The popular open-source Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx has been removed from GitHub, and the development team is stopping the project after communicating with Nintendo representatives. This was reported by Ars Technica.

Ryujinx developer riperiperi writes on the Discord server and on social media that he and his colleague gdkchan “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.”

Although the final outcome of these negotiations has not yet been made public, riperiperi reports that since the project has been removed from GitHub, we can guess what decision the developers made.

Although at the time of writing this news, the Ryujinx website is still up and running. However, the download page and other links to information posted on GitHub are no longer functional.

ryujinx

In March of this year, Yuzu emulator developers paid $2.4 million to settle a lawsuit with Nintendo. This made a wave among emulator developers. At that time, support for the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra was discontinued. The Nintendo DS emulator Drastic became free. And one of its main developers left Ryujinx.

“While I won’t be remaining in the switch scene either, I still believe in emulation as a whole, and hope that other developers aren’t dissuaded by this,” write to riperiperi on Discord. “The future of game preservation does depend on individuals, and maybe one day it’ll be properly recognized.”

According to the developers, “as of May 2024, Ryujinx [had] been tested on approximately 4,300 titles; over 4,100 boot[ed] past menus and into gameplay, with roughly 3,550 of those being considered playable.”