Ryujinx Emulator Shut Down: Nintendo's Ongoing Legal War

Nintendo has once again targeted an emulator, this time halting the development of Ryujinx, an open-source program that allowed users to play Nintendo Switch games on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

A message shared on the Ryujinx Discord server today revealed that the lead developer was approached by Nintendo with an offer to cease work on the project. While the specific terms of the agreement remain undisclosed, the deal effectively ends the development of the emulator. The same announcement was also posted on the emulator’s X (formerly Twitter) account.

pic.twitter.com/2Ggt9SWoDI

— Ryujinx (@RyujinxEmu) October 1, 2024

For those who have already installed Ryujinx, the emulator will continue to function. However, its GitHub repository has been taken down, making it unavailable for new users. This news comes just weeks after Ryujinx made headlines for running the latest release The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom at over 120 frames per second, outperforming the Nintendo Switch, which struggled with choppy frame rates in the same game.

this screenshot of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom running on Ryujinx was posted on September 12, two full weeks before the game was officially set to release

I have to imagine this kind of thing is why Nintendo takes legal action against Switch emulators pic.twitter.com/PUqbaoy7R5

— Nintendeal (@Nintendeal) October 2, 2024

Friendly reminder to not go to nsw2u and download the latest Zelda game The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

That’s not nice and Nintendo works very hard for your money and also don’t play it on Ryujinx as it works perfectly apparently pic.twitter.com/kWo135qomL

— SMGuy (@SMGuy691) September 24, 2024

Nintendo has maintained an aggressive stance against emulation, working to protect its intellectual property. In 2023, the company even partnered with a cybersecurity firm to combat game piracy. Ryujinx is just the latest target in Nintendo’s ongoing crackdown on emulators. Earlier this year, the company reached a $2.4 million settlement with Yuzu, another popular emulator. In May, Nintendo issued 8,535 DMCA takedown requests in an attempt to remove all Yuzu-related code from various GitHub repositories.