Nintendo is escalating its campaign against Switch emulators, after it succeeded in ending the Yuzu and Ryujinx projects in 2024, but these projects have reappeared through open source versions.
Recently, the company turned its focus to GitHub, sending DMCA takedown notices to a number of repositories that host these emulators.
The current campaign affects several projects, including Sudachi, Suyu, Citron, and MeloNX. Those responsible for these repositories have the right to respond to claims of copyright infringement, as Nintendo must file a lawsuit within 10 to 14 days, otherwise the applications may remain available.
Nintendo is basing its move on justifications similar to what it presented previously. Although she acknowledges that Switch emulators are not illegal per se, she maintains that Yuzu encouraged piracy, noting that its developers provided instructions for obtaining the encryption keys and firmware needed to run game files. The case then ended with a settlement amounting to $2.4 million, without a court ruling on the substance of the dispute.
However, other developers have continued to work on open source versions of Yuzu, as these projects are constantly updated to ensure compatibility with newer games, making Nintendo’s task of containing its spread more difficult.
Despite the targeting of GitHub, some emulators such as Citron still provide download versions through their official websites. The Citron team expressed its objection to the DMCA notice via a Discord message, explaining that Nintendo did not clearly indicate that the work in question was open source. The team also confirmed that there is no intention to stop the development, regardless of the outcome of the legal action.
On the other hand, users may have to resort to less reliable sites to obtain these emulators if they are removed from GitHub, which raises security and technical support concerns, especially since the platform usually contributes to discovering errors and providing a collaborative development environment.
In parallel, Nintendo is gradually turning its attention to its new portable device, the Switch 2, which is expected to be more difficult to hack. However, the company is continuing its efforts to limit the spread of game files and emulators for the current Switch.
