Over the years, Nintendo has led a constant offensive against the homebrew scene, achieving the removal of numerous emulators from its platforms, and now it has reached Ryujinx, one of the most popular emulators for Nintendo Switch. Following the recent retirement of Yuzu, another open source emulator for Switch, Ryujinx has been taken offline, while the company continues to jealously protect its intellectual property rights.
Ryujinx allowed users to emulate Switch games on PC and handheld devices, which have become increasingly popular thanks to platforms like the Steam Deck. Additionally, the team behind Ryujinx was working on a port for iOS, which would have allowed titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to run on newer iPhones.
However, the emulator and homebrew community was shocked to hear the news that gdkchan, the creator of Ryujinx, was contacted by Nintendo and offered a deal to stop all work related to the project. According to a message shared on Discord by one of its collaborators, known as rip in peri peri, it was indicated that the organization and all related assets have already been deleted.
“Yesterday, Nintendo contacted gdkchan and offered him a deal to stop working on the project, remove the organization and all related assets from the emulator” wrote rip in peri peri. “While we wait for confirmation of whether he will accept this agreement, the organization has been eliminated, so I think it is safe to say what the outcome will be.”
Rip in peri peri also, in his message shared on Discord, took the opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to the project with code, documentation or bug reports. “Thank you all for following us during development. I was able to learn many interesting things about the games I love, enjoy them with renewed qualities and in unique circumstances, and I am sure that you all have similar experiences that are special,” he wrote.
With Ryujinx officially out of commission, the Nintendo Switch emulator community loses another important tool. Currently, the Ryujinx website is still active, but the option to download the emulator has been removed.
Online library of pirated books must pay $30 million to large publishers for damages, but they don’t know who to collect the fine from
In a new triumph for major publishers in their fight against digital piracy, a United States court has ordered a well-known online pirate library to pay $30 million to several publishers. However, this victory is bittersweet, since the identity of those responsible for Library Genesis (Libgen) remains a mystery, which makes it practically impossible to collect the million-dollar fine.
