Switch emulator Ryujinx taken down after alleged contact with Nintendo

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There is no court case this time around— which is probably best for the Ryujinx developers and emulation community.

An in-progress Ryujinx emulation feature to connect to real Switch consoles, revealed post-shutdown.
An in-progress Ryujinx emulation feature to connect to real Switch consoles, revealed post-shutdown. (Image credit: Ryujinx)

Following Nintendo's bombshell success against the Yuzu Switch emulator in court earlier this year and the subsequent Yuzu repo takedown spree, it seems that some direct contact with the lead developers of the Ryujinx Switch emulator was all it took to prompt the voluntary removal of all current and past Ryujinx downloads— no court case required.

According to a Discord message written for the Ryujinx server (and reposted to the Ryujinx Twitter with additional context, embedded below), developer gdkchan was the one directly contacted by Nintendo, who offered an unspecified "agreement to stop working on the project, remove the organization and all related assets he's in control of."

Nintendo finally finding a way to kill Ryujinx shouldn't be all that surprising. Also, within the past few days, Nintendo has been seen significantly upping the ante against emulation to the point where even random YouTubers like Retro Game Corps are being hit with copyright strikes for showcasing Nintendo console emulation, per Time Extension. While no additional court cases have yet to be brought against YouTubers or emulation developers, it's clear that Nintendo is eager to swing its weight around now that Yuzu is out of the picture.

Some argue that Ryujinx might have had better chances in court since the Ryujinx devs didn't make all the same mistakes as Yuzu devs. However, considering the shaky legal status of emulation, it's probably best for the entire community that Ryujinx didn't take this to court, lest a new legal precedent be set and weaponized against game preservation. It's likely also best for the developers, who almost certainly did not have the budget for a legal battle with The Big N.

On a bittersweet note, the Ryujinx developers also shared several in-progress features in the Twitter thread that would have eventually come to Ryujinx had it not been unceremoniously killed. These features included working Android and iOS ports, connecting an emulated console to an actual console for networking purposes, and starting to run native Switch applets. These are the highlights shared of "over 100 unmerged PRs" before the death of Ryujinx.

Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • newtechldtech
    ThisIsBeans said:
    Ryujinx is based in Brazil, where copyright laws are a lot different and it would be almost impossible for Nintendo to sue. What likely happened is Nintendo lawyers flew out to brazil, showed up to the house of the frontman of the project with a briefcase full of cash, and all he had to do was shutdown the project, and sign a piece of paper. He took the offer, and that was it

    The likely reason nintendo shutdown Yuzu/Ryu is because the Switch 2 architecture is probably very similar to the original switch, and they didnt want Switch 2 emulation available day 1. Switch 2 emulation will build on top of Yuzu/Ryu, kind of like how dolphin supports both gamecube and wii. It's the same type of thing with Yuzu/Ryujinx

    When Yuzu shutdown, there was never any major development team assembled to carry a fork of the project. While forks exist, they arent in heavy development. This is because everyone said... well who cares, we can just use Ryu. Now that both are gone, and there is not switch emulator being developed at all, I think you will see a development team assembled, likely from both projects, and one of the two will be forked and carried on. Someone will pick up one of the projects and put a good development team together.

    Either way, Switch 2 emulation will happen early in Switch 2 life cycle because the ground work is already laid, which will just require some tweaking. It helps that we already know what the hardware will be for the Switch 2, so it really wont be a crazy amount of work to get a Switch 2 emulator up and running within a few months of Switch 2 release
    paid ? I dont think so ... If Nintendo opens this door, you will find an emulator appears every few months waiting to be paid by Nintendo..

    and please tell me how it is impossible to sue them in Brazil ? show me the laws ? or you just bluff the bluff .
    Reply
  • ezst036
    It's always Nintendo.
    Reply
  • scottslayer
    The pay off was confirmed by one of the developers on Discord.
    Nintendo went to the project owner GDK's house and paid him to kill it.
    Reply
  • husker
    scottslayer said:
    The pay off was confirmed by one of the developers on Discord.
    Nintendo went to the project owner GDK's house and paid him to kill it.
    Nintendo: We know where you live
    Reply