Nintendo Switch emulator Suyu issued DMCA takedown, removed from GitLab

Nintendo Switch emulation has had a bumpy month, and it's only getting worse. Suyu, the heir apparent of the dethroned Switch emulator Yuzu, has been removed from GitLab following a DMCA takedown request.

GitLab removed the project yesterday, stating that it "received a DMCA takedown notice from a representative of the rightsholder." Per GitLab's DMCA procedures, Suyu was completely removed and its developers' accounts were blocked. This removal comes just a few days after Suyu's first public beta release.

As of press time, it is unknown who exactly issued the DMCA takedown notice. Many speculate the issuer to be a representative or lawyer for Nintendo, although some in the emulation community suspect the DMCA takedown to be faked as either a prank or as an effort to scare off the developers and get rid of another Nintendo Switch emulator. 

Suyu, which emulates Nintendo's Switch console, uses code from a previous Switch emulator known as Yuzu. Yuzu was recently sued by Nintendo for copyright violations and encouraging the piracy of Switch games. The developers behind Yuzu settled with Nintendo out of court and terminated the project roughly three weeks ago.

Nintendo technically seized control of Yuzu's code in that settlement, which may give the company the legal right to issue a DMCA takedown to any project that uses it. It is widely known that Suyu uses some of the code that went into Yuzu, although Suyu claims it does not use the same circumvention methods Yuzu did to get around Nintendo's lockout tools.

While Suyu is no longer available on GitLab, the developers have migrated the emulator to its own Git repository at git.suyu.dev. Suyu's Discord, which was closed to new invites for a brief period, is back up and accepting invites once again.

Suyu isn't the only Nintendo Switch emulator available. Ryujinx is another Switch emulator available for Windows, macOS, and Linux systems. 

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