Popular open source Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx has been removed from GitHub and the team behind it has reportedly stopped developing the project after apparent discussions with Nintendo.
Ryujinx developer riperiperi writes on the project's Discord server and on social media that developer gdkchan was “contacted by Nintendo and offered a deal to stop working on the project, delete the organization and all related assets that is under control.” While the final outcome of that negotiation is not yet public, ripiperi reports that “the organization has been removed” (presumably from GitHub) and therefore “I think it's safe to say what the outcome is.”
While the Ryujinx website is still active as of this writing, the download page and other links to GitHub-hosted information from that Website no longer work. The developers behind the project have not posted a regular progress report update since January after posting similar updates almost every month throughout 2023. Before today, Ryujinx's social media account last posted an announcement in March.
Followers of the Switch emulation scene will remember that March was also when the creators of the Yuzu emulator paid $2.4 million to settle a lawsuit with Nintendo over a project that Nintendo claimed was “facilitating piracy on a colossal scale.” “.
What's left?
The Suyu Switch emulator, which emerged as a “legal gray area” Yuzu fork shortly after Suyu's removal, is still available on its own self-hosted servers as of this writing (although the latest stable version of the project now has six months). Nintendo previously targeted Suyu's GitLab hosting via a DMCA takedown and then removed the project's official Discord server with a similar request. Another notable Yuzu fork, Sudachi, was removed from GitHub in July via a DMCA request.
In the wake of those legal efforts against other Switch emulator developers, the Ryujinx developers posted an automated message to their Discord server in response to any questions about Ryujinx's ultimate fate. “Nothing is happening to Ryujinx,” the message said. “We know nothing more than you. There is no condemnation.”
A video of a Ryujinx feature in development that enables wired local multiplayer between an emulator and official hardware.
Riperiperi reports that development will now stop at “a working Android port” of the emulator, which was not yet ready for release, as well as an iOS tech demo version that would likely have remained a “novelty” due to the newcomer from Apple. compile time restrictions. The developers were also working on updates that would have enabled local wired multiplayer gaming connections between Ryujinx and the actual Switch hardware.
“While I won't be staying in the switch scene either, I still believe in emulation as a whole, and I hope other developers won't be deterred by this,” riperiperi writes in the project's Discord. “The future of game preservation depends on individuals, and perhaps one day it will be properly recognized.”
According to the developers, “starting in May 2024, Ryujinx [had] has been tested on approximately 4,300 titles; more than 4,100 boots[ed] past and in-game menus, and approximately 3,550 of them are considered playable.”