The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake has only just officially released worldwide, but fans have already apparently somehow managed to get it running on PC instead of the native Switch 2 console it's launched for.
In the age of emulators, vibe-coded copies, and console hackers galore, it's not exactly surprising that folks have been cracking Switch games – a practice that, obviously, doesn't meet Nintendo's strict standards.
Still, it happens, and posts showing the Ocarina of Time remake running on a computer are now circulating online… and they started to do so mere hours after its global launch, which is a bit mind-boggling, to say the least.
It all started over on YouTube, it seems, where a player uploaded a recording of what appears to be the Ocarina of Time remake running on their PC, along with some handy diagnostic information noting that it hits 60 frames per second in cutscenes while the GPU temperature remains steady at around 40 degrees Celsius or so.
Although I won't dive into the details here, the player says they pulled it off via an "experimental" emulator of the Switch 2.
They do also note that no piracy was involved, as the game itself was dumped from their real copy – a wild thought, considering how quickly they seemingly got it up and running on their PC.
Commenters discuss how brain-scratching this timing truly is, with one writing, "Already at 20-30fps with 60fps cutscenes? Bro, we might be playing this on PC at a stable 60fps before GTA 6." While I'm not so sure about that, I get the whole surprise factor.
My favorite reply, however, jests, "You played the song of decompile."
It's important to remember that this might not be the, uh, best move, regardless. Back in August, Nintendo destroyed 400 Switch emulator repositories on GitHub, reminding pirates it doesn't appreciate "illegal copies of Nintendo Switch games" – and it's safe to say that nothing has changed since then.
This might be an instance of somebody using their own real, official copy and all, but ultimately, it is still an emulation.
Interested in one of this year's biggest new games yourself? Have a read through our Ocarina of Time remake preview to see why we love it so far.
