Nintendo lawyers claim another scalp in war on Switch emulators

Just months after Nintendo’s high-profile US$2.4 million settlement against Yuzu, a popular Nintendo Switch emulator, saw the termination of that project, Nintendo’s legal team has scored another win against a similarly advanced attempt at emulating the Switch – Ryunjinx. 

According to a statement on the project’s official Discord server by “rip in peri peri”, which was later shared on X, Nintendo contacted the lead developer of Ryujinx, gdkchan, and presented them with a demand to cease all work on the project and remove all related assets under their control.

The exact details remain unclear, but Ryujinx's disappearance strongly suggests that the threat left gdkchan no choice.

The shutdown impacts several exciting projects in the pipeline that will no longer see the light of day, including working mobile ports on iOS and Android. The latest action will also likely discourage developers from working on similar tools in the future, especially if they are related to Nintendo. 

While emulators aren’t technically illegal, they often fall into a gray area. However, Nintendo’s willingness to go after emulator developers, who usually can’t afford lengthy legal battles, means NIntendo tends to get its way. Ryujinx and Yuzu join a growing list of independent developers who discovered this the hard way.  

After Ryujinx, NIntendo’s legal team prepares for another courtroom battle against Palworld and its developers, Pocketpair. The world’s oldest video game company is accusing the Tokyo-based company of patent infringement. The game was a huge success following its Early Access with more than 15 million units sold in the first few weeks after release.