The open source Nintendo Switch emulator for PC, Ryujinx, is no more, following in the footsteps of Yuzu.
If you recall, Yuzu was shut down following a Nintendo lawsuit alleging 'massive intellectual property infringement of Nintendo' and 'facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.'
Ryujinx, which remained the only major emulator option on the table after Yuzu was downed, has now gone the same way as Wccftech spotted. The Ryujinx website's download page is now simply blank (and other pages have been removed too, though the site itself is still there as a shell), and the emulator can't be found on GitHub any longer.
In a message on Discord from one of the developers behind Ryujinx, we were informed that:
"Yesterday, gdkchan [lead developer] 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."
Unsurprisingly, this has not gone down too well in some parts of the gaming community.
That said, the Nintendo Switch has not got much of its reign left at this point, with the Switch 2 waiting in the wings - it could be announced imminently, in fact, with a potential launch early in 2025.
The way Nintendo has taken down these PC emulators, however, does not bode well for the prospects of Switch 2 emulation, for those keen on the possibility of running Switch games (that they've purchased) on their PC.
