Nintendo vs. Emulator Legal Battle Goes Into Next Round As Discord Bans Suyu Developers

Did you think the war between Nintendo and the Switch emulators was over? Oh, no. It's only just beginning.

Discord vs suyu
Discord have entered the ring. | © EarlyGame

Yuzu is a Switch simulator that Nintendo have been trying (and failing) to shut down for years.

At first, Nintendo banned the creators of the Yuzu emulator from further involvement with the emulator and its distribution. Then, they made them pay $2.4 million in damages to Nintendo, transfer the online domain "yuzu-emu.org", and wiped out their entire media presence.

Now, a new team have taken it upon themselves to keep the Yuzu dream alive in the form of a new emulator: Suyu.

But of course, you guessed it, Nintendo filed a DMCA complaint against the developers of Suyu. As a result, the tool was removed from the file-sharing platform GitLab.

Nintendo vs. Emulator War Continues, Discord Enter The Fray

In a show of solidarity, Discord has taken drastic action against the Nintendo Switch emulator servers Suyu and Sudachi, shutting them down along with the accounts of their lead developers. Suyu and Sudachi originated from Yuzu, the emulator that Nintendo had previously shut down. While Discord remained silent, the developers received vague messages about alleged intellectual property violations.While Nintendo settled with Yuzu without gaining rights to its code,the forums requested code modifications to avoid violating Nintendo's terms. Though Discord's policy doesn't typically warrant immediate server removal for copyright violations, it's unclear if there were any warnings or previous violations in this case.

Discord's actions seem to avoid the usual DMCA process, suggesting a direct de-platforming of the emulators. Despite a court order mentioning restrictions on third parties related to Yuzu, Discord hasn't clarified any direct connection between the Yuzu developers and Suyu or Sudachi.

Johanna Goebel

Johanna is studying Online-Journalism in Cologne and has been travelling the gaming world since she was a toddler. Her heart beats for open-worlds, action or fantasy RPGs and third-person shooters with great storylines and (un)charming characters.

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