game news “Valve can set whatever conditions you want. We give up.” Closing clap for this emulator on Steam
Expected by many players, the famous Dolphin emulator will not finally appear on Steam. The teams explained in detail the reason for this cancellation, which could potentially have meant the complete disappearance of the emulator.
Dolphin or the promise of finding Nintendo games on PC
To play Nintendo games, it’s very simple: you need a console from the Japanese giant. It is impossible to break this rule, which may seem perfectly logical, but nevertheless limits the range of possibilities. Especially when you look at Nintendo’s catalog of previous games. The company remains in control of its licenses, of course, and tries to get as many of its legacy games as possible onto the Switch with the online subscription offering, but this still severely limits access to games that are then no longer available.
To counteract this phenomenon, it is not uncommon for emulators to appear on the PC. This is especially true of Dolphin, a reference in the field that facilitates access to Gamecube and Wii games with numerous bonus features. The emulator is available on the official website but had a real revival when it appeared on the Steam catalogue, the number one platform for PC gamers. Except that this arrival is unfortunately simply cancelled.
Dolphin on Steam, it’s (finally) over
As we know, Nintendo is adamant when it comes to intellectual property and categorically refuses to tamper with its licenses without its permission. In the case of emulators, it remains more complex since there is a kind of legal vagueness that allows them to survive under certain conditions. Therefore, to combat them effectively, Nintendo prefers to attack the websites that distribute/host them, and that’s more or less what happened in the case of Dolphin. whose Steam page was recently deleted.
A lengthy press release was shared on the official site of the emulator, reveals the details of the situation and incidentally confirms the bad news: Dolphin won’t appear on Steam, that’s for sure. First, the Dolphin teams state that Nintendo did not contact them directly, but that Valve took care of it.
In fact, Valve’s legal department has contacted Nintendo to update them on the release of Dolphin on Steam. In response, an attorney representing Nintendo’s interests, citing the DMCA, demanded that Valve prevent Dolphin from being released on the Steam Store. Valve then sent us the statement from Nintendo’s lawyers, stating that we needed to reach an agreement with Nintendo to release (Dolphin) on Steam (…) So after a long time without any news, we now have a difficult announcement to make. We are abandoning our efforts to release Dolphin on Steam. In the end, Valve dictates the rules and can set any conditions for the release of the software (on Steam). However, given Nintendo’s position on emulation, it’s impossible to meet Valve’s request for Nintendo’s approval to release Dolphin on Steam. (…)
Nintendo will never agree to the Dolphin teams, so the emulator will never appear on Steam. However, the teams continued to clarify that the emulator’s future did not appear to be in jeopardy, as Nintendo Valve had merely asked for the emulator’s Steam page to be removed. Finally, features designed specifically for Steam will also be available in future versions of the emulator. The giant does not crumple, and Dolphin can continue to exist and improve. All’s well that ends well ?
