The battle over Switch emulation enters the next round: Nintendo targets Suyu.
"Despite the measures, it remains to be seen whether Nintendo will not find a way to cut off this project as well," were the concluding words of our last article about Suyu, the spiritual successor of Yuzu. And as it turns out, the doubts were justified.
Yuzu was a popular Switch emulator that, 6 years after its release, was sued by Nintendo and eventually had to cease all operations, along with paying $2.4 million in damages. Shortly after, Suyu was launched, aiming to inherit the legacy, allegedly with measures in place to protect against further legal action from Nintendo. However, this didn't work out as well.
Nintendo Wastes No Time And Shuts Down Suyu As Well
Despite measures such as forgoing any income from the emulator project, Nintendo filed a DMCA complaint against the developers of Suyu. As a result, the tool was removed from GitLab, an online service for sharing self-developed software.
The complaint was filed by the rightsholder, and the site followed the usual procedure in such cases. Both the Suyu page and all accounts involved were removed or locked. The developers behind Suyu shared the notification they received about the process, containing the accusation from Nintendo:
Suyu is based off of Yuzu code, which violates Section 1201 of the DMCA. Suyu, like yuzu, is primarily designed to circumvent Nintendo's technical protection measures, namely Suyu unlawfully uses unauthorized copies of cryptographic keys to decrypt unauthorized copies of Nintendo Switch games, or ROMs, at or immediately before runtime without Nintendo's authorization. Therefore, the distribution of Suyu also constitutes unlawful trafficking of a circumvention technology.
Suyu still technically has the option to contest the takedown, but the developers behind the project have already moved on and are distributing the software through a platform they set up themselves.
Nintendo has made it clear that they are not in agreement with the new Switch emulator and that they are willing to take action. It remains to be seen whether or rather when a legal dispute will arise.