#70: Nintendo caught them all

With the demise of Ryujinx, Nintendo has killed the last Switch emulator still standing. I understand why they've done that, even though I disagree.

Hi, hello, and welcome to a new edition of overkill digest, your go-to source for everything handheld gaming (and then some).

Next week, around the time when I usually write this newsletter, I'll probably be sat in a car driving back home from a short trip. I will still write a new issue of this newsletter, but it might come a little later than usual.

This week's biggest news is probably also one of the saddest for fans of emulation and game preservation: Nintendo killed Ryujinx. I have some thoughts, so let's get to it.

What happened this week

Ryujinx, the last-standing Nintendo Switch emulator, shut down earlier this week. While it's still not entirely sure what happened, the lead developer 'gdkchan' has apparently been offered an agreement by Nintendo to stop working on the project. There has been a lot of chatter if that supposed agreement meant, that he was paid out, or if he got "an offer he cannot refuse" (aka "stop, or else!"). Ryujinx was long considered safe from Nintendo's ninja lawyers since it was based in Brazil, a country regarded as a safe haven for emulation. In either case, this means that as of right now, no emulator for Nintendo Switch is currently in development, and I doubt someone will start working on one so publicly as long as Nintendo remains as litigious as they are right now.

This is a blow to game preservation, as Nintendo is famously known for shutting down its very own online stores, killing games with it without offering them anywhere else. But on the other hand, I understand the moves of the Japanese company. The Nintendo Switch is the only platform still actively being sold for which such mature emulation tools existed. For a lot of people, emulating Switch games simply means they can experience the games on much more powerful hardware without having to fight with often shitty performance.

But it's clear that for another majority – including Nintendo – emulation only exists to enable piracy. Some recent games, like Tears of the Kingdom and Echoes of Wisdom leaked early and were played by a significant number of players before they were officially sold (and unfortunately, these people decided to brag online about it).

Still, right now, Nintendo is incredibly litigious when it comes to their platform. Not only did they nuke all the emulators, but they've also started targeting friend of overkill, Russ from Retrogamecorps with two copyright strikes on his channel, and they've asked Google to remove over 200 URLs related to Switch hacking (in one sense or another) from its search results.

I find the timing of this peculiar. My theory is that Nintendo is doing this to prepare for the launch of the Switch 2. If the rumours are two, this new console is more a continuation of the Switch's hardware, than an evolution. So on the one hand, it could mean that the current tools would be able to emulate the new hardware without starting from scratch. Or, Nintendo simply wants to scare off developers to not even bother trying to crack open the Switch 2.

But let's be honest, emulation is a hydra. It's always a question of when, and not if...
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