Nintendo DMCA names 13 Switch emulators; Citron vanishes over internal drama, Ryubing goes into maintenance

On February 12, 2026, Nintendo filed a DMCA notice with GitHub that named 13 Switch emulators at once: Citron, Eden, Kenji-NX, MeloNX, Pine, Pomelo, Ryubing, Ryujinx, Skyline, Sudachi, Sumi, Suyu and Yuzu. Four days later, on February 16, Citron's website, code repos and Discord all disappeared, but the cause was an internal team conflict, not Nintendo. The same day, the maintainer of Ryubing, the main Ryujinx continuation, said he would no longer maintain it. As of October 2026, Eden is still updating normally, Citron Neo has taken over from Citron, and Ryubing is in low-activity maintenance.

Who the Feb 12 notice targeted

• The notice published on GitHub lists over 300 repo links. GitHub also processed two networks larger than 100 repos in full, one of 127 and one of 218.
• Targets included Eden's official GitHub releases repo, Kenji-NX's Android releases repo, Citron's AppImage packaging repo, MeloNX and Pomelo repos, and many Ryujinx and Yuzu forks.
• The reasoning was the usual one: Switch games are encrypted with prod.keys, and these emulators necessarily use unauthorized keys to decrypt pirated games, which Nintendo says is circumvention.
• Android Authority broke the story on Feb 13, followed by Nintendo Life and outlets in China and Japan.

Most active projects had already moved their source off GitHub, so development didn't stop. It did get harder for newcomers to find legitimate downloads.

Eden's response

Eden's project manager said on Discord that its source isn't hosted on GitHub and wasn't affected, that only the GitHub releases page was hit, and that "development will continue as normal". Founder Camille LaVey told the press the team wants to keep doing preservation work so owners can enjoy their games beyond the original hardware. Eden shipped v0.2.0-rc1 on February 15 as planned and filed a counter-notice. PiunikaWeb reported that the GitHub releases repo was still disabled in early March.

Feb 16: Citron disappears, Ryubing goes into maintenance

Citron. The site, GitHub and GitLab repos, and Discord went offline on the same day. Many assumed Nintendo was behind it, but Retro Handhelds and GBAtemp soon reported an internal conflict on the team, along with leaked files containing a developer's personal details (we won't repeat any of it). Citron had shipped its "Pathfinder" update only two weeks earlier, on February 1.

Ryubing. Maintainer GreemDev announced the same day that he would no longer maintain the project. It wasn't deleted and moved into low-activity maintenance.

Where things stand in October 2026

Nintendo kept going with more notices on March 27, July 10 and August 17. The August round took down 401 repos in a single day.

What this means for players

If you're wondering whether Switch emulators still work: they do, you just need the right project. On PC and Android, start with Eden. Former Citron users can look at Citron Neo. Ryujinx fans can keep using Ryubing. On iPhone, it's MeloNX. Compare them in Eden vs Citron Neo vs Ryubing and the best Switch emulator in 2026. Takedowns bring out impostor sites, so only download from official sites (see how to spot fake emulator sites). For the legal side, read are Switch emulators legal.