The shutdown comes as Nintendo is going on the warpath against those who stand accused of pirating or stealing its intellectual property

Nintendo has allegedly shut down the Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx. In the Ryujinx Discord channel yesterday, developer and moderator 'rip in peri peri' claimed that the Japanese company contacted the team and offered "an agreement" to shut down the emulator, which it later accepted.

Switch emulator is reportedly no more, as we're told by a message on Discord that the creator pulled the plug after Nintendo apparently applied pressure.

RyujinX, considered the second most popular Nintendo Switch emulator out there, appears to have shut down their operations. Its download page is now barren,

The emulator will still function for anyone already running it, but the Github repository has been removed. Ryujinx also made some headlines last month for running the new Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom game at more than 120 frames per second, vastly outstripping the Switch's capabilities.

Following Nintendo's bombshell success against the Yuzu Switch emulator in court earlier this year and the subsequent Yuzu repo takedown spree, it seems that some direct contact with the lead developers of the Ryujinx Switch emulator was all it took to prompt the voluntary removal of all current and past Ryujinx downloads— no court case required.

This situation with Ryujinx isn’t the first time a Nintendo emulator has ceased development and it probably won’t be the last. It was just in March 2024 that the Yuzu developer ceased distribution of a Switch emulator and had to pay Nintendo $2.4 million in settlement fees.

While a Nintendo lawsuit led to the shutdown of the Yuzu emulator, the situation with Ryujinx is more opaque. Nintendo has not filed a lawsuit against Ryujinx. Instead, the Japanese company has apparently contacted the lead developer directly. At least that's what another Ryujinx developer named "rip in peri peri" claims in a Discord post.

Ryujinx, a popular open-source Nintendo Switch emulator, announced it is shutting down after receiving pressure from Nintendo to cease operations.