Nintendo Emulator Shutdown: Pizza Emulators Removed from Google Play Store Following Lawsuit Settlement

Another popular Nintendo emulator called Pizza Emulators has been shut down, following a high-profile lawsuit settlement earlier this week. These apps allowed users to play Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color games on Android, but they were pulled from the Google Play Store on Friday.

In a Discord message shared by The Verge, developer Davide Berra stated that he is closing down the emulators in order to prioritize his family over app development.

Although Berra did not mention the recent Nintendo lawsuit settlement, it is worth noting that the creators of a well-known Nintendo Switch emulator paid $2.4 million and removed their software as part of the settlement.

The closure of the Switch emulator Yuzu has also resulted in the closure of the 3DS emulator Citra, which has upset some advocates of game preservation. They believe that while Yuzu is controversial for allowing users to play current commercially available software backups, Citra is somewhat more acceptable as it primarily focuses on archive titles no longer sold by Nintendo.

It is important to consider that Nintendo closed the 3DS eShop in March 2023, making it impossible to legally acquire the handheld’s entire library of digital games. Many of these games were eShop exclusives and have been unavailable for nearly a year now.