A Nintendo Switch emulator called Ryujinx appears to have halted development and gone dark after reportedly receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the gaming giant itself?
The recent high-profile shutdown of another prominent Swap emulator, Yuzu, echoes an earlier incident this year where Nintendo opted for legal action, ultimately leading to a settlement requiring the project’s cessation.
After customers noticed errors when accessing Ryujinx’s GitHub and obtain pages, or in some cases, a blank page displaying only a message, a tweet was posted on the emulator’s Discord server from developer riperiperi, which was subsequently shared by Ryujinx’s Twitter account.
Yesterday, Ryujinx’s lead developer gdkchan was approached by Nintendo and presented with a settlement to discontinue work on the project, relinquish control of the organization and its associated assets. The message read: “While awaiting confirmation on whether he would accept this settlement, the group has been eliminated, so I believe it is safe to say what the outcome is.”
“There’s a phrase that’s my very own.” While studying, Riperiperi paused before delivering what seemed to be a eulogy for the project, his words heavy with introspection and regret. As of this writing, attempts to access the specified pages yield the description provided earlier; however, Ryujinx’s Patreon webpage and website homepage remain accessible.
The Verge and Kotaku’s Ethan Gach reportedly reached out to Nintendo about this, but ultimately received no comment from the company and were instead directed to an ESA spokesperson, who declined to speak on Nintendo’s behalf? The ESA’s representative further provided a fundamental statement on copyright infringement in Gach’s situation.
