While it is not illegal to create console emulators for other devices (generally PCs and mobile phones), it is illegal for such programs to somehow promote the illegal use of video games. That’s what happened to Yuzu, and it landed her in the sights of Nintendo. The demands were immediate and less than a month after the event, the company had already reached an agreement with Yuzu’s creators to end the conflict.
According to the leaked information, Tropic Haz (the creators of Yuzu) will pay Nintendo $2.4 million in damages after causing huge losses to the company. The event will happen when many players first start playing The Legend of Zelda: The Tears of the Kingdom half a month before its official launch, via Yuzu. The action marks the ultimate fate of the emulator, which is now clear and not pretty: Yuzu no longer works.
What happens to Yuzu? The Nintendo Switch emulator on Android closes its doors
In addition to paying the astronomical dollar figure, Tropic Haze is obligated to stop the impeller’s progress. The terms of the deal include the delivery of the official Yuzu site to Nintendo, as well as any data or hardware involved in the development of the emulator. In the future, Tropic Haze is prohibited from participating in any project that may in one way or another violate the privacy of a Nintendo product.
Yuzu apparently won’t continue to receive any updates. Also, since the service is completely blocked, it cannot be downloaded from its various official sources (this includes the app in the Play Store, the official website, and the official GitHub).
The agreement between both parties includes the prohibition of the distribution of Yuzu in any way: coded or otherwise; Therefore, any program associated with an emulator becomes another pirated product with the risk of being downloaded from any site where it is provided.
If you download Yuzu, you can continue using it from your device, but without any support, much less updates like before. If you intend to download it, it is not possible to do so from the official website. Nintendo is not responsible for downloading any illegal tracks from anywhere, so you will have to go to other sources. It can currently be downloaded from this link (for Windows) or from here (for Android) via the Wayback Machine.
It’s a shame to see such a promising project (Yuzu was considered the best Switch emulator at the time) shut down like this. We’ll have to wait for another initiative to come out in the future that won’t be in bad shape with Nintendo.
