Nintendo has said that The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom was pirated over a million times in the weeks before its official release.
The claims form part of a lawsuit Nintendo has filed against Tropic Haze, who developed the popular Switch emulator Yuzu.
Yuzu allegedly allows gamers to play pirated Switch games on Windows, Linux, or Android systems with Tropic Haze “fully aware of the use of Yuzu in facilitating piracy at a colossal scale”.
“Yuzu turns general computing devices into tools for massive intellectual property infringement of Nintendo and others’ copyrighted works,” they added.
NEW: Nintendo is suing the creators of popular Switch emulator Yuzu, saying their tech illegally circumvents Nintendo’s software encryption and facilitates piracy.
Seeks damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator. pic.twitter.com/SGZVI6Cs0x— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) February 27, 2024
The suit [first reported by Stephen Totilo] says a pirated copy of Tears Of The Kingdom was downloaded over a million times in the ten days before the game’s official launch, with Yuzu’s Patreon doubling in subscribers in that same window.
“With Yuzu in hand, nothing stops a user from obtaining and playing unlawful copies of virtually any game made for the Nintendo Switch, all without paying a dime to Nintendo or to any of the hundreds of other game developers and publishers making and selling games for the Nintendo Switch,” said the suit.
According to VGC, Nintendo is demanding the shut down of Yuzu.
It comes after the developer of the cancelled Portal 64 demake said the project was “probably doomed from the beginning because it depends on Nintendo‘s proprietary libraries,” while Hacker Gary Bowser said his 40-month jail sentence and huge fine was a “warning” to others.
Bowser was charged in 2021 for his involvement with hacker group Team-Xecuter, who created devices allowing users to play pirated copies of games on the Nintendo Switch and 3DS.
Bowser was ordered to pay back £11.45million even though he claimed he was only earning a few hundred dollars a month to update Team-Xecuter’s website and get feedback from users.
In other news, Nintendo has seemingly confirmed the Switch 2 will be released in 2025, in time for the launch of Pokémon Legends Z-A.