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Citra Emulator is being shut down

Killjoy-NL

Member
yeah I love the emulators , it sits there , doesn't collect dust and if I feel like playing Nintendo games well its there
Sounds more like you care about free stuff rather than the actual Nintendo games, otherwise your Nintendo hardware wouldn't be collecting dust if you don't have emulators.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
I didn’t personally care about Yuzu, but shutting down Citra is stupid. Especially since used 3DSes still go for like $150 on the second-hand market.

I’ll make a deal with you, Nintendo. You’re allowed to shut down Citra if you start manufacturing New 2DSes again at $99.
 

SCB3

Member
Especially since used 3DSes still go for like $150 on the second-hand market.
to be fair its a reason I got into console repairs, picked up most of Nintendos handhelds now for dirt cheap, a few small part replacements and maybe a new shell from Aliexpress and I have pretty much all the Special edition consoles I wanted but couldn't afford at the time
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
to be fair its a reason I got into console repairs, picked up most of Nintendos handhelds now for dirt cheap, a few small part replacements and maybe a new shell from Aliexpress and I have pretty much all the Special edition consoles I wanted but couldn't afford at the time
Speaking of that, I was randomly browsing Aliexpress today and I saw they were selling “refurbished” DSes for like $30. I’m tempted to buy one just to see how legit or fake it is.
 

Kikorin

Member
The most surprising thing to me is that Nintendo took so much time to do something about Switch emulation. I always thinked that most of people that use emulator to pirate games would never have bought that game in the first place anyway, so not a huge loss, but leaks and people playing games on Twitch weeks before the official release always sucked.
 
Oh seriously, fuck Nintendo for Citra. You aren't even making the 3DS anymore let alone have a market for 2nd hand units to buy stuff digitally nor are you even emulating on the switch like you did WiiU, what's the goal here other than sending a message that's way too late?
100% They gonna be planning something for the Weak ass Nintendo online "service"
 

TastyPastry

Member
older emulators are safe though right? stuff like snes9x, bsnes and so on

edit: i just now realized what a dumb question that is
 
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SCB3

Member
Speaking of that, I was randomly browsing Aliexpress today and I saw they were selling “refurbished” DSes for like $30. I’m tempted to buy one just to see how legit or fake it is.

They may actually be the legit board with cheap buttons and shells, getting a broken ds is not hard or expensive at all, I have like 3 of them that I've been meaning to re shell
 

John Wick

Member
Don’t fuckin leak games on an emulator early guys, jesus

Hopefully will continue elsewhere and ryujinx stays ok. Playing Switch games on my PC at 1440p+ and 60 fps is really nice.

And yes, I do own physical copies of every game I play via emulation.
No! According to Gaf only about 5-7 people are doing this. The rest of you are all pirates.......
 

John Wick

Member
The FUD this lawsuit created is a lot more harmful to the emulator scene than development of Yuzu being shut down.

I really can't understand Nintendo fans that are cheering on Emulation being shut down though. I know in my heart it's a fanboy thing but it just seems so crazy to me that it's hard to properly understand.
They enjoy paying Nintendo for games that they own already when Nintendo releases them on their newer system.
They are doing their part gif.
 

tkscz

Member
You need talented people for that. There aren't that many. At least not that many interested in working with that code knowing Nintendo already said No.


The fact that they accepted doing that in the injunction means it was agreed upon, aka Nintendo asked them to shut it down as well.
But it's not directly started in the lawsuit. I agree that Nintendo would more than likely ask them to take it down once they realized the same company was being both emulators, but it not being in the lawsuit itself means they weren't legally forced to shut it down. Still I doubt they'd say "what no, this was just about Yuzu" to the people who just sued them.
 

BlackTron

Member
The FUD this lawsuit created is a lot more harmful to the emulator scene than development of Yuzu being shut down.

I really can't understand Nintendo fans that are cheering on Emulation being shut down though. I know in my heart it's a fanboy thing but it just seems so crazy to me that it's hard to properly understand.
Cheering for it is definitely weird, but my presumption is that most of these people lack either the hardware or mind to use emulators and just take a morally superior stance against those getting a free benefit that they don't have.

I think both extremes are silly, cheering when an emulator get killed, and also immediately blasting Nintendo whenever they make a move to protect their IP. It's a bit more nuanced than that. Right now, the law allows emulators, and you can just silently take advantage of them how you see fit. So if you like that arrangement, you should have a problem with idiot devs of Yuzu and Dolphin begging to spark a new precedent in court that could devastate the entire emulation scene. You can't profit off of piracy methods. Everyone knows that 2.5 million came from people supporting Yuzu instead of buying copies of TOTK and Switches. It is rightfully Nintendo's money and it's a better emu scene without making it so easy to demonstrate as a criminal enterprise.
 

Pejo

Member
Cheering for it is definitely weird, but my presumption is that most of these people lack either the hardware or mind to use emulators and just take a morally superior stance against those getting a free benefit that they don't have.

I think both extremes are silly, cheering when an emulator get killed, and also immediately blasting Nintendo whenever they make a move to protect their IP. It's a bit more nuanced than that. Right now, the law allows emulators, and you can just silently take advantage of them how you see fit. So if you like that arrangement, you should have a problem with idiot devs of Yuzu and Dolphin begging to spark a new precedent in court that could devastate the entire emulation scene. You can't profit off of piracy methods. Everyone knows that 2.5 million came from people supporting Yuzu instead of buying copies of TOTK and Switches. It is rightfully Nintendo's money and it's a better emu scene without making it so easy to demonstrate as a criminal enterprise.
Yea I agree, it's definitely a nuanced discussion. I also think that Nintendo deserves some flak (not necessarily blame, but flak) for not providing decent hardware upgrades for a better experience than what the now 5 year old Switch can muster. It's not the same playing field as gaming was in the NES/SNES days. They choose to keep the tech way behind on their consoles now to maximize profit on each sale, which is their decision to make. But - I also see why people would choose to play games in a superior experience with higher resolution/framerates and other advantages that Emulators offer like save states etc.

For TotK you know they released it on the Switch, knowing that Switch 2 is on the way, and want to sell you the same game again on Switch 2. And the shitty thing is that you know it still won't play as well as it does on a modest mid-range PC right now.

I hate to be the broken record this time and bring out Gaben's old quote, but in my eyes at least it really is a service problem (in this case providing hardware that enables the game to run unimpeded) moreso than people just not wanting to pay for the game. The problem is that the line blurs a bit because there's no way to tell how many people wanted 60FPS vs. just wanted to play the game without paying for it.

I just hope that due to this not going to court, no precedent has been made for future emulators as long as they take precautions on the main bullet points that Nintendo went after this time. If we get to leave greedy corps like Nintendo in charge of game preservation and being able to hold old games hostage, it's gonna get dire.
 

SHA

Member
Oh seriously, fuck Nintendo for Citra. You aren't even making the 3DS anymore let alone have a market for 2nd hand units to buy stuff digitally nor are you even emulating on the switch like you did WiiU, what's the goal here other than sending a message that's way too late?
They just want support, they don't care about older gamers.
 

BlackTron

Member
Yea I agree, it's definitely a nuanced discussion. I also think that Nintendo deserves some flak (not necessarily blame, but flak) for not providing decent hardware upgrades for a better experience than what the now 5 year old Switch can muster. It's not the same playing field as gaming was in the NES/SNES days. They choose to keep the tech way behind on their consoles now to maximize profit on each sale, which is their decision to make. But - I also see why people would choose to play games in a superior experience with higher resolution/framerates and other advantages that Emulators offer like save states etc.

For TotK you know they released it on the Switch, knowing that Switch 2 is on the way, and want to sell you the same game again on Switch 2. And the shitty thing is that you know it still won't play as well as it does on a modest mid-range PC right now.

I hate to be the broken record this time and bring out Gaben's old quote, but in my eyes at least it really is a service problem (in this case providing hardware that enables the game to run unimpeded) moreso than people just not wanting to pay for the game. The problem is that the line blurs a bit because there's no way to tell how many people wanted 60FPS vs. just wanted to play the game without paying for it.

I just hope that due to this not going to court, no precedent has been made for future emulators as long as they take precautions on the main bullet points that Nintendo went after this time. If we get to leave greedy corps like Nintendo in charge of game preservation and being able to hold old games hostage, it's gonna get dire.

Dude Switch isn't 5 years old, it's 7! Sure I absolutely understand people wanting a workaround for its hardware limitations, especially for a game like TOTK where it made a massive difference in an important game. Just don't sell the circumvention method. Splicing apart how many people didn't pay vs. simply wanted 60FPS is unnecessary.

It's impossible to say but I would conjecture that leaking early did not hurt TOTK sales. In fact it may have helped. It exponentially increased its hype and publicity pre-launch, which as we all know turned out very successful. Because we can't do alternate timelines we can't say whether TOTK would have sold less or more copies without this leak. Ultimately it doesn't matter because the point is to not be so blatantly stupid that you profit off the piracy tools.
 

ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
Why don't PC gamers just buy Nintendo hardware?
the-simpsons-jay-sherman.gif
 

StereoVsn

Member
"We've always been again piracy but we delivered a software that the sole purpose is to play illegally downloaded / ripped games (yes ripping the games you own is still illegal) and we made millions $ with premium Yuzu paid version but it was to play homebrews pfff"... Seriously those guys.
I don’t think that Ripping games you own hasn’t been proved to be illegal under DCMCA as long as you don’t disseminate those copies and it’s for your own use.

At least in US. I am not certain about Lawson other parts of the world.
 

ReyBrujo

Member
older emulators are safe though right? stuff like snes9x, bsnes and so on
Well, using roms from games you don't own is still piracy but the emulators themselves are not targeted because they don't give any excuse to Nintendo for them to be targeted. Also those old consoles didn't have a DRM or encryption-like schemes that you had to defeat in order to rip or play games, there wasn't a "master key" needed to load the games, there wasn't copy protection to defeat (which is what is usually the content topic when emulating). So, they should be safe (but with Nintendo or any other company who knows).

Nintendo swimming against the current as always. Once a system is emulated, it can't be un-emulated :messenger_tears_of_joy:
It can be stopped from advancing which is what they care about. And more important ↓

But it's not directly started in the lawsuit. I agree that Nintendo would more than likely ask them to take it down once they realized the same company was being both emulators, but it not being in the lawsuit itself means they weren't legally forced to shut it down. Still I doubt they'd say "what no, this was just about Yuzu" to the people who just sued them.
Usually this comes with the "you will never ever touch our software or hardware again" kind of clause. This means they are effectively banning these guys from developing new emulators. And losing that know-how is extremely important for Nintendo as they were surely the ones that would have put a Switch 2 emulator the fastest.
 

bigdad2007

Member
Cheering for it is definitely weird, but my presumption is that most of these people lack either the hardware or mind to use emulators and just take a morally superior stance against those getting a free benefit that they don't have.

I think both extremes are silly, cheering when an emulator get killed, and also immediately blasting Nintendo whenever they make a move to protect their IP. It's a bit more nuanced than that. Right now, the law allows emulators, and you can just silently take advantage of them how you see fit. So if you like that arrangement, you should have a problem with idiot devs of Yuzu and Dolphin begging to spark a new precedent in court that could devastate the entire emulation scene. You can't profit off of piracy methods. Everyone knows that 2.5 million came from people supporting Yuzu instead of buying copies of TOTK and Switches. It is rightfully Nintendo's money and it's a better emu scene without making it so easy to demonstrate as a criminal enterprise.
Part of the issue is you have stuff like Emudeck making setting up the emulators super easy.

As in as long as you found a place to download the games (and yuzu devs and their community were actively pointing people to both games and the keys to use them) it was super simple to use.

To the point where I think normies had started to catch on. And that is when companies usually act, when it gets high profile enough and easy enough that the average moron can figure it out. Because they are also the ones that will pirate/steal with impunity.
 

ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
Part of the issue is you have stuff like Emudeck making setting up the emulators super easy.

As in as long as you found a place to download the games (and yuzu devs and their community were actively pointing people to both games and the keys to use them) it was super simple to use.

To the point where I think normies had started to catch on. And that is when companies usually act, when it gets high profile enough and easy enough that the average moron can figure it out. Because they are also the ones that will pirate/steal with impunity.
As I said before, the difficulty of installing and setting up emulators is a feature, not a bug.

Anyone who tries to reverse that situation and put emulators onto Google Play store or Steam is asking for a conflict, because Nintendo has to act when every normie's phone starts running their games.

And if you look at it, the only incentive to make emulation one-click for the masses is to turn a profit. Yuzu was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on Patreon, so they had a strong incentive to keep that growth and spread the emulator to every person. They knowingly boosted profits massively when TOTK was being pirated ahead of release, which Nintendo noted by showing how their Patreon doubled in those days.

This is why profit and emulation don't belong together. And I stand by the opinion that Yuzu devs and their greed threatened the status of emulation for us all, and burning them to the ground so they exit the scene is the best outcome for everyone who cares about emulation and preservation in the future.
 

Sorcerer

Member
This statement certainly sounds like a gun was put to their heads. We didn't realize our tech can circumvent Nintendo Security. Sure Jan!!!
Why not throw in the classic "Homebrew" defense? Oldie but goody.

They seem to have gotten a slap on the wrist compared to that one guy Nintendo sent to Jail and cannot possibly pay off his debt in his lifetime. Possibly two lifetimes in fact.
 
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It can be stopped from advancing which is what they care about. And more important ↓


Usually this comes with the "you will never ever touch our software or hardware again" kind of clause. This means they are effectively banning these guys from developing new emulators. And losing that know-how is extremely important for Nintendo as they were surely the ones that would have put a Switch 2 emulator the fastest.
Advancing what? Last I checked I can play anything there in 8k with uncapped FPS and HDR...
The knowledge is out there and every time they skimp on the hardware to put out an underpowered system, they are very vulnerable to being emulated, even through brute force methods.
It's a problem of their own making, there's a reason why the PS4 and PS5 can't be emulated even today...
 

ReyBrujo

Member
Advancing what? Last I checked I can play anything there in 8k with uncapped FPS and HDR...
The knowledge is out there and every time they skimp on the hardware to put out an underpowered system, they are very vulnerable to being emulated, even through brute force methods.
It's a problem of their own making, there's a reason why the PS4 and PS5 can't be emulated even today...
Eventual bug fixes or fully support for other games. And most important, these guys (or gals) were the ones who would have been closer to creating an emulator for the Switch 2 out of anyone else simply because they already had the know-how for the first generation.

The Switch was easily emulated because the Tegra chip had a shitton of documentation. Literally you didn't have to reverse engineer anything, you knew everything from it because for all purposes it was a stock chip. Yes, Nintendo puts hardware that's obsolete by the time it hits the street, it's part of their strategy as they don't have other business units to rely on if they get in red numbers as Sony or Microsoft. And yes, people also target them because it's usually the second system for gamers and they usually don't want to spend money on it when they only want to play a few first party games. It's the way it is, they won't put something PS5-like just to make it harder to crack.

As for the Playstation brand... well, in software we know that Microsoft was rather permissible with the cracking and pirate distribution of Office in general and Word in particular in the middle and late nineties because they used it as a Trojan horse: They wanted the Word format to proliferate, they wanted people sending Word documents via emails so that, if you didn't own Word, you would have to buy or download a copy of it. By early 2000s literally every document was Word, every spreadsheet was Excel. Once the formats were everywhere they started working on their protection schemes. I have a feeling that with the Playstation it was similar, the PS1 was rather simple to crack, the discs were rather trivial to copy. They (I guess) considered the risk of piracy and asserted that it was worth the risk in order to take on Nintendo. And after the PS brand was established they started caring about copy protection.
 
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It already is; others will post a fork somewhere and continue the work.

But they surely won't be as stupid as Yuzu, and won't set up a Patreon.

They made some very stupid moves but Patreon was probably the worst. Projects like this should be worked on from the shadows and hosted on servers in countries where copyright laws don't apply. The best part is that they stood proudly behind their "emulators are legal" stance and then ran like cowards and blamed the fans when it came time to defend that position. In the last couple of days they have done more harm to the emulation scene then anyone has over the past 30 years.
 
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ResurrectedContrarian

Suffers with mild autism
CitraVR doomed, right?
No, there's no evidence at all of other Citra forks or subprojects being taken down. Only the Yuzu-owned project pages are down since Yuzu can't be involved in emulation anymore.

In fact, the CitraVR port is alive and well on Github, with new commits today and a mention of restoring backups of the Citra dependencies so that it no longer relies on the defunct Yuzu-hosted Citra repo.
 

Kenpachii

Member
They made some very stupid moves but Patreon was probably the worst. Projects like this should be worked on from the shadows and hosted on servers in countries where copyright laws don't apply. The best part is that they stood proudly behind their "emulators are legal" stance and then ran like cowards and blamed the fans when it came time to defend that position. In the last couple of days they have done more harm to the emulation scene then anyone has over the past 30 years.

It's mindboggling how they even had a company registered in the US to develop the emulators. Like how ballsy can u get really.
 

Fredrik

Member
I have friends who pirate everything. No surprise here. But I also think there are legitimate users who just want to play their games at higher framerates and resolution. Maybe if Nintendo stopped using weak hardware and didn’t stay on the same generation with no update for 8 years there would be no interest in these emulators.
 

StereoVsn

Member
Speaking of that, I was randomly browsing Aliexpress today and I saw they were selling “refurbished” DSes for like $30. I’m tempted to buy one just to see how legit or fake it is.
That would be interesting to see what the heck is in there. Keep us posted!
 

Spyxos

Gold Member
Wait what? You could emulate 3ds the whole time? Was the 3d effect also simulated? I miss a few games and since I don't have 3ds anymore I would like to play them again.
 

StereoVsn

Member
I have 2 OG switches, an OLED and a lite. Plus 3 3DSs. Why don't Nintendo games just by a PC to have a better experience?
Yep, I got a ton of Nintendo consoles. On the switch side got OG, the revised version, Lite and OLED switches. Kids use two of those.

I also have two New 3DS XLs, and two DSI XLs. And a ton of Nintendo games. I emulate them to get better graphical fidelity and performance and not to pirate.

I also have couple of GameCubes, an SNES, super famicom, and a few other odd bits and ends stored.

Come on folks, let’s repeat here, Emulation != Piracy. Most people pirating games wouldn’t buy them in the first place otherwise.
 
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