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What you need to know
- For the first time ever, a Nintendo Switch emulator is available to download from the Google Play Store.
- Eden, a fork of the now-defunct Yuzu emulator, has been slowly garnering popularity in the emulation community.
- We wouldn't be surprised if it's not long before Nintendo comes knocking to take it down.
Over the past year and a half, the Nintendo Switch emulation scene has been embroiled in turmoil. It all started when Nintendo itself took down two of the most popular emulators in Yuzu and Ryujinx. Since then, there have been quite a few different forks crop up in an effort to fill the void.
None of those, not even Yuzu or Ryujinx, were ever released onto the Play Store, until now. Eden, a Switch emulator forked from Yuzu, has apparently been on the Play Store since at least August 19. Somehow, it managed to fly under the radar until the someone over on the r/EmulationOnAndroid subreddit spotted it.
Interestingly enough, it seems that the most recent update is based on v0.0.3-rc3, which was released on August 20. Just last week, the Eden team released the stable build of v0.0.3, but this has yet to make its way to the Play Store.
As for the listing itself, in order to run Eden on your Android device, it'll need to at least be updated to Android 11, and that's just to even install the emulator. Beyond that, you'll need to provide your own "prod" keys and firmware, in addition to actually having the necessary ROM files to play. That in and of itself is a rabbit hole that we can't really help with.
Nevertheless, Eden's arrival on the Play Store comes at a rather interesting time. Both AYN and AYANEO have introduced an array of Android-powered handhelds. It started with the Pocket DS and Thor, swiftly followed by the Odin 3 and KONKR Pocket FIT.
The Pocket DS and Thor are dual-screen handhelds, aiming to capture the magic that once was the Nintendo DS and 3DS (minus the 3D screen). As for the Odin 3 and Pocket FIT, these are the first two handhelds to be announced powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite.
If that wasn't exciting enough, both of these upcoming handhelds are the cheapest devices to feature the 8 Elite. Pre-orders for the Odin 3 Base start at $330 and will go up to $360 upon release. Meanwhile, the Pocket FIT comes in at $269 during pre-orders, and will be priced at $329 at launch. The only downside to either of these is that AYN isn't expecting to begin shipping the Odin 3 until November, while the Pocket FIT likely won't arrive until December.
Even still, it's wild to think that we'll have not one, but two Snapdragon 8 Elite Android handhelds before the end of 2025. And provided that the Eden team can manage to avoid the ire of Nintendo, you can just download a Switch emulator right from the Play Store. Although, if last year is anything to go by, I suspect this won't be the case for too much longer.
