Nintendo Shuts Down Ryujinx Emulator After Targeting Yuzu: What's Next for Switch Emulation?

In March of this year, Nintendo shut down the Switch emulator Yuzu, and many thought the company would leave the second emulator, Ryujinx, alone, as it wasn’t violating any rules. However, it turns out Nintendo is pursuing action against Ryujinx as well, regardless of any legal issues.

The lead developer of Ryujinx, known as gdkchan, shared on his Discord server that he received a letter from Nintendo of America requesting the termination of the project. The letter also demanded that development cease entirely and that all source files be removed from the internet. As a result, no repositories can now be found on GitHub.

Unlike the creators of Yuzu, the Ryujinx developers won’t be facing a $2.4 million fine.

The likely reason for Nintendo's shutdown of both Switch emulators this year is the architectural similarity between the current Switch and the upcoming hybrid console. Nintendo aims to prevent games for the new Switch 2 from being easily emulated at launch, which would not only impact sales but also affect the surrounding media coverage. In recent years, many of Nintendo's major releases have been leaked online at least a week before their official release dates.

After Yuzu's closure, there were hopes that the emulator might be reborn under a different name. However, with Nintendo now owning its source code, all efforts to revive it have been futile. A similar fate seems likely for Ryujinx, meaning that any future emulator projects for the Switch would have to be developed from scratch.

That said, there’s little need for a new emulator at this stage in the console's life cycle. Upcoming major releases like Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond are expected to run smoothly on existing emulator builds, just like hundreds of games before them.