Why has the Nintendo Switch Ryujinx emulator crashed and what are the alternatives?

Nintendo has shut down Ryujinx, a popular emulator that allowed Switch games to be played for free on PC, as part of a controversial crackdown on video game piracy.

The move is Nintendo’s latest blow to the emulation scene, a thriving community of enthusiasts dedicated to preserving and playing classic and modern games, and follows the legal elimination of fellow emulator Yuzu in March.

On Tuesday, the download page on the Ryujinx website went dark, the Github repository (containing software resources) was deleted, and the official Discord server stopped accepting invites.

Shortly thereafter, a statement appeared on Ryujinx’s X account suggesting that Nintendo had put pressure on its lead developer to stop working on the project for good.

Why was Ryujinx closed?

“Yesterday, Nintendo contacted gdkchan and offered to cease work on the project, delete the organization and all associated assets over which it has control,” wrote developer and moderator “ripinperiperi” on the Ryujinx Discord.

“Waiting for confirmation on whether or not it will accept this deal, the organization has been removed, so I think it’s safe to say what the outcome will be.”

The statement went on to thank those who worked on Ryujinx and its upcoming updates, including an iOS port of the Switch emulator, which is also likely down.

The Standard has reached out to Nintendo for comment.

In February, Nintendo sued the creators of the Yuzu Switch emulator, accusing them of “unlawfully circumventing technological measures” intended to prevent game piracy.

Just a few weeks later, Yuzu agreed to cease development and pay $2.4 million – a major victory for Nintendo that raised concerns that the company would target other emulators, especially Yuzu’s colleague Ryujinx. Now it looks like that’s exactly what happened.

The shutdown comes as Nintendo is apparently on a warpath against those accused of pirating or stealing its intellectual property.

Last week, popular gaming YouTube channel Retro Game Corps reported that Nintendo had issued copyright strikes to it for displaying its games running on other platforms. As a result, the channel decided to no longer feature Nintendo games in its videos.

Separately, Nintendo is also suing Pocketpair, the game developer behind the viral hit Palword, which has been compared to Pokémon, for alleged infringement of its patents.

What are the Ryujinx alternatives?

Together, Yuzu and Ryujinx formed the twin pillars of open-source Nintendo emulation software, offering users a simple way to play Switch games on other platforms, with plenty of tuning options for more advanced gamers.

Their loss leaves a huge gap in the Switch emulation community. And with the release of the Skyline emulator for Android in May, there is no longer a viable alternative for gamers and hobbyists.

However, there are still many emulators that allow you to play older Nintendo games on phones and PCs. The most important of these is Delta, which was recently released for iOS and allows you to run games from NES all the way to Nintendo DS. Similar emulators include Citra for Nintendo 3DS games and RetroArch, which also offers Xbox, Sega and PlayStation emulation.

It’s easy to see why Nintendo is targeting emulators. Nintendo’s strength is its ability to offer exclusive games on its consoles that can’t be played anywhere else, including the likes of Mario, Zelda and Metroid.

So, if someone runs these games on another platform and then shares the results online, as Rujinx did by running the recently released Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom on PC, it will certainly draw Nintendo’s ire.

Those involved in emulation say they preserve older games at the risk of becoming obsolete to help others learn about the history of games. They also often improve existing games by adding new features such as multiplayer support and improved graphics – which itself is a cornerstone of PC modding culture.

Specifically, they claim that they already own the games they play and only use emulators to access purchased content on other devices.

All of this may be true, but it still doesn’t stop Nintendo and other companies from suing emulator makers for copyright infringement. While emulation software itself is not illegal, the problem often lies in how it is created (for example, does it contain copyrighted software code?) and the purposes for which it is used.

For its part, Nintendo alleged that Yuzu facilitated “piracy on a colossal scale” and allowed Yuzu users to play “virtually any game made for the Nintendo Switch, all without paying a dime to Nintendo” or any other Switch game developer.