PopularNintendo Switchemulator Yuzu is now available for download on select Android devices. Its mobile port appeared on the Google Play Store this Tuesday, arriving amid Nintendo’s latest emulation crackdown that even saw ithit Valve with a DMCA takedown noticeconcerning the Dolphin emulator’s Steam launch.
Just several weeks beforehand, Skyline, a popular Switch emulator for Android, ceased development after its creators learned they were possibly violating Nintendo’s copyright by using Lockpick_RCM. This tool for dumping Switch encryption keys also stopped development in early May following a DMCA takedown notice. The emulation community is speculating that the measure was issued in response to anearly copy ofTears of the Kingdomleaking10 days before the game’s May 12 release, although there’s been no confirmation that the takedown was actually instigated by Nintendo.
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And while it might appear that the Yuzu team decided to fill the Android-native Switch emulation void left by Skyline, the timing of its release is likely accidental, as ports of such complex software don’t happen overnight. The official website of the project implies as much, revealing that the developers have been planning a mobile version of the Switch emulator for some time now. Android users looking to legally emulateNintendo Switchon their smartphones and tablets with Yuzu will have to dump their consoles' decryption keys and game ROMs themselves.
While the Switch’s Tegra X1 processor was barely on par with mid-range mobile chips back when the hybrid console was released in 2017, emulating it on smartphones and tablets still requires fairly bleeding-edge hardware six years later. More specifically, the initial mobile build of Yuzu has only been tested on Snapdragon chips from Qualcomm equipped with Adreno GPUs. For best results, it’s recommended to use the Snapdragon 800-series chipsets, which are mostly reserved for thebest Android gaming smartphones, as well as conventional flagships.
The developers suspect that high-end Samsung devices from the last 18 months—those using the Exynos 2200 or a newer chip—might also offer acceptable performance in many games. However, the Yuzu team hasn’t yet tested that theory, as such smartphones and tablets are only available in a few (predominantly European) markets.
Be that as it may, the portable port of Yuzu is still a big boon to mobile gaming and an important milestone for emulation, in general. Its arrival should also help soften some of the blows that the emulation community suffered this spring, which started whenMicrosoft restricted emulator use on the Xbox Series X/S, and continued with the aforementioned issues with Dolphin and Skyline.
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