Folium is a new Nintendo 3DS emulator that allows iOS owners to play classic titles on the go for a price.
Jarrod Norwell, the mastermind behind Folium, has introduced a range of pricing options for this handheld device clone, which is now available on the app store.
This might not go down well with Nintendo, which has mercilessly cracked down on anyone making money off its intellectual property, such as the now-defunct emulator Yuzu.
3DS emulator tempts fate
Norwell is the first to list a 3DS app on the iOS store for a cash profit. This is something the legal eagles at Nintendo do not tend to let slip.
He’s listed the emulator at $4.99, but it might be the last to grace the app store if Nintendo finds out about the illicit earnings.
While it’s unclear whether we could end up with a potential court legal battle, the reality is that creating clones of existing copyrighted IPs and evading legal action for an extended period is highly unlikely.
When playing games, performance can also be an issue on Apple devices, especially older versions of iPhones. It remains to be seen if the reviews of the emulator will reach Yuzu’s performance levels or it will be a cash grab for Norwell.
There is also the issue of the emulator’s existence in other online versions. So court action might remove the app store version of the 3DS clone, but it might exist elsewhere to haunt Nintendo.
Nintendo discovered that Yuzu also didn’t live in one set location. After their phyric court win, the Japanese game giant had to play whack-a-mole to take down multiple clones of the emulator.
The owners of Yuzu had their site ripped away from them, had to pay a $2.4 million fine, and were branded fraudsters. The court battle even labeled their enterprise as “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.”
The lesson of Yuzu isn’t giving Folium or Norwell pause, so Nintendo might have to get the hammers out for another round of ‘hunt-the-emulator’.
Image: Ideogram.
