Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx gets shut down

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.

They 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?

The shutdown of "switch emulators" is sad, but it's justified. There's no need to emulate current gen platforms: you can buy a game and actually play on real hardware.
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?

This is unfortunately not very surprising.

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

When thinking of purchasing anything Nintendo, remember; NINTENDON'T! Thanks SEGA!

I recently noticed that the suyu gitlab repo has been closed, too. Computers are supposed to be learning and creative tools, and instead we have this walled-garden situation created by greedy companies. Maybe devs should host their repos in countries that are not too bothered about what Nintendo says...

Quoting: robvvI recently noticed that the suyu gitlab repo has been closed,

How? When? I'm looking at it now and it doesn't look closed.

I've gotta say, the little bit of goodwill Nintendo gets from me from their social programs really goes to waste when they go after projects like this. Let's hope 5 years from now, when they've moved on to the successor of the Switch, Switch emulators can finally get developed in peace.

Quoting: WMan22

Quoting: Mountain ManIf you want to play Nintendo games, then buy a Nintendo console. It's as simple as that.

I HAVE been buying Nintendo Consoles all the way back starting with the Nintendo 64. I am even one of the 5 people who bought a WiiU.

But they don't really make TVs with composite slots anymore, everything's HDMI now. So it doesn't matter if I have physical hardware (Which I DO by the way), CRTs are dying one by one, I won't be able to play the games I grew up with forever unless emulators are allowed to exist. A future without emulation is horrifying. Entire generations of culture lost because of hardware that is not compatible with modern TVs.

There is no good argument in favor of removing emulators from existence. If you approve of this, I literally see you as no better than people who burned books under fascist regimes.

Additionally, let's say in a completely hypothetical scenario (which isn't our reality, let's be crystal clear) that all games were still readily available and that I didn't need an emulator to play Geist on modern TVs because N-Space is currently defunct and therefore cannot sell their game on virtual consoles while receiving money for the game. There's still a strong argument in favor of emulation due to being able to remaster games yourself. For example: On a WiiU emulator, you can play Breath of the Wild at 8k 240fps given powerful enough hardware. On a switch, it barely hits 720p 30.

not to mention stuff like region locked games.
hell imagine import an game, only to realize that you also need to import an video game and maybe even an tv to play it, then after you finally stole a bank to purchase all that, you still need to learn another idiom....