Two of the most high profile emulator projects were wiped out in an afternoon. In the days since, more have followed. The developer of Pizza Boy, a paid Game Boy emulator for Android, pulled it from the shop, writing "I have chosen to prioritize my family over the development of my apps." A 3DS homebrew developer pulled their tools from Github. Android DS emulator DraStic went free, will soon go open source, and the developer says they plan to pull it from the Google Play store at some point.
Legally, the Yuzu settlement sets no precedent. But you can sure as hell feel the chill cast over the whole scene.
. . .
If you buy a Switch, you should be able to dump its encryption keys, and you should be able to study it and write software to reproduce its functions if you have the skill it takes to do so. If you buy a game, you should be able to back it up. If you buy a Kindle book or an iTunes MP3, you should be able to strip that DRM and put it on the device of your choice. So it should be, but the law unfortunately doesn't offer us these clear protections.
. . .
. . . but seeing my own reporting mentioned in the lawsuit reinforced for me how much lawyers will bend any innocuous thing their way to make it sound like proof of guilt. They cited that "in an interview Bunnei game to PC Gamer" ⬆️ he stated Yuzu's developers were aware people were modding Tears of the Kingdom to get it running in the emulator pre-release. I mean... duh? Of course they were aware! How could they not be aware? What are they guilty of, not doing the 'see no evil' pose for two weeks 🙈? The lawyers also claim "thousands of additional paid members of Yuzu's Patreon signed up so that they could download the early access build and play unlawful copies of Zelda: TotK," making it sound an awful lot like Yuzu's developers were updating the emulator to play Tears of the Kingdom pre-release.But they weren't. That didn't happen.
Perhaps all the devs had pirated the game in secret and were getting updates ready for day one, I don't know — but I do know they weren't releasing builds to support it until the release day, no matter what the slippery legal phrasing implies.
Rule, message, mandate, who cares? Give a reason why the emulator devs shouldn't be paid for creating a quality product with active development and timely bug fixes.
Yes, Yuzu development has ceased, but the rapid progress they made in switch emulator development is massive, and the code is open source. And it's a solid product right now as-is, and it lived long enough to have fixes for all games that came out in the Switch's lifespan save this one final year.
But Ryujinx still exists, so that can cover Yuzu's future blind spots.
Reason: If money is involved, this will continue to happen. I thought y'all were experts on the perils of capitalism here?
Additionally, it is my belief that emulation should be free and available to everyone. So, if payment is required, I do have a problem with that. Less so if donations are optional, but that still brings us back to point 1:
If money is involved, this will continue to happen.
EDIT: This is the goofiest fucking argument I've gotten into all week. I mean, what are we arguing at this point? Ideals over reality? Ways we can keep getting projects shut down, instead of flying under the radar? I will concede for my own sanity-- you win whatever this is.
Payment is not required! There is a perfectly working free version. There is and has always been one since the Yuzu project began. That's what the debate perverts call a strawman.
And being a communist doesn't mean you're not allowed to make a living under capitalism. That's idiotic. They have to eat, have a home, etc.
I'm arguing that the speed and consistency of yuzu dev was made possible by the patreon, and now the project has ended, but we got a great, accurate emulator out of it sooner than would have otherwise been possible. And nobody was ever forced to pay for it.
Will not respond if you want the last word. I'm disengaging now.