Nintendo Sends DMCA Notices to GitHub Over Switch Emulators and Mod Chip Firmware

Nintendo has sent four DMCA takedown notices to GitHub targeting two Nintendo Switch emulators, Yuzu and Citron Neo, along with mod chip firmware. GitHub removed 144 repositories tied to that firmware and replaced them with DMCA notices. Nintendo's November 6 notice says the Nintendo Switch uses technological protection measures to interact only with legitimate Nintendo video game files.

What Was Removed

This is not the first time Nintendo has sent takedown notices to GitHub, and it is not the first time it has tried to take down Yuzu. The focus this time appears to be on firmware for mod chips. Mod chips such as Picofly can be soldered onto the Nintendo Switch's mainboard and flashed with this firmware to circumvent Nintendo's copy protection. According to TorrentFreak, some of that firmware still appears to be hosted elsewhere on the site.

Nintendo's Stated Reason

GitHub posted Nintendo's November 6 DMCA notice. In it, Nintendo says: "The Nintendo Switch console and video games contain technological protection measures ('TPMs') that permit the Nintendo Switch console to interact only with legitimate Nintendo video game files. This process protects Nintendo’s copyright-protected video games, (...) by preventing users from playing pirated copies of Nintendo’s video games on the Nintendo Switch console and by preventing users from unlawfully copying and playing Nintendo’s video games on unauthorized devices."

Emulation and AI Context

This takedown comes a few days after emulators were able to run the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on PC, so it could be a sign that Nintendo is winding up its lawyers to crack down on emulation once again. Back in 2024, Nintendo effectively took down 8,500 copies of Yuzu by issuing a takedown that targeted 12 different mirrors of the emulator. Emulation is described as a completely different beast in 2026 than it was even in 2024, thanks to the rise of AI. There has been a wave of AI-made mashup mods that took over Twitter for a couple of weeks, and led Anthropic to code in a lock to prevent Claude from outright copying games. Game developers have started cracking down on AI ports of games, too. Just last month Rockstar had to take down a browser version of GTA 5, and Bethesda took down an AI-generated Fallout New York game.

Sources: ign.com