There are many reasons why people Buy Steam decks, Valve’s new portable gaming PC. With it, they can play popular Steam games on the go. Others use it to get the most out of Xbox Game Pass on PC. And some people use it to run a Nintendo Switch emulator called Yuzu. Valve acknowledged this in a recent YouTube video showing off the handheld’s Switch-like HDMI dock.
You had to look pretty closely to spot the reference in the less than three-minute YouTube clip, but Twitter gaming insider Nibel did, and pointed out in a tweet that popped up immediately. The Yuzu thumbnail on the home screen is only visible for a split second, but it’s absolutely there and was probably downloaded by whoever worked at Valve to create the YouTube video.
Before the end of the day, Valve removed the video and exchanged it for a new one in which the Yuzu thumbnail has been replaced with art portal 2. But the damage was done: one of the largest gaming companies in the world had officially broached the taboo subject of video game emulation. “The Streisand effect is strong on this one,” wrote one commenter. “I will definitely be emulating Switch on the Steam deck.”
As an emulator, Yuzu lets people play Switch games on non-Switch devices. Traditionally it meant PCs, but because of Valve and the flood of others portable gaming PCs come onto the market, there are now other options. While some people are likely to pirate the Switch games they use the emulator for, it’s also possible to legally buy a Switch game, put the ROM on a PC, and then run it with Yuzu or another emulator, often at higher resolutions and frame rates
That Mario However, maker has historically taken a very hard line against any form of emulation. Once DS and 3DS were hacked, they became notorious hotbeds for piracy, not only of decades-old and out-of-print games, but new ones as well. Earlier this year anti-piracy company Denuvo announced a new line of products is aimed specifically at developers with games on Switch and promises to protect them from attempts to play them elsewhere through a new breed of proprietary DRM.
The steam deck, now a hotspot for all manner of other emulations alongside the Switch, including Game Boy Advance, GameCube, and PS2. If you’ve ever heard someone endorse the virtues of Valve’s new Switch competitor, its powerful emulation capabilities were probably counted among its main assets. Normally Valve doesn’t do this explicitly. I can only imagine how quickly founder Gabe Newell started receiving calls from Nintendo’s lawyers, although of course we currently have no evidence that the latter was involved in the video’s removal.
Valve and Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
