Yuzu is a popular Switch emulator, one that earlier this week decided to add limited online multiplayer support for its games. A decision it swiftly reversed.
Not long after announcing the move, the developers posted on the emulator’s blog that the service was being disconnected, while apologizing “to our community for the confusion and disappointment surrounding this release”.
We are saddened to report that we have removed online support from yuzu, indefinitely, and effective immediately. We apologize to our community for the confusion and disappointment surrounding this release, and especially to those who were excited to try this feature.
We have received valid and insightful feedback from our fans and members of the broader Switch and emulation communities. Truthfully, we are all just a bunch of enthusiastic people from around the globe, who were genuinely excited about something we thought we could offer. In hindsight, we 100% understand your concerns.
As always, we will continue working on other features and improvements within yuzu, to make it the best emulator we possibly can. Thank you to everyone who has continued to support us, provided us feedback and been open to constructive discussion on this topic. Now, as always, we value your opinions.
– The yuzu development team
While they don’t specifically list what the “insightful feedback” was, one small thing might have been the fact that emulators trade on the pretence they’re about homebrew, preservation, or playing games you already owned. Not fucking around with friends online playing games you may not have paid for.
The other, more common piece of feedback was probably the dangers inherent in Yuzu making the service available only to their Patreon subscribers, in effect making it what could be considered a paid service, which in turn would have sounded a giant klaxon somewhere deep within the bowels of Nintendo HQ.
(Updated 3/3/22 with new details)