A Ryujinx representative posted an update on Discord claiming that Nintendo “contacted Ryujinx's lead developer, gdkchan, and offered him a deal to stop working on the project” and delete it from the internet. “While awaiting confirmation on whether they will accept this deal, the organization has been removed, so I think it's safe to say what the outcome is,” wrote the representative, who goes by the name riperiperi online. Like Yuzu, Ryujinx is a program that allows people to play Nintendo Switch games on Windows PC, macOS, and Linux systems. The emulator supports more than 3,400 games, according to the Ryujinx website, which is still online, although the link to download the program now leads to an empty page. Most other pages, such as guides, FAQs, and a compatibility list, no longer work. Ryujinx's Patreon, where it has over 800 members and earns $1,661 a month, is still active as of this writing.
Polygon has contacted Nintendo for more information. Polygon's attempts to contact Ryujinx developers have been unsuccessful.
Several developers posted on the Discord announcement and other channels to talk about the closure. “I hope I was able to bring some joy to the people I helped over the years or with the (now defunct) FAQ I wrote,” wrote one team member, whose Discord username is metrosexualgarbodor. “The first time you run an emulator on a PC, then play a full game and forget you're emulating it, it's a truly magical experience and, for me, life-changing.”
Although emulators like Ryujinx and Yuzu do not encourage the use of illegally pirated Nintendo Switch games, they have drawn the ire of Nintendo for allowing players to access those games. When The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Leaked online before its release, download links directed people to Yuza to play it, Nintendo said in its lawsuit: It alleges that the game was downloaded more than 1 million times and 20% of the download links referenced to Yuzu.
Emulators aren't necessarily just for playing pirated games; Many people use them to play games they already own, but on a platform they otherwise wouldn't be able to. Emulators are also considered important for game preservation: they can often be the only way to play old games that have been taken offline.