Well, there it is. After what happened with yuzu, many wondered if it would happen, and now it has. Nintendo has shut down the Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx.
Earlier today the GitHub page vanished into a 404 not found error, with some confusion amongst contributors. But it has now been confirmed on the official Discord and on social media that it's not an error. As stated in the post the original creator was contacted by Nintendo and offered an agreement if they stopped working on it and removed everything related to Ryujinx.
It should be noted, this announcement comes from another contributor riperiperi, not the original Ryujinx creator gdkchan:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.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.
Quoting: monyarmWhy do these emulator devs keep bending over backwards for Nintendo? Emulation and Reverse Engineering have both been proven to be legal on multiple ocassions. Literally all Nintendo can do is huff and puff.
Extortion.
Nintendo can sue anyone out of existence, regardless of whether they are right or not.
Emulation is for preservation.
When the Switch will be discontinued, emulators will come in handy.
Quoting: dalportodevThey had a patreon and were raking in thousands per month. What were they expecting? Why are so many grifters trying to profit off emulation and mods derivative on copyrighted work? Whatever happened to gamers and tinkerers sharing openly and freely on the open source internet?
I'm not a lawyer but looking at various things that happened in the industry I want to share my view.
If they infringe on copyright, it doesn't really matter if they receive donations or not (also it's not mandatory). Either they do infringe or they do not. But, unless they copied bits from the Switch or other Nintendo work, they don't.
Someone may say they circumvent DRM but I'm not sure I agree with that because if you're using your own dumped keys and your own dumped bought game, are you really circumventing something? Of course things change if they were bypassing something without the need for you to have the legally owned unlocking key.
We also have to remember that emulation is legal according to Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. v. Connectix Corp.. Also, reimplementation of APIs is legal as well (Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc..
Of course, these cases are all about the US. Other Countries may have different rules (in Europe should be mostly the same, I think?).
The issue is: are those emulator devs really want to dispute against Nintendo in Court?
Nintendo has billions of dollar of "war chest" available to use and those devs most surely don't. Why would they risk losing all they have?
If a console is still actively being sold, offering any kind of emulation for it is asking for trouble.
Especially if it is a Nintendo console.
I'm relatively certain that once the Switch's lifetime has ended, Nintendo will be a lot less aggressive towards its emulation.
After all, I don't see them going after GB, NES, SNES, N64, DS, GameCube, etc. emulation (unless there is some additional shadiness involved).
I just wish they would communicate more clearly. A simple "do not try to emulate our actively sold/developed console, or else" would go a long way.
Though I guess they communicate through actions here
Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 2 October 2024 at 7:34 am UTC
StalePopcorn 50 minutes ago
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