Nintendo has flexed its legal muscle yet again as the company has issued takedown notices to several Switch emulator repositories hosted on GitHub. Although Nintendo's suppression of emulation remained an ongoing issue, users debated what implications it might have for emulation enthusiasts going forward.
It's no secret that Nintendo is protective of its intellectual property, given the company's legal history in its ongoing anti-piracy campaign. This policy applies not only to Nintendo software, but also to game consoles such as the Nintendo Switch. In September 2025, Nintendo settled a lawsuit against Modded Hardware because Nintendo claimed that Modded Hardware's products were in direct violation of its intellectual property rights. The latter company produced MiG Switch devices that allowed users to bypass Nintendo's anti-piracy measures on Switch consoles. The settlement awarded Nintendo $2 million and a permanent injunction was sought against Modded Hardware.
Some Switch 1 owners are not happy with the upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Some Switch 1 owners are unhappy with the Switch 2 version of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, reflecting broader concerns about Nintendo's product strategy.
Nintendo issues a DMCA takedown notice for switching emulator repositories
Although emulators are considered legal, that hasn't stopped Nintendo from citing piracy as a way to crack down on them. According to a post on the Emulation on Android subreddit, GitHub repositories for several Nintendo Switch emulators, including Citron, Eden, and Kenji-X, have received takedown notices filed under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The takedown notice stated that any GitHub repositories that did not comply with Nintendo's claims would be completely disabled. Emulators who were served with a takedown notice only had one day to comply with Nintendo's request. However, Nintendo's most recent DMCA notices were limited to what was hosted on GitHub. In short, no Switch emulators currently hosted on a separate server or repository were affected by Nintendo's latest legal filing. In response to doubts and concerns raised by users, some emulator developers confirmed that the DMCA takedown notices from Nintendo and GitHub were legitimate. Users of the Switch emulator have been urged to back up what they've downloaded.
This isn't the first time Nintendo has taken legal action against Switch emulators. In 2024, Nintendo settled a lawsuit with Tropic Haze, the creators of the Yuzu emulator. Nintendo said Yuzu's popularity as a Switch emulator affected sales The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom during the game's launch in 2023. Nintendo settled with Tropic Haze for $2.4 million and Yuzu ended development as part of its agreement with Nintendo. Yuzu also handed over control of all its websites to Nintendo, although the emulator's developers said they were against piracy from the start.
Nintendo's anti-piracy campaign remains an ongoing battle
Nintendo's latest effort to protect its IP is just part of an ongoing campaign against piracy in video games and mass media. In July 2025, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) seized one of the largest Switch piracy sites. The pirate site known as NSw2u was taken down in a joint operation between the FBI and the Dutch Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD). Since the pirated Switch ROMs were hosted by NSw2u, the removal was one of Nintendo's biggest steps in fighting piracy around the world. The removal comes just one month after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 console, which saw a successful worldwide release on June 6, 2025.
As part of its anti-piracy efforts, Nintendo released a 2025 policy update that stated the company could “repair” modified Switch and Switch 2 consoles it believed were being used illegitimately. Although this measure was seen as overreaching by users, it did not have a widespread impact on sales of the Switch 2 console. With the Switch 2 still a hot commodity, time will tell what else Nintendo will do in its ongoing campaigns to protect its IPs.
