Wii and GameCube Emulator for Dolphin No Longer Available on Steam
The Dolphin Emulator, a program that enables users to play classic Wii and GameCube games, will not be available on Steam as previously anticipated. The developers have recently released a blog post detailing the events surrounding the unsuccessful launch and expressing their belief in their legal justification. Essentially, Nintendo’s legal team opposed its presence on Steam, and Valve, unwilling to engage in a potential conflict with a major gaming company, chose not to intervene.
The creators of the emulator explained that, contrary to online speculation, Nintendo did not send the team a DMCA takedown notice (or any other legal action). However, Valve’s legal department contacted Nintendo and asked about releasing a planned app that could run old games like Super Mario Galaxy, Wii Sports, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask through the ubiquitous PC store. Valve then forwarded a statement from Nintendo’s lawyers to the Dolphin team, telling them that they could only launch the emulator if Nintendo approved it. “We specifically request that Dolphin’s ‘coming soon’ notice be removed and that the emulator not be published on the Steam store in the future,” Nintendo’s letter to Valve read.
It sounds like Valve didn’t want to get involved, and instead put the onus on the Dolphin developers for a license that everyone involved must have known wouldn’t have been granted. Given how quickly Nintendo’s lawyers have been fired in the past — along with the wording of the letter they sent — the development team saw the writing on the wall and pulled the plug on the Steam release. Of course, Dolphin Emulator is still available as a separate download for Windows, macOS, and Linux from the project’s website. However, having it on Steam could have increased its perceived legitimacy and opened it up to a much wider audience.
“Valve ultimately runs the store and can impose any conditions on what software appears on it,” the Dolphin team wrote today. “However, given Nintendo’s long-standing position on emulation, we consider Valve’s claim to get Nintendo’s approval for a Steam release impossible. Unfortunately, it is.”
