Nintendo’s Switch is less than a year old but already an enterprising team is working on a emulator for the hybrid console.
The work is being carried out by the team behind the Citra emulator for Nintendo’s 3DS portable console, who announced on Twitter that it will be the “first Nintendo Switch emulator that does all the things you didn’t need it to do”.
Announcing yuzu, the first Nintendo Switch emulator that does all of the things you didn’t need it to do! Stay tuned for more from the yuzu team!
— yuzu (@yuzuemu) January 14, 2018
What exactly those ‘things’ will be has yet to be revealed but emulator specialists yuzu said its team will provide more details later on down the line.
Now such emulators are a bit of a grey area legally speaking, but pretty much every console ever made has been emulated for use on PCs and Android devices – Apple’s ‘walled garden’ approach to iOS means emulators can’t really get past its gates and onto the App Store.
As such, a Switch emulator was basically inevitable, and it was a matter of time before work started on one. But it’s a little surprising to see a Switch emulator so early on in the console’s lifetime, given the Switch only launched back in march 2017.
That being said at the Switch’s heart is an off-the-shelf Nvidia Tegra X1 system-on-a-chip which has a load of easily accessible documentation which should go some way to making the process of emulation a lot easier. With consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One X, custom AMD chipsets are used which can make hardware emulation a trickier proposition.
Of course, Nintendo tends to take a dim view on emulation, so we expect that yuzu could encounter a few hurdles to over come before people are able to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on a PC or Android tablet.
Realted: Samsung Galaxy S9 release
What console would you like to see get a stable emulator? Let us know on Facebook or tweet @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
