I would have thought that Nintendo’s backlash against Yuzu would have been enough to stop anyone from wanting to put themselves in the firing line. But it would seem that there’s a new competitor for the top spot, and they are being very open about trying to do things by the book.
Though with a name that literally sounds like ‘sue you’, I’m not sure it’s going to end well. They even have ‘wink wink’ written in their bio… I smell a catastrophe around the corner!
Suyu has come from the ashes of the Yuzu code, like some sort of emulated Phoenix heading out of a pixelated fire. And as I’ve said in the title of this article, they want to avoid the same fate as Yuzu and fly on the straight and narrow to avoid any problems with Ninty.
There’s no doubt that Yuzu was an impressive emulator that the team worked hard on, but the fallout of their run-in with Nintendo has been catastrophic. Suyu have apparently sought advice from someone who has been to lawschool or at least has some level of educaton in law.
To me, that sounds a little like getting someone who is good at drawing and can sew to give me a tattoo – they can use a needle, so it’s all the same thing, right? As Retro Dodo’s Jason said to me earlier when I told him about all of this ‘Press X to doubt’… and I’m currently button mashing.
How Suyu Plan To Avoid Yuzu’s Demise
So what has this unidentified law help done to help Suyu avoid the same fate as Yuzu?
Writing on the official GitLab page for the new emulator, Suyu claim ‘We do not support or condone piracy in any form. In order to use suyu, you’ll need keys from your real Switch system, and games which you have legally obtained and paid for. We do not intend to make money or profit from this project.‘
In my humble opinion, that is going to be as difficult to police as Harry Potter catching the Snitch in the middle of a thunderstorm during a blackout – how are they going to know where people have got their games from?
And even if they don’t intend to make any money from this emulator, Nintendo’s stance on making ROMs of their games hasn’t changed over the past couple of weeks. And it won’t matter how many tims Suyu say that they don’t like piracy – Yuzu sang from the same hymm sheet, and they’ve been fined $2.4 million.
I’m always ready to be proven wrong, but this seems a little risky to me. Even though Suyu aims to replace Yuzu legally, we’re no longer in the realms of grey areas after Nintendo’s latest clash with Yuzu. And what with Palworld goading Nintendo too, I wouldn’t want to be Suyu right now, basically taunting Nintendo like a tiny fly bringing the heat to Bowser.
We’ll know more once the emulator gets out into mainstream channels, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo squash its progress very quickly to avoid any more Yuzu fans from getting any big ideas.
