Close the Ryujinx emulator for Nintendo Switch.

A new blow has struck the world of Nintendo console emulators, as Ryujinx, a Nintendo Switch emulator, has ceased its operations. An announcement on the Ryujinx development Discord channel confirmed the news, detailing that the lead developer, known as "gdkchan," received a request from Nintendo to stop work on the project and remove the organization along with all related assets under their control. Although Nintendo offered some form of settlement, the specific terms have not been disclosed.

The message, which was shared via X (formerly Twitter) by a news aggregator, mentions that gdkchan did not communicate his decision to at least another developer who used the pseudonym "riperiperi," who posted the statement. Since then, all download links have been removed from the official site, and the GitHub directory has been archived, becoming a read-only platform. "Thank you all for following us throughout the development," riperiperi expressed. "I have learned many fascinating things about games I love; I enjoy them with new qualities and in unique circumstances, and I'm sure everyone has had equally special experiences."

This closure of Ryujinx comes after signs of issues with the application and errors on the GitHub platform. Some users on the subreddit suggested that the site might have been hacked or that there was a technical problem, although other messages on Discord confirmed that it was not a legal action from Nintendo. This is not the first Switch emulator forced to cease operations following Nintendo's intervention; previously, Yuzu, a competitor, reached a settlement in March that included a payment of 2.4 million dollars and was shut down due to copyright infringement and piracy facilitation allegations.

Nintendo has also taken legal action against other developers, such as the creator of Palworld, citing patent infringements, although the details of those patents were not revealed.