Good news for emulation enthusiasts: Nintendo finally acknowledges that emulators are legal. The bad news: they can quickly cross the line if misused. Let’s delve deeper.
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Emulation and Nintendo: Where Does Legality End?
At the Tokyo eSports Festa 2025, Koji Nishiura, a legal expert at Nintendo, dropped a significant (legal) bombshell by finally conceding that emulators, in themselves, are not illegal. However, hold off on popping the champagne just yet; there’s a crucial detail to consider: it all depends on what they do and how they do it. If an emulator copies copyrighted elements, bypasses anti-piracy measures, or links to pirated content, it steps into illegal territory. Essentially, there’s a fine line between being a “geek tool” and a “magnet for legal issues”.
Why Nintendo Is Getting Defensive
Nintendo’s legal team has been quite busy in recent years. Top emulation projects like Yuzu, Ryujinx, and Dolphin have been targeted. The Yuzu case is especially notable: the emulator was accused of facilitating the piracy of a million copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and its developers allegedly earned $30,000 a month from their Patreon page. The outcome: a hefty fine of $2.4 million.
Nintendo insists that its actions are not just for its own benefit. According to Koji Nishiura, they are also aimed at protecting third-party developers who create games for the company’s platforms. But let’s be honest, the company continues to lock down its ecosystem as much as possible, particularly with the upcoming release of the Switch 2.
An Endless Battle
Nintendo has been proactive in its anti-piracy efforts since as far back as 2009 when it banned R4 cards for the DS, which enabled playing pirated games. Today, it targets modern tools like “reach apps,” which simplify illegal downloading directly from emulators. Even after ending online support for the Wii U and 3DS consoles, Nintendo continues to monitor fan initiatives that aim to revive these platforms, such as Pretendo, which brings these features back to life.
It’s also worth noting that Nintendo tends to recycle its old games over and over again, whether by offering them through its Switch Online subscriptions, or by regularly releasing re-editions at premium prices.