End of Switch Skyline emulator after a strike by Nintendo

Last May we talked about playing switch games on cell phones thanks to the arrival of the Skyline emulator on Android. Unfortunately, this dream was short-lived. Nintendo has already started to take measures against developers and their access to game keys from Switch consoles. This is the end for Skyline, at least temporarily. The service is still available on their site though.

A problem with Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Skyline

The Skyline emulator is one of the most well-known ones capable of allowing you to play Nintendo Switch games on other devices like your phone. It was already possible to play games like Celeste, Sonic Mania and Super Mario Odyssey on Android thanks to them. However, Nintendo and its proprietary system weren't going to let it go on forever.

This week, it's the pressure around the Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom leaks that finally broke the Japanese video game giant. After chasing gameplay leaks on social networks and Discord servers with strikes, Nintendo is attacking the Skyline emulator. Indeed, Nintendo would have used its right to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act(DMCA) against Lockpick RCM, a system for obtaining Switch keys from your own console used by Skyline.

Skyline emulator closed after DMCA

In the end, Skyline took a big hit with this DMCA. However, the developers say they believed they were in the clear by using Lockpick, which only allows you to get keys from your own console and not to be used by hackers to access stolen keys. While waiting for the legal sky to fall, the developers have decided to stop the development of Skyline for an indefinite period of time. However, the Skyline emulator is not the only entity targeted as Nintendo has rained down its DMCA for GitHub with various targets.

Copyright infringement is an increasingly tense subject on the Internet and in the video game market with content-generating AIs, Youtube videos and, more broadly, leaks on social networks. However, few texts except the DMCA really allow to protect the intellectual property of companies and to know the limit of application of these rights. So until we have clear laws in our virtual world, it's still the Wild West, and the Skyline emulator is closing down after a lost ball in the fight against Zelda TotK leaks.