So what’s the current state of emulation on Linux? I still have both Yuzu and Ryujinx installed, but has either been superseded by a fork?
Emulators are for Nintendo what loud chewing is for most people, not exactly illegal but if you do it you’re gonna get decked.
yeah, if it were illegal they wouldn’t be able to emulate their own games
Emulation is legal but emulators that circumvent the DMCA in order to function are not. Yuzu and Ryujinx both decrypt encrypted Switch content using prod keys and title keys in order to execute it. The act of decrypting switch games in real-time using those keys is a violation of DMCA and is illegal (in countries that care about the DMCA anyhow). Having code in your emulator that CAN decrypt the Switch content can be viewed as a DMCA violation as well, even if it also supports unencrypted content.
Based on that, it seems like all we need is for Ryujinx/Yuzu/some other switch emulator that hasn’t yet been sued by Nintendo to be built in a way that it requires decrypted copies of the software and they could then argue that the person who violated the DMCA was the person who released the decryption tool or the teams that release decrypted versions of switch software.
Seems like if the developers remove the need for the emulator to use prod keys or title keys and they can remove the primary DMCA violation that is being weaponized against these emulators.
Time to open them back up then
We’re forgetting that Yuzu devs had Tears of the Kingdom and released a version that could run the game before it came out commercially. And to those who were behind a donation paywall too.
The team got caught with their hand in the cookie jar and had to settle the lawsuit. They had too much cash on hand to appear like innocent homebrew developers. And how silly is it to be sharing such hot warez like AAA game leaks on a crappy platform like Discord?
They served this lawsuit to Nintendo on a platter. I’ve been following the emulator scene since 1998 and have no love lost for their high-priced ninja lawyer warriors. Teams deserve donations but not based on the promise that users will get an updated emulator before games even hit store shelves. The scene has to protect itself by making good decisions that avoid further legal debacles.
