Switch emulator Ryujinx shuts down development after “contact by Nintendo”

Popular open source Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx has been removed from GitHub, and the team behind it has reportedly ceased development of the project after apparent discussions with Nintendo.

Ryujinx developer riperiperi writes on the project's Discord server and social media that fellow developer gdkchan 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 the final outcome of that negotiation is not yet public, riperiperi reports that "the organization has been removed" (presumably from GitHub) and thus "I think it's safe to say what the outcome is."

While the Ryujinx website is still up as of this writing, the download page and other links to GitHub-hosted information from that website no longer function. 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, the Ryujinx social media account last posted an announcement in March.

Followers of the Switch emulation scene may remember that March was also when the makers of the Yuzu emulator paid $2.4 million to settle a lawsuit with Nintendo over a project that Nintendo alleged was "facilitating piracy at a colossal scale."

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