Another Nintendo Switch emulator has been taken offline as Nintendo continues to crack down on the homebrew scene. Work on the open source emulator Ryujinx has stopped and downloads for it have been removed after the Mario maker reached out to its creator, some seven months after the Switch emulator Yuzu also bit the dust.

“Yesterday, (Ryujinx creator) gdkchan was contacted by Nintendo and offered to stop work on the project and remove the organization and all related assets over which he has control.” reads a message shared by one of his employees, under the handle rip in peri peri, on Discord. “While we await confirmation as to whether he would agree to this agreement, the organization has been removed, so I think it is safe to say what the outcome will be.”

The Ryujinx website is still up However, the option to download the Switch emulator no longer exists. The project made it possible to emulate Switch games on PC as well as PC gaming handhelds, which have become increasingly popular over the last year. The team behind it was also working on it an iOS port to possibly allow games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom And Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to run on the latest iPhones, while the video was uploaded to YouTube shows test footage of the emulator running on Android for the Odin Pro 2 handheld made by AYN.

The shutdown comes several months after rival Switch emulator Yuzu was removed after a court agreement between its creators and Nintendo. Before 2024, Switch emulators seemed to fly largely under the radar of the company’s lawyers. Perhaps the success of the Steam Deck, the Asus Rog Ally, and other handheld devices that can emulate popular Switch games have changed Nintendo’s calculus.

It’s now common for the biggest releases to leak online weeks before release and run on a higher spec PC through emulation. And while emulation enthusiasts promote users only running ROM files of games they’ve purchased legally, many of the largest Switch emulation communities often overlap with these Groups that promote Switch piracy.

“Thank you to everyone who shared code, documentation or reports on the project,” wrote Rip in Peri Peri on Discord. “Many thanks to everyone who accompanied us throughout the entire development. I was able to learn a lot of really great things about games I love, enjoy them with new qualities and in unique circumstances, and I’m sure you all have experiences that are similarly special.”

Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.