Nintendo has struck another blow against Switch emulation today as the Ryujinx emulator has been shut down. The emulation scene began wondering what was going on earlier in the day on Tuesday, October 1st when the Ryujinx GitHub repository returned a 404 error. The official Ryujinx Discord also had invitations disabled around the same time.
It was speculated that Nintendo, and their far-reaching legal team, got to the Ryujinx team and forced them to cease operations. Sadly, that seems to be exactly what has happened. Specifically, Nintendo seems to have reached out to Ryujinx's creator, gdkchan, and offered him an agreement to stop the project.
A statement from one of the project's contributors was shared on the Ryujinx Discord explaining what happened with all the details that are known.
Yesterday, 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 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, who have been here through some rough circumstances and always found ways to make light of it.
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, who have been here through some rough circumstances and always found ways to make light of it.
It's not clear what sort of offer Nintendo gave to gdkchan in order to abruptly pull the plug on Ryujinx.
