Nintendo gets over 400 Switch emulator repositories removed from GitHub

4 hours agoFeatured Tech News, Software & Gaming

After successfully taking down the Yuzu and Ryujinx Switch emulators back in 2024, Nintendo has had to deal with an increasing number of clones popping up. This week, Nintendo carried out its biggest takedown effort yet, hitting more than 400 GitHub repositories housing Switch emulation tools.

According to TorrentFreak, Nintendo filed seven DMCA anti‑circumvention notices in a single day, targeting multiple Yuzu derivatives, Skyline, MonoNX and other revived or mirrored repositories. GitHub processed the notices across entire repo networks, resulting in hundreds of removals.

Nintendo’s biggest removal centred on Suyu, which is a revival of the now defunct Yuzu emulator project. Roughly 311 repositories linked to Suyu were taken down, the largest of the bunch. Aside from that, Skyline, which is a Switch emulator for Android, was also targeted, as well as MonoNX, which is a slightly lesser-known Switch emulator built with C# code.

In each filing, Nintendo states that the targeted emulators use unauthorized cryptographic keys to decrypt Switch game ROMs, forming the basis of its DMCA anti‑circumvention claims. Unfortunately for Nintendo, the code for many of these projects has been copied so many times that additional copycats are bound to pop back up, leading to a constant game of cat and mouse between emulation enthusiasts and Nintendo’s lawyers.

KitGuru Says: I’m not sure Nintendo will ever truly be able to stamp out Switch emulation at this point, but at the very least, it can ensure emulators aren’t available on more mainstream platforms like GitHub.