If there’s one thing that Nintendo absolutely detests, aside from the prospect of making the older Pokemon titles available on modern hardware, it’s anyone that misuses their IPs, is involved with piracy and emulation. There’s no shortage of stories of Nintendo going after such individuals, so it shouldn’t be too surprising when it’s reported that Nintendo is once again attempting to put emulator developers out of business.
Because that’s exactly what’s happening with a number of Nintendo Switch emulators that are currently available, either on GitHub or custom websites, many of which are forks of Yuzu, the original pioneer in Switch emulation that Nintendo strongly went after.
Nintendo Is Missing The Point By Going After Switch Emulation
By going after emulation software, Nintendo only hinders the preservation of its own legacy.
As first reported by Android Authority, a Nintendo representative has reportedly sent DMCA notices to Switch emulators currently housed on GitHub. The list reportedly includes Eden, Citron, Kenji-NX, and MeloNX.
However, the process isn’t as easy as making them vanquish with a snap of a finger, as what Nintendo alleges and what is being offered via the emulators are two different things. Because none of these emulators directly bundle ROMs, or the game files that make it possible to play Switch games without official Nintendo hardware, they simply facilitate the potential to do so.
Not only are the arguments jumbled, it’s also just a giant case of whack-a-mole. Say, for instance, those GitHub repositories go down. Well, there’s private Discord servers, individual websites, as well as individuals with the files that still exist, meaning these emulators aren’t going anywhere.
Switch Piracy Is Still A Massive Thing
Things with Switch-related piracy came to a head in 2024, when Nintendo sued Yuzu over Tears of the Kingdom becoming playable via emulation, with Nintendo alleging that its creators have allowed people to “unlawfully circumvent” the encryption that Nintendo’s hardware has. The company further alleged that a million copies of Tears of the Kingdom were pirated and that Yuzu was responsible for that.
Elsewhere, the company came after a moderator of a piracy-related sub. Which is to say that Nintendo cares deeply about the issue, and these most recent actions are par for the course.
However, even still, piracy remains rampant. So long as titles release on the original Nintendo Switch, there’s a good chance that a ROM of said title will be dumped online shortly after the release, or in the case of games that have physical copies circulate before the official release, then well ahead of paying customers.
In the interim, pirates are already trying to figure out ways to make emulation for the Switch 2 possible. However, that’s easier said than done, which should probably please Nintendo.
The last significant Switch 2 emulation-related update we had was one creator alleging that it could take at least a decade for things to be figured out. That might partially be an exaggeration, but it does speak to the difficulty people have had in the early goings, particularly compared to the original Switch.
- Brand
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Nintendo
- Original Release Date
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March 3, 2017
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$299.99, ¥29,980, £279.99, €329.99
- Operating System
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Proprietary, codenamed Horizon
- Processor
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Quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 (Nvidia Tegra X1 system-on-chip)
- Resolution
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480p – 1080p (docked) / 1280 x 720 (handheld)
Virtual Boy On Nintendo Switch 2 Feels Like A Glimpse Into An Alternate Universe
Get ready to endure migraines all over again with the Virtual Boy on Nintendo Switch.
