They made money on their patreon and Nintendo was going to go after the fact that they had a crazy increase in patreon subscriptions in May 2023 because the early-access builds worked with Zelda ToTK before it came out.
I think they made patches for ToTK and released them in the early access build before ToTK even launched (the game files leaked online around a week or two before) so Nintendo’s argument was that they were directly promoting and profiting from piracy (different from profiting from legal emulation).
Luckily because of the way they settled I don’t think this actually implicates any forks that pop up so hopefully projects like suyu and whatever pops up for Citra can still continue development (not a lawyer tho)
It’s a lot harder to go after homebrew since there isn’t anything directly linking atmosphere/hekate/etc. devs to the promotion of piracy.
Since the Yuzu team had a whole company formed to manage their patreon funds and were clearly promoting functionality for a game that hasn’t been released yet, they were an easy target for Nintendo. The same thing happened with Team Xecuter’s switch homebrew/mods ages ago.
If Nintendo had definitive evidence to suggest the Atmosphere devs are profiting off of piracy, they’d do the same thing in a heartbeat. Same with Ryujinx, Luma3ds, or any other form of emulation/homebrew. The only reason they don’t is because they know only way they’d stand a chance in court is if they make it about piracy, copyright protection, and stolen profits.
They made money on their patreon and Nintendo was going to go after the fact that they had a crazy increase in patreon subscriptions in May 2023 because the early-access builds worked with Zelda ToTK before it came out.
Ah, I see. So they are being taken down because the software is future proof?
I think they made patches for ToTK and released them in the early access build before ToTK even launched (the game files leaked online around a week or two before) so Nintendo’s argument was that they were directly promoting and profiting from piracy (different from profiting from legal emulation).
Luckily because of the way they settled I don’t think this actually implicates any forks that pop up so hopefully projects like suyu and whatever pops up for Citra can still continue development (not a lawyer tho)
I mean, I had homebrew at the time and I also played it pre releases so they just let that slip through?
It’s a lot harder to go after homebrew since there isn’t anything directly linking atmosphere/hekate/etc. devs to the promotion of piracy.
Since the Yuzu team had a whole company formed to manage their patreon funds and were clearly promoting functionality for a game that hasn’t been released yet, they were an easy target for Nintendo. The same thing happened with Team Xecuter’s switch homebrew/mods ages ago.
If Nintendo had definitive evidence to suggest the Atmosphere devs are profiting off of piracy, they’d do the same thing in a heartbeat. Same with Ryujinx, Luma3ds, or any other form of emulation/homebrew. The only reason they don’t is because they know only way they’d stand a chance in court is if they make it about piracy, copyright protection, and stolen profits.