Nintendo may have just won its battle to put the most popular Nintendo Switch emulators out of business. In March, — and now it may have convinced Yuzu’s primary competitor, Ryujinx, to go away too. is now empty.
is gone. And the emulator’s and official Discord now contains a possible explanation: Nintendo got to its lead developer, and convinced them to shut down the project for good. “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,” writes developer and moderator ripinperiperi .
“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.” The rest of ripinperiperi’s message is a eulogy for the project, including a pair of videos showing the Ryujinx team’s progress on iOS and Android ports of the Nintendo Switch emulator, among other core changes — ones that will now presumably never ship. Nintendo would not confirm or deny to that it made a deal with the developer.
Instead, it pointed me to the Entertainment Software Association’s head of communications and public affairs. We’re waiting for a reply from the ESA now. Compared to Yuzu, Ryujinx was thought to be relatively untouchable.
Rumor had it that lead developer GDKChan was based in emulation-friendly Brazil, though I never found proof of that earlier this year. Certainly, we never .
