Switch Emulator Ryujinx reportedly shutting down.

[Selbaek]

X user "OatmealDome" - known for just posting non-biased updates on Nintendo games and services - put out a post with a Discord screenshot that appears to heavily suggest that Ryujinx was pressured by Nintendo to cease development. While I do not think there is an official statement from the Ryujinx team, the Discord post pictured is from a team member giving the details.

Discord post from user "rip in peri peri:"
Yesterday, gkdchan was contacted by Nintendo and offered an agreement to stop working on the project, remove the organization and all related assets he's in control of. While awaiting confirmation on whether he would take this agreement, the organization has been removed, so I think it's safe to say what the outcome is. Rather than leave you with only panic and speculation, I decided to write this short message to give some closure.

These words are my own. I don't want to speak for anyone else here, so just remember that while reading.

Thank you to @everyone who has contributed code, documentation or issue reports to the project. Thank you all for following us throughout the development. I was able to learn a lot of really neat things about games that I love, enjoy them with renewed qualities and in unique circumstances, and I'm sure you all have experiences that are similarly special. I'm extending my own massive thanks to our moderation team, woh have been here through some rough circumstances and always found ways to make light of it.

It's a sad day to see an emulator pressured into shutting down - or rather likely given an offer they couldn't refuse. If they in fact took an offer from Nintendo, I hope it was substantial and allows them to live comfortably for a good while. They've done some amazing work with Ryujinx, having stellar Switch emulation without a single ounce of Nintendo's code, from even the early days of Switch's existence.

And while it's sad that we won't see updates to the emulator anymore, I think it's cool that we basically have access to play all the essential Switch games in the first place. I can imagine Super Mario Party Jamboree and Mario & Luigi: Brothership will be fully playable on this last version of Ryujinx, and I don't know that we'll have any further Switch-exclusive experiences before the Successor to Switch releases... so while it's sad to see a great emulator put to rest, I believe it has done its job. Other emulators will take its place as time goes on and people are looking for further compatibility for preservation's sake.

So, here's to Ryujinx, and here's to the next generation of easily emulatable Nintendo products!

[Random Encounter]

Other emulators will take its place as time goes on and people are looking for further compatibility for preservation's sake.

I wouldn't be so quick to say this. Nintendo has been especially aggressive lately, and essentially shutting down the entire Switch emulation scene could have a chilling effect on anyone who'd take up the mantle. The pool of enthusiasts with the knowledge and skill set required to develop Switch emulation can't be too large, and I wonder how many of them would have the nerve to start a new project knowing they'll have Nintendo's immediate scrutiny.

Also, fuck Nintendo. That's all.

[Althena]

They're going to keep fighting like this until everyone who cares about this is dead, and the only people left are a new generation of people who have no clue how important things like this are.

[Selbaek]

I wouldn't be so quick to say this. Nintendo has been especially aggressive lately, and essentially shutting down the entire Switch emulation scene could have a chilling effect on anyone who'd take up the mantle. The pool of enthusiasts with the knowledge and skill set required to develop Switch emulation can't be too large, and I wonder how many of them would have the nerve to start a new project knowing they'll have Nintendo's immediate scrutiny.

Also, fuck Nintendo. That's all.

"As time goes on" is meant to mean like... 10-15 years from now or so. Nintendo isn't going to keep going after emulators of systems they no longer support. Otherwise, we'd be seeing a ton of stuff about Retroarch and the creators of the Nintendo cores that platform uses as well as plenty of others like Dolphin and Cemu.

This takedown was definitely something they did for modern, current reasons and not something they're going to be too worried about when they're 2-3 platforms ahead of Switch. Current rumors are suggesting that the reason they're so worried about it right now is that they want to nip as much of Switch emulation in the bud as they can prior to releasing their new system. It could mean that the new system will have a similar architecture - especially considering all the rumors about full backwards compatibility - and so they are just trying to erase what bit of code is publicly out there to circumvent as much as they can.

If this is actually the case, I think it's a wasted effort as people have backups and copies of Ryujinx as it was an open-sourced project. Someone else will rise to the occasion. In fact, I would say many others will try to rise to the occasion in attempts to garner Nintendo's attention and try to get money out of them, if the monetary offer to Ryujinx is to be believed.

There are also rumors out there that Nintendo's lawyers physically went to gkdchan's home in Brazil to extend said offer. I don't know that I believe that, personally.

[Random Encounter]

"As time goes on" is meant to mean like... 10-15 years from now or so. Nintendo isn't going to keep going after emulators of systems they no longer support. Otherwise, we'd be seeing a ton of stuff about Retroarch and the creators of the Nintendo cores that platform uses as well as plenty of others like Dolphin and Cemu.

This takedown was definitely something they did for modern, current reasons and not something they're going to be too worried about when they're 2-3 platforms ahead of Switch. Current rumors are suggesting that the reason they're so worried about it right now is that they want to nip as much of Switch emulation in the bud as they can prior to releasing their new system. It could mean that the new system will have a similar architecture - especially considering all the rumors about full backwards compatibility - and so they are just trying to erase what bit of code is publicly out there to circumvent as much as they can.

If this is actually the case, I think it's a wasted effort as people have backups and copies of Ryujinx as it was an open-sourced project. Someone else will rise to the occasion. In fact, I would say many others will try to rise to the occasion in attempts to garner Nintendo's attention and try to get money out of them, if the monetary offer to Ryujinx is to be believed.

There are also rumors out there that Nintendo's lawyers physically went to gkdchan's home in Brazil to extend said offer. I don't know that I believe that, personally.

But they have gone after Dolphin in the past. Granted, Dolphin also had cryptographic keys baked into their code, which they've since addressed. I think that you're right in that the Switch scene will pick back up once commercial support for it ends. But I think it's bad for emulation that Nintendo can just buy off developers to kill projects, to say nothing of modern emulator developers leaning so hard on Patreon.

[The Grimace]

Well, shit. Nintendo claims another one.

I'm atleast glad that it sounds like this was resolved in a way that benefited the emulator's devs.