Emulation has been around for ages and is highly popular on the PC platform. Of course, now we have seen emulators launch on dedicated handhelds, even some consumers getting them to work on modern console platforms. However, emulation has been a bit of a tricky gray area to handle. For instance, Nintendo has had a problem with emulation and was quick to take down website hosts that featured Nintendo ROMs. As a result, we wondered whether the beloved Dolphin emulator would launch into the Steam digital marketplace.
I’m sure you’re familiar with Dolphin; if not, we’ll fill you in on the basics. Dolphin is an emulator that allows players to emulate the Nintendo GameCube and Wii. It’s been around for years and continues to be one of the most recommended emulators to use if you’re after either of the two platforms mentioned. Not too long ago, we heard Dolphin was being submitted to Valve’s Steam marketplace platform. But that was where we started to see some concern pop up and even a letter sent out from Nintendo prompting a delay in its release.
Today we’re finding out that the Dolphin emulator is no longer being added to the Steam marketplace. This news comes from a recent blog post on the Dolphin emulator website that further breakdowns what happened. Essentially, this all stems back to Valve’s letter alerting Nintendo on the Dolphin emulator being submitted to Steam. That is when Nintendo replied, warning Valve not to add Dolphin onto the marketplace as it could risk a DMCA. With that said Valve alerted the Dolphin team, which meant they had to work with Nintendo on whether this emulator would see a launch on the Steam marketplace.
As a silver lining, some of the features being developed for the Steam release will still work in Dolphin’s normal builds, and are still being developed. One of the features we are most excited for is a full “Big Picture” GUI that can be used directly with a controller. That is still going to happen regardless of a Steam release, alongside several smaller features that were meant to be quality of life improvements for Steam builds.
Dolphin Post
The Dolphin team continued to seek legal advice over the matter and found that they had a strong case if a DMCA was ever to come and that they didn’t fear any legal action being sent out. However, the team opted to cancel its Steam release because Nintendo is unlikely to change its emulation views. Fortunately, most of the features that were being incorporated into the emulator on Steam will still come out. For instance, the Big Picture GUI will come regardless, among other quality-of-life features that were meant to be featured on Dolphin through Steam.
