Case 1:24-cv-00082-JJM-LDADocument 1Filed 02/26/24Page 20 of 41 PageID #: 20
otherwise have to be purchased if Nintendo offered its games on the PC platform.[1] As the copyright owner of its creative games, Nintendo has the right to decide whether or when to enter the market of games for platforms other than its own console, both with respect to its current and forthcoming games and with respect to any game in its legacy collection.
58. But the harm to Nintendo caused by Defendant and Yuzu goes far beyond users making unauthorized copies of games they have lawfully purchased. On information and belief, the vast majority of Yuzu users are using Yuzu to play downloaded pirated games. On information and belief, Yuzu developers similarly test and play downloaded pirated games in Yuzu, including notably prerelease copies, without which the developers would not be able to get Nintendo Switch games running in Yuzu so quickly after release, see infra ¶¶ 71–72.[2] This piracy causes Nintendo tremendous harm, including millions of dollars of monetary harm from lost video game sales both of Nintendo’s and its licensees’ copyrighted games, and loss of goodwill.
59. Indeed, there is a robust community of intellectual property thieves who distribute pirated Nintendo Switch ROMs for the broad community who play those ROMs in Yuzu. For instance, on Reddit, a social media platform, until June 2023 there was a “Yuzu Pirates” subreddit which provided advice to would-be pirates and links to online ROM repositories where users could download pirated games for play in Yuzu; “Happy pirating!”, read the subreddit description. That subreddit alone had over 70,000 members. And non- members could see the advice and ROM repository links, so the number of people who accessed those links likely dwarfed the number of members. In June 2023, Reddit banned the
- ↑ As a clear demonstration of this, certain of Nintendo’s third-party licensees release their games not only on the Nintendo Switch but also on PCs and other platforms. If users wish to lawfully play those games on multiple platforms, they must buy the games separately for each platform. See, e.g., Jesse Lennox, All cross-platform games (PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC), DigitalTrends (Feb. 16, 2024), https://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/all-cross-platform-games/ (compiling list of games available (for purchase) on multiple platforms including the Nintendo Switch).
- ↑ As discussed below, prelease copies are played by Yuzu users too, which Defendant and its agents know and encourage.
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