Why Nintendo sued a Switch emulator out of existence

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Hello, and welcome to Decoder. This is David Pierce, editor-at-large at The Verge and co-host of The Vergecast, subbing in for Nilay, who’s out on vacation. Regular Decoder programming returns next week. In the meantime, we have an exciting episode for you today all about video game emulation, which, as it turns out, is a whole lot more complicated than it seems.

Gaming emulation made headlines recently because one of the most widely used programs for emulating the Nintendo Switch, a platform called Yuzu, was effectively sued out of existence. There’s a whole lot going on here, from the history of game emulation to the copyright precedents of emulators to how the threat of game piracy still looms large in the industry. To break down this topic, I brought Verge Senior Editor and resident emulation expert Sean Hollister on the show. Let’s get into it.

Links:

• Nintendo sues Switch emulator Yuzu — The Verge
• Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu will fold and pay $2.4M to settle its lawsuit — The Verge
• Steve Jobs announcing a PlayStation emulator for the Mac — YouTube
• Fans freak out as Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaks two weeks early — Kotaku
• Tears of the Kingdom Was Pirated 1 Million Times, Nintendo Claims — Kotaku
• The solid legal theory behind Nintendo’s new emulator takedown effort — Ars Technica
• How Nintendo’s destruction of Yuzu is rocking the emulator world — The Verge
• How strong is Nintendo’s legal case against Switch-emulator Yuzu? — Ars Technica

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James.

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.

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