our main content remains free for everyone. Just good, fresh content! Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal. You can also buy games using our partner links for GOG and Humble Store.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

After Nintendo recently filed a lawsuit against the Yuzu team, it was pretty much inevitable this was going to happen wasn't it. The end of Yuzu is officially here.

Nintendo and Tropic Haze LLC (Yuzu) filed a joint motion for the court to enter Final Judgment and Permanent Injunction, so as I understand it's not quite final until the judge stamps it.

As a result the Yuzu team have announced their intention to shut everything down, and have agreed to pay Nintendo $2.4M USD in damages. As per the other document, Yuzu will also transfer the domain name used over to Nintendo and they have agreed to delete every single thing related to Yuzu that they have.

Writing in the yuzu Discord (and posted on X) the developer bunnei said:

Hello yuz-ers and Citra fans:

We write today to inform you that yuzu and yuzu’s support of Citra are being discontinued, effective immediately.

yuzu and its team have always been against piracy. We started the projects in good faith, out of passion for Nintendo and its consoles and games, and were not intending to cause harm. 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. 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.

We have come to the decision that we cannot continue to allow this to occur. Piracy was never our intention, and we believe that piracy of video games and on video game consoles should end. Effective today, we will be pulling our code repositories offline, discontinuing our Patreon accounts and Discord servers, and, soon, shutting down our websites. We hope our actions will be a small step toward ending piracy of all creators’ works.

Thank you for your years of support and for understanding our decision.

Update 05/03/24: While "support of Citra" was a bit ambiguous, it's now confirmed Citra is also gone. The website is down and replaced with the statement, the GitHub is also gone.

Considering it's open source though, and has been out in the wild for some time now, it's unlikely this is truly the end because it's been so widely circulated. However, it will make it a lot harder for anyone seeking it out, and no doubt put off anyone from doing anything with Yuzu code they might still have.

For now, the Ryujinx project at least still exists and as far as I know hasn't had Nintendo come knocking — yet.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
18 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
See more from me
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
93 comments
Page: 1/5»
  Go to:

View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
As I wrote somewhere else, N- was fully aware that all their accusations (Yuzu community being responsible about spreading piracy, Yuzu allowing TotK to work and get leaked before release, etc.) are all bogus. Their plan has been to shut down Yuzu by buying time in the trial procedures, and therefore drowning them in legal fees they can no longer afford.


Last edited by LordDaveTheKind on 4 March 2024 at 8:01 pm UTC
Termy Mar 4
It's a real shame that most legal systems favor big money over fairness and justice...

I hope Nintendo will choke on the money...
sophiee Mar 4
welp.. rest in pieces yuzu
s01itude Mar 4
Without going into too many details my main suspicion here is that Nintendo obtained logs from discord that exposed the development team of some illegal activities -there's been some leaks of such if you know the right corners to find them, I will reiterate that these are merely leaks and therefore speculation not evidence- and used them to strong arm them into this settlement. This to me makes even more sense with consideration that the original lawsuit filing was very vague about any specific person(s) involved only really naming the parent company and the online handle of one member of their team.

Again this is all speculation, but if true it should be a warning to everyone to just not even entertain the idea of piracy. Companies can and will find out and they will prosecute and (especially in the recent cases with Nintendo) the final judgement will be a strong one.
Hopefully this is where it stops and they don't go after the team members individually. They've proven in the past that they're willing to completely ruin people's lives that get in their way.
Pengling Mar 4
Sadly inevitable, but seemingly not as dire as the fate of Gary Bowser. And I suppose it does spare us from any dangerous precedents that could be set by a lawsuit, that could've potentially done harm to other projects that've done Linux-gaming a lot of good.

Still, if anyone's after any Nintendo-style gaming minus Nintendo that can be played on Linux, please swing by the forum and contribute to the game-list (shameless plug, I know, but I think it's worth proving that this particular brand of all-ages gaming can be done without them).


Last edited by Pengling on 4 March 2024 at 8:37 pm UTC
grigi Mar 4
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
I'm happy to say I've never bought a Nintento console, and also have never even played one of their games.

There was that big hoohaa about some N64 emulator that was too good for its time and Nintendo throwing lots of resources to find whomever was responsible for it existing. That didn't stop N64 emulation.
doragasu Mar 4
Aaaaand... rich makes right 😪
> pay Nintendo $2.4M USD

HOW? With what?
Cerberon Mar 4
Idk why emulator devs are dumb enough to do this kinda stuff in the West. Its the same with pirate sites/groups - if you wanna do this do it in a place where US jurisdiction can't reach you. Like Russia, Belarus or China. If Yuzu was in Russia/Belarus/China it would be untouchable.
If they hadn't set up as an actual company they would have been a lot safer also, it's a lot harder to sue 5-10 anonymous guys contributing to a git repo.
A company makes you liable.
sarmad Mar 4
Time to move on and stop playing Nintendo games. There are plenty of alternative games.
dpanter Mar 4
Another dark day where Nintendos lawyer swarms ruin peoples lives. Once again:

Nobody hates their fans like Nintendo.

I've been shitting on Nintendo for almost 2 decades now after they stole > $500 of my digital purchases.

Out of spite for Nintendo, when I was asked for a Switch by someone I bought them a Steam Deck (even though it costed more).

In my case, the saying comes to mind:

When people reveal who they really are, believe them the first time.

Nintendo is Asshoe, Nintendo will always be Asshoe until they get collapsed like SEGA, may they burn and be reborn like a Phoenix -- like SEGA was and actually produce sales on Steam (Look how successful Sonic on Steam has been).

This is basic common sense -- sell where the people are.

In the words of Gabe Newell:

Piracy is a SERVICE problem

Steam, Netflix, and Spotify are all examples of piracy reduction by providing convenience.

Make sure everyone knows what Nintendo has done here. Make their face & reputation feel shame. Make them pay, the Zelda leak was entirely due to Their: __INCOMPETENCE__ and Their's Alone. And did they file the suit against the leaker? No. Instead they saw the Patreon income and projected the blame on engineers practicing a hobby that couldn't fight back.

Like a bully beating up a weak kid who just wants to be left alone to do his nerd shit.

Fuck Nintendo. May they burn.
We can no more download CITRA and CITRA-Canary releases too?

https://github.com/citra-emu

https://github.com/citra-emu/citra-nightly/releases

https://github.com/citra-emu/citra-canary/releases


Last edited by legluondunet on 4 March 2024 at 9:30 pm UTC
Stuff like this causes me to further regret my like and admiration for Nintendo growing up. While I already "quit" them back in the mid-2010's, I am disgusted even more by them now. As I do not own a Switch, my words are utterly meaningless, but I will personally never play another Nintendo game again. New or old.
McCarthee Mar 4
SCUMtendo strikes again. Never again will I give them a single dime.


Last edited by McCarthee on 4 March 2024 at 9:34 pm UTC
Idk why emulator devs are dumb enough to do this kinda stuff in the West. Its the same with pirate sites/groups - if you wanna do this do it in a place where US jurisdiction can't reach you. Like Russia, Belarus or China. If Yuzu was in Russia/Belarus/China it would be untouchable.
If they hadn't set up as an actual company they would have been a lot safer also, it's a lot harder to sue 5-10 anonymous guys contributing to a git repo.
A company makes you liable.
Well, sort of. It makes the company liable. You only lose whatever you put into the company by buying stock or whatever, you don't lose anything in your own bank account or your house. That's Limited Liability. Whereas if it was just a few people independently doing stuff, and Nintendo sued them as individuals, they could in fact lose everything they had and, in the US where personal bankruptcy is fairly difficult, potentially end up with garnished wages for life or something.
So while I do think doing it somewhere other than the US would have been a much better idea, setting up a company was probably the best plan. It's like having a cardboard replica for the sniper to shoot instead of you.
Jarmer Mar 4
Idk why emulator devs are dumb enough to do this kinda stuff in the West. Its the same with pirate sites/groups - if you wanna do this do it in a place where US jurisdiction can't reach you. Like Russia, Belarus or China. If Yuzu was in Russia/Belarus/China it would be untouchable.
If they hadn't set up as an actual company they would have been a lot safer also, it's a lot harder to sue 5-10 anonymous guys contributing to a git repo.
A company makes you liable.

This is what I don't understand. Like who in their right mind would think setting up an official company for this was a good idea? I just can't fathom it.

Of course this is ultra shitty from N, but they're KNOWN to do exactly this, so .......... everyone could see this coming from day 1.

I hope yuzu lives on on the high seas! I would love to play TOTK on my computer with high frame rates and ultrawide screen. As opposed to like 25fps at 1080 on my tv.
Well, this was probably the smart choice on the Yuzu people's part. They grovel a bit, say they (or rather, the company being sued) will pay $2.4 million, Nintendo gets a headline, the company declares bankruptcy and pays whatever loose change it has on hand, the actual people move on. Otherwise, they would have had to spend more than that in court and go under the hard way after months or years of struggle and heartache. Sure, in theory they could have fought in court and "won", but first, they almost certainly don't have the money to make it all the way through that kind of trial, and second, even if they "won" that probably wouldn't mean they'd get anything out of it and they'd still be down millions in legal fees.

I would recommend that the next people who take the code and continue developing it under a different name, host it in some place like the EU and have some kind of region lock where they don't allow downloads from places with DMCA-type anti-digital-lock-tampering laws. Of course, since the code is open and all some people will then mirror it in other places and it will become available around the world--but that will not be the core project's fault, as they will be taking due measures to prevent it.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 4 March 2024 at 10:02 pm UTC
citra is gone too...
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
Login / Register