Summary
- Nintendo cracks down on emulator developers, settling lawsuit for $2.4 million in its favor.
- Drastic DS emulator app for Android goes free, with Exophase insisting income was never the goal.
- Nintendo’s aggressive stance on emulation leads to dwindling options for Android users, as Drastic gets axed.
It might not seem like a big deal to sideload an emulator on your Android to play a vintage game. However, some of these apps and games walk along the fine line between piracy and legality. In the case of Yuzu, a Nintendo Switch emulator, Nintendo felt like the line was crossed altogether — the video game giant filed a lawsuit against the developer, Tropic Haze, which will be settled for $2.4 million in Nintendo’s favor. Now, it seems that other emulator developers are being scared off, including one behind a popular Nintendo DS app.
Drastic, a Nintendo DS emulator app for Android, has now made its app free after previously charging $4.99 (via The Verge). Exophase, who spearheads the emulator, stated on Discord that the incentive was never to generate income from the emulator. It will be pulled from the Play Store in the near future, but Exophase claims it is not due to the recent Nintendo lawsuit against Tropic Haze. However, there are larger repercussions, such as a popular Steam Deck Discord pulling all discussions of Nintendo emulators, which is assuredly exactly what Nintendo wants, for everyone to be scared to emulate its games or even talk about doing so.
The launch of Yuzu came after the end of Skyline, a Nintendo emulator that previously ran on Android devices. Nintendo also went after Skyline, claiming copyright infringement. In turn, the developers of Skyline maintained their supposed legality. However, the emulator was eventually pulled, despite parts of its code going public before disappearing. Now that Yuzu has also been axed, it seems that Android device users are seeing their options dwindle.
While piracy is a divisive topic among gamers altogether, it’s something that companies like Nintendo aren’t willing to tolerate. As more companies bring down the hammer, the developers of emulators are likely to continue to be negatively impacted. For gamers, it’s looking like it might just be worth scoping out a vintage GameBoy or DS handheld to get a nostalgia fix, as using Android for emulation of modern Nintendo games is looking to be in a pretty poor state at the moment. Here’s hoping Dolphin can remain strong.
