The Nintendo Switch emulator called "suyu," a fork based on the previously deprecated "Yuzu" emulator, has been updated to version 0.0.4 with a massive performance increase. Reportedly, the developers behind the emulator introduced an update called recompiler mode, which uses ahead-of-time static recompilation of the Switch's AArch64 binary game code and translates it into a native x86-64 executable for regular PC users. This small change is said to bring a huge performance improvement compared to the traditional emulation mode, which provided full hardware-level emulation in previous releases. Now, both of these options stand side by side for Nintendo Switch emulator fans to use on their PCs.

However, this release also marks a sad end for the emulator, as the code remains open source, but the GitHub repository is now archived. Previous Nintendo Switch emulators like "Yuzu" and "Ryujinx" were shut down due to pressure and notices from Nintendo's HQ in Japan, which threatened legal action. Known for its strong legal stance, emulators were quick to be shut down, and suyu is no exception. It appears that the development team behind suyu took matters into their own hands and decided to push out another update before archiving the repository, bringing the performance increase to everyone as one last effort.

Given the similar form factors, it's unsurprising that many gamers turned to their Steam Decks to emulate Nintendo Switch games, but that era seems to be drawing to a close, as RetroDECK, a Linux emulation platform capable of emulating multiple game systems, has just confirmed that it will be removing support for Ryubing, a fork of the now-infamous Ryujinx Switch emulator, from its available emulators. The developer behind the emulator explained in a February 19 blog post that Switch emulation would be removed in a minor update. This comes after support for Ryubing was added in a November update.

The blog mentions two main reasons for the removal of Ryubing, stating that "Switch emulation has consistently been the source of the most issues within the project, generating the highest volume of warnings, bans, toxicity, and support tickets," and adding that the questionable legality of emulators like Ryubing and Nintendo's aggressive protection of its intellectual property exposes the volunteers and community involved in the RetroDECK project to undue legal exposure. As of an upcoming update, indicated in an edit to an old blog post to be 0.10.4b, Switch emulation will be removed from RetroDECK "forever," and discussions about Switch emulation will also be banned from all of RetroDECK's communities and social platforms effective immediately.

After being forced to shut down at the beginning of October, it looks like the open-source Nintendo Switch emulator, Ryujinx, may have found a new home. Late last week, a new fork of the Ryujinx emulator popped up online. The original Ryujinx project's lead developer, known online as gdkchan, took down the GitHub page after a mysterious offer from Nintendo. Although there was speculation that the creator of the project was offered money to shut the emulator down, the wording on the new GitHub project seems to suggest that Nintendo forced Ryujinx to shut down. The GitHub page for the new project is run by a developer that goes by GreemDev, who doesn't seem to have been involved with the original Ryujinx before it shut down.

GreemDev's Ryujinx is starting out as a direct fork and continuation of the original, although there are hints that the new Ryujinx will take on a slightly different nature in the future. For starters, it doesn't look like GreemDev plans to offer any documentation for the Nintendo Switch emulator—at least not yet. This is likely partially to avoid Nintendo's ire and because creating documentation is a lot of additional work for developers. Instead, the GitHub directs readers to the former Ryujinx documentation on Archive.org, indicating that, although there are intended changes in-store for the future of Ryujinx, the current forked version basically picks up where the original left off.