Switch emulator Ryujinx is shut down
From their Discord:
"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. 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. Rather than leave you with only panic and speculation, I decided to write this short message to give some closure.
These words are my own. I don't want to speak for anyone else here, so just remember that while reading.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed code, documentation or issue reports to the project. Thank you all for following us throughout the development. I was able to learn a lot of really neat things about games that I love, enjoy them with renewed qualities and in unique circumstances, and I'm sure you all have experiences that are similarly special. I'm extending my own massive thanks to our moderation team, who have been here through some rough circumstances and always found ways to make light of it."
As of this post, the GitHub is closed and their downloads page is blank.
Damn, this marks the end of an era. I wonder of switch emulation will pick back up once the Switch is nonlonger relevant to the contemporary console market.
Agreed. I am just now setting up ryujinx on my steam deck. Not sure if I’ll be able to get everything working now. And it wasn’t even for piracy. I own a switch and a bunch of games, but I only have access to my steam deck for the next year (possibly more). I just want to play the games I already own on the device I have available. Nintendo, I know there is no chance in a million years, but release your games on PC and I will happily rebuy the games I already own.
So it's been a day. According to other devs, apparently Nintendo lawyers approached gdkchan at his home, and you know the result. He was a core part Ryujinx development and leadership, so Nintendo has successfully disrupted leadership as well as deplatformed the emulator. The other devs naturally, are stepping back from the project rather than trying to continue it.
In it's wake, we learned a lot about internal projects that were in the works, and actually found some of the source code for some of it. I expect we might get the source of other WIP initiatives as time goes on. E.g. I found the source for the WIP android build bere:
https://github.com/emmauss/Ryujinx/tree/libryujinx_bionic
The source code is MIT licensed and is not legally encumbered like yuzu, so I expect that the community will eventually converge on a successor fork.
I've actually been looking for a project to really get into and seeing that ryujinx was written in C# got my attention. I doubt I'll be able to do much on my own, but I'd be willing to contribute if the community ever agrees on a new fork. Just downloaded the latest source today so I can start poking around at it.
I really hope development picks back up someday. No other switch emulator comes close to the features and compatibility of Ryujinx.
I'm in a similar position. I actually started learning about VMs because I wanted to contribute improvements to Armeilleure. Mostly I just wanted to fix it so pptc could be compatible with mods, but some old draft prs suggest there's room for improving performance. I plan to still hack away at it because if nothing else it's a good learning opportunity.
I really would like to have seen that go down, I'm imagining this:
In briefcase number one is 10k (in small bills to look more impressive). In briefcase number two is legal paperwork that will bury you in legal debt.
Wow. Is this the first time Nintendo has offered someone a deal to stop working on a project rather than using legal tactics?
This kind of stuff gets hazy on where deals end and legal tactics begin. If it goes to court, Nintendo might not win the emulator case, but gdkchan still has their life impacted by legal stuff and has to walk a razor thin line to be able to continue work on this project. May be better for both parties if the other stopped bothering them.
We dont know what the deal was, it might be: "Take everything down and we won't sue you".
Almost certainly. I can't imagine they're like "here's 100k, fuck off"
They would never reward anyone for deving an emulator, even if it would be cheaper than trying to sue.
Who knows, maybe they hired him as a full time employee. Maybe they want or need to use an emulator for Switch support on the Switch 2.
This is the most likely option, although I find it strange why they wouldn't say anything; contributors and forks need to be informed if there is a possible case against the project.
Non-disclosure agreements are pretty standard. I doubt gdkchan can say anything, and the other devs don't know more than that he was approached. Since they went after him personally rather than DCMA the repo, I suspect that project is legally in the clear.