I mean, they always should’ve been spooked. Collecting money while directly facilitating piracy is exactly what got things like LimeWire killed. The Yuzu lawsuit wasn’t a surprise at all. They did a lot to help progress Switch emulation, but stupid things like working on patches for leaked TOTK meant they couldn’t even argue that they were against piracy. Because the TOTK leak was only available via piracy, and they were directly working on hotfixes while collecting payment from their Patreon supporters.
I wouldn’t call it directly piracy. Emulators lets you play games on more platforms. I love being able to play SNES games (Super Mario Island, which I already own) on my PC using an xbox controller.
The big issue is that they were supporting a game that was only available via piracy. Tears of the Kingdom leaked like two weeks early, but you could only access the game via piracy. Someone stole a game cart from a retailer, ripped it, and illegally uploaded it. And Yuzu immediately began working on patches for it. So any “we don’t support piracy” claims they may have been able to use went right out the fucking window. Because they were directly supporting a game that was only available via piracy.
It was a dumb move through and through, and I’m honestly surprised they didn’t get slapped with a lawsuit as soon as the first post-leak patch happened.
I mean, they always should’ve been spooked. Collecting money while directly facilitating piracy is exactly what got things like LimeWire killed. The Yuzu lawsuit wasn’t a surprise at all. They did a lot to help progress Switch emulation, but stupid things like working on patches for leaked TOTK meant they couldn’t even argue that they were against piracy. Because the TOTK leak was only available via piracy, and they were directly working on hotfixes while collecting payment from their Patreon supporters.
I wouldn’t call it directly piracy. Emulators lets you play games on more platforms. I love being able to play SNES games (Super Mario Island, which I already own) on my PC using an xbox controller.
The big issue is that they were supporting a game that was only available via piracy. Tears of the Kingdom leaked like two weeks early, but you could only access the game via piracy. Someone stole a game cart from a retailer, ripped it, and illegally uploaded it. And Yuzu immediately began working on patches for it. So any “we don’t support piracy” claims they may have been able to use went right out the fucking window. Because they were directly supporting a game that was only available via piracy.
It was a dumb move through and through, and I’m honestly surprised they didn’t get slapped with a lawsuit as soon as the first post-leak patch happened.
Yuzu in particular, sure. But that doesn’t mean that all emulators supports piracy.