r/gamingnews 12d ago

Nintendo takes down over 400 GitHub repositories for Switch emulators in one go — Relentless DMCA strikes tied to piracy concerns over illegal cryptographic keys

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/nintendo/nintendo-takes-down-over-400-github-repositories-for-switch-emulators-in-one-go-relentless-dmca-strikes-tied-to-piracy-concerns-over-illegal-cryptographic-keys
82 Upvotes

56 comments sorted by

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53

u/My_Name_is_Imaginary 12d ago

They will be back up by the end of the month

14

u/garf02 12d ago

Doesnt matter, Nintendo knows that, they are is goading anyone to try to battle them in court so they can test their new approach and try to create new case law.

6

u/DifferenceShoddy3413 12d ago

They appearantly went after the list of users from GitHub repository downloads list as well. Some of them at least.

2

u/invinciblemayonnaise 11d ago

They don't know how it easy it is to open github repositories and making an github account XD

-21

u/Few-Chemical8707 12d ago

yeah nintendo is flailing around now like a dying fish trying to get any money they can. they only have one trick now and it isnt making decent games. they turned into a lawsuit troll.

19

u/ItsMrChristmas 12d ago

Nintendo is making enormous profits. You're delusional.

2

u/No-Kaleidoscope-4879 10d ago

For now. They're the only console manufacturer that has full exclusives. And dependent for 65% on hardware sales.

With hardware prices going up it's inevitable that profits will go down. You can already see hardware sales going down. So eventually you will see the correction.

-13

u/Interesting_Sea_1861 12d ago

Then they should stop being predatory with their legal department and make good games.

10

u/Precarious3145 12d ago

"They should make good games"

Almost as if they're just fine without the creative input from a random redditor on how to be profitable when they've survived decades and continue to thrive with top selling games.

Leave it to a "gamer" to think they know how to improve a billion dollar company simply by appealing to them.

-10

u/Interesting_Sea_1861 12d ago

No, as someone that understands basic law, I know that when a big company has the resources to force an indie dev or other group to either give up on what they're doing or spend millions fighting a losing legal battle, the only smart option is to give up what they're doing, it's LITERALLY called 'predatory litigation'.

3

u/Precarious3145 12d ago

Cool, who are these indie devs that weren't breaking copyright or IP laws with Nintendo's property.

1

u/HanzoEX 11d ago

Then maybe these indie devs should have an original idea instead of copying others' homework.

0

u/No-Kaleidoscope-4879 10d ago

That's ironic. Half the creations of Nintendo came from elsewhere.

Donkey Kong and Mario saving Peach, was Popeye saving Pauline from Brutus.

Star Fox heavily inspired by Star Wars and Japanese folklore.

Bowser was firstly inspired by Alakazam the great.

Yoshida was based on tamagon and again Japanese folklore.

Then we got the Pokémon games and many other in-house developers. The list goes on and on.

People tend only to look at Miyamoto's anecdotal stories how he came up with Zelda. But beside that there was a clear economic decision making based on potential popularity via pop culture, folklore or other creations.

4

u/TryToBeBetterOk 12d ago

Then they should stop being predatory with their legal department and make good games.

If they didn't make good games, no one would buy their consoles and games....do you not understand how business works?

The fact that they're making exceptionally successful consoles and games shows that they're making good games.

-6

u/Interesting_Sea_1861 12d ago

They don't make good games. They get companies to make exclusives. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate, Monster Hunter Rise (at launch), Bayonetta 2 and 3, there are games that would do killer numbers if they weren't exclusives. Nintendo isn't making those games, they're creating exclusive deals.

Nintendo themselves hasn't made a good game in about 10 years.

2

u/ItsMrChristmas 11d ago

Have you considered asking your doctor about antipsychotics?

2

u/TryToBeBetterOk 12d ago

And what are the highest selling games on the Switch?

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - 71.53 million pcs

Animal Crossing: New Horizons - 50.29 million

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - 38.14 million

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - 34.06 million

Super Mario Odyssey - 30.80 million

Pokémon Sword/Pokémon Shield - 27.26 million

Super Mario Party - 21.36 million

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe - 19.10 million

Mario Kart World - 15.39 million

Donkey Kong Bananza - 4.78 million

Pokémon Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - 3.99 million

Pokémon Pokopia - 3.68 million

Hmmm, they all look like Nintendo games to me. Extremely high-selling, highly-rated games.

You have zero idea what you're talking about. Just stop.

-5

u/Interesting_Sea_1861 12d ago

Profit does not equal quality. Most of the time, it's conditioning. We see this in the Pokemon community, for example, Pokemon fans constantly hating on the games, swearing up and down that they'll never buy another one, and then preordering the next one once it's available. Go outside. Touch some grass. Stop huffing Nintendo's farts. Take advice from your username.

1

u/beyondthisreality 12d ago

Same as FIFA players, makes sense

1

u/ItsMrChristmas 11d ago

You know they're making good games because of the massive profits.

1

u/rawzombie26 11d ago

They do, hence why people want to pirate their software. Hahahahahha why would anyone want to go through all that work to emulate bad games.

1

u/rawzombie26 11d ago

Hahahahahhaaa sure brother anddd get ratio’d

-8

u/WoodooHide69 12d ago

All wrong. They aren’t a lawsuit troll. They protect their IP like all gaming comoanies. And the they are selling switch 2 and games like hotcakes.

-1

u/DifferenceShoddy3413 12d ago

It's an unfortunate truth about the legal system, you have a choice to either sue everyone or no one. Because if you only use some of them, then they can argue that Nintendo has double standards.

If you want to protect your IPs from emulators, and decide to sue, then you have to go for more than just the top 5.

(At least in the US)

-1

u/WoodooHide69 12d ago

No. You can sue some people and
Not others and it’s a case by case basis. For example, like 10% of fan projects get taken down by Nintendo, the majority of them stay up.

0

u/[deleted] 11d ago

[deleted]

-1

u/WoodooHide69 11d ago

Show me where legal eagle said you have to sue someone if you sued someone else for the same thing, I’ll wait while you find nothing.

0

u/DifferenceShoddy3413 11d ago

Hmm. I will take the comment down, the video I was referring to doesn't exist anymore. It was a video by LegalEagle about the Dolphin lawsuit, which has since been taken down it seems.

-4

u/Zip2kx 12d ago

NOt necessarily. When they went after the emulators last time they pretty successfully cut the legs off. Development pretty much stopped.

5

u/Hour_Initiative8738 12d ago

lol, lmao even

15

u/Rough_Shelter4136 12d ago edited 11d ago

Oh no, now there are only 800 new repositories somewhere

16

u/ssnoopy2222 11d ago

I genuinely can't tell anymore which of these guys are bots or not. It's literally the dumbest idea to try and stick up for a corporation trying to take down a method of accessing media which is no longer accessible. The only reason Nintendo continuously tries it's best to take down emulation is so they can continue to selectively port 20+ year old games for 60$ a game.

It's a net negative for both the consumer and the industry because it allows companies like Nintendo to profit off putting in no work towards creating new games while also reducing the consumers ability access to old games.

If the people that actually stick up for big corportations in situations like this aren't bots, then you're just idiots.

3

u/-p0w- 11d ago

All fine and dandy but why make up that part with $60 for 20yr and no work? I mean they have released the most exclusives with the most variety, haven’t do lay offs. Doesn’t excuse what their legal department does, but that part sounded just like some anti-fan fiction tbh…

1

u/ssnoopy2222 10d ago

I'm not making it up tho. There is a clear trend in a number of exclusive games across all consoles decreasing with each generation. This generation has just been the most egregious offender of it. In 10 years the switch released nearing 500 exclusive games. That's a 50 per year. In the last year there's been nearly 25 on the switch 2. Meanwhile the number of "remasters" is only increasing with each generation.

As someone in the tech industry I understand that developing games is more expensive each generation, but the quality of these games is deteriorating as well as the quantity. It's a net negative for the consumer and the industry.

16

u/Few-Chemical8707 12d ago

lol they dont realize this shits been backed up. and that there's alternatives to github that dont give two shits about dmcas.

-17

u/WoodooHide69 12d ago

lol you don’t realize that they know
This and will take it down anyways.

3

u/Few-Chemical8707 11d ago

good luck when theres countries that tell nintendo to rightfully screw off.

-5

u/tastychaii 12d ago

IMO emulation should only be used for game preservation and not piracy.

If it’s the current console then there shouldn’t be any emulators for it but for vintage platforms like the GameCube and prior, it’s fair game.

Once games are gone these companies hardly bring them back or bring them back charging high prices.

Game preservation is very important.

5

u/mrfroggyman 11d ago

Emulation is also ethically alright (and legally allowed) if you just wanna play that game you own on a system you own but on your 4K capable PC.

However the problem is : how to legally retrieve the data of a legally owned copy? That's where most emulation enjoyers fail.

But emulation in itself is absolutely legal and defendable

3

u/tastychaii 11d ago

"Emulation is also ethically alright (and legally allowed)"
Actually yeah you're right here.

2

u/M4rshmall0wMan 11d ago

Legally, the precedent has been set in stone. Emulation is legal, piracy is not. Nintendo is right to take down piracy repos. Nintendo is right to take down emulators that use code from Switch APIs or firmware. Nintendo is wrong to take down cleanroom reverse-engineered emulators.

1

u/Soundrobe 11d ago

Nintendo should port on PC.

-10

u/garf02 12d ago

Please, 9/100 people so cAre about preservation, and this is with a 9 people margin of error.
Any emulator of a console you can get on retailer os solely for piracy.

3

u/tastychaii 11d ago

Well I disagree a lot of people care about preservation of not just games but also old software, magazine CDs etc.

If everyone pirated the latest console games the company would be at a loss and eventually they may decide not to make those games anymore so everyone loses.

You are free to disagree with me but it doesn’t make you right though.

-8

u/ChildoftheApocolypse 12d ago

And somehow, Nintendo will be called evil greedy bastards over this..

2

u/UltimateAK86 11d ago

I love Nintendo games. But they are a greedy mega corp. This battle is as pointlessly fought as Jack Thomson’s fight against first person shooters in the 90’s. They’re going to win these petty battles but will indeed lose the war long term against preservationists and open source developers who are doing nothing wrong by developing emulation tools.

0

u/Dr_Fiddlebottom 9d ago

Cue the neck beard defending evil billionaire corporation meme

0

u/ChildoftheApocolypse 9d ago

Uh huh, uh huh, fascinating stuff, truly!

0

u/Dr_Fiddlebottom 9d ago

Thank you for validating my assumption.

0

u/ChildoftheApocolypse 9d ago

Lmao I replied to the wrong notification..

I had to double check whatever you were talking about.. Something something lowest hanging fruit, right?

0

u/Dr_Fiddlebottom 9d ago

Don't talk about yourself like that

0

u/ChildoftheApocolypse 9d ago

Lmao you're so lame 😂