Nintendo shuts down Ryujinx, the last major Switch emulator after Yuzu
Nintendo has reportedly succeeded in taking down Ryujinx, the second major Nintendo Switch emulator following Yuzu, which was also previously shut down by a lawsuit from Nintendo in March, leaving Ryujinx as its last significant competitor. The Ryujinx download page, GitHub repository, and official Discord have been removed, signaling the project's end.
The lead developer of Ryujinx, gdkchan, was contacted by Nintendo and reportedly offered an agreement to cease development and remove all associated assets. Discord moderator ripinperiperi shared that while awaiting confirmation from gdkchan, the organization was removed, implying the agreement was likely accepted. Ripinperiperi’s message included a farewell to Ryujinx, Highlighting unreleased developments that clearly will never see the light of day, like iOS and Android ports of the emulator.
Though emulation is legal, Nintendo's lawsuits and DMCA requests have overwhelmed indie developers, and without clear legal protection for emulation and preservation, Nintendo is likely to continue its efforts to eliminate emulation as a whole.
- Game Emulator
- Free • Open Source
External links
- Ryujinx's Thread on X@RyujinxEmu on X • Official source
- Ryujinx emulator taken down after devs reach agreement with NintendoGBATemp
- Nintendo has reportedly shut down Ryujinx, the Switch emulator that was supposedly immuneThe Verge
- Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx shuts down after pressureUSA TODAY
Comments
I can imagine a dystopian future where emulation software will be shared like pirated games, on torrent networks and the like
Future developers please learn from this and use better tools to protect your anonymity and resilience I've written a french article on how it could be done and made an AlternativeTo list
Blog article (french) : https://lunar.bearblog.dev/developper-anonymement-et-de-maniere-resiliente-pour-eviter-une-attaque-yuzu-ryujinx-yt-dl-etc/ List : Wtf I can't find it...
Tried recreating it but it never saves even if it says so...
While I understand than switch emulator can be a little threat to Nintendo business, I do think that Nintendo is anti-consumer and that they don't realize the chance they have with their community dedicating so much time to work for free to make Nintendo IP's living and preserving games
Nintendo is famously aggressive in defending its intellectual property, going back to the original Game Genie in the 1990s. The emulation of current generation consoles is always a thorny issue, especially when the hardware and software being emulated is still commercially available and has the potential to affect profitability. (UltraHLE caused a major stir back in the time of the N64, for instance.) At the same time, emulation is crucial to preserving our digital history and memories. I'd like to see Nintendo take a more nuanced approach, but they aren't showing any signs of slowing down right now.