They made money on their patreon and Nintendo was going to go after the fact that they had a crazy increase in patreon subscriptions in May 2023 because the early-access builds worked with Zelda ToTK before it came out.

[–] Smorty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Ah, I see. So they are being taken down because the software is future proof?

[–] Zangoose@lemmy.one 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I think they made patches for ToTK and released them in the early access build before ToTK even launched (the game files leaked online around a week or two before) so Nintendo's argument was that they were directly promoting and profiting from piracy (different from profiting from legal emulation).

Luckily because of the way they settled I don't think this actually implicates any forks that pop up so hopefully projects like suyu and whatever pops up for Citra can still continue development (not a lawyer tho)

[–] Smorty@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I mean, I had homebrew at the time and I also played it pre releases so they just let that slip through?

[–] Zangoose@lemmy.one 1 points 8 months ago

It's a lot harder to go after homebrew since there isn't anything directly linking atmosphere/hekate/etc. devs to the promotion of piracy.

Since the Yuzu team had a whole company formed to manage their patreon funds and were clearly promoting functionality for a game that hasn't been released yet, they were an easy target for Nintendo. The same thing happened with Team Xecuter's switch homebrew/mods ages ago.

If Nintendo had definitive evidence to suggest the Atmosphere devs are profiting off of piracy, they'd do the same thing in a heartbeat. Same with Ryujinx, Luma3ds, or any other form of emulation/homebrew. The only reason they don't is because they know only way they'd stand a chance in court is if they make it about piracy, copyright protection, and stolen profits.