Valve has claimed that Dolphin, the popular GameCube and Wii emulator, has been removed from the Steam listing after receiving a cease and desist order from the project’s developer, Nintendo.company behind Mario and zelda accuses the emulator of illegally circumventing its protections, saying it merely protects “the diligence and creativity of video game engineers and developers.”
Dolphin listing on Valve’s digital storefront First appeared in March. “We are excited to announce our fantastic experiment. Dolphin is coming to Steam!” the creators wrote at the time. Open source projects have been online for years, but interest in retro emulators has grown Steam deck releasethe official store page creates tools It’s even easier to access.
However, on May 27th, Dolphin’s developers announced an “indefinite postponement” of the Steam port, following Valve’s delisting after discussions with Nintendo. “With great regret, we have to announce that the release of Dolphin on Steam has been postponed indefinitely,” the emulator team wrote. Project blog updates. “We have been notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a DMCA suspension order against Dolphin’s Steam page and has removed Dolphin from Steam until the issue is resolved. We plan to do more in the future.”
According to a copy of the legal notice Reviewed by PC gamerNintendo accuses Dolphin of “using cryptographic keys without Nintendo’s permission to decrypt ROMs at or just before execution.” Emulation itself is legal, but it offers users a way to circumvent the protection of individual game ROMs. It may infringe Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. This is an issue that must be thoroughly debated in court, but in practice it rarely happens due to the imbalance of power between big companies and homegrown projects like Dolphin.
“Nintendo is committed to protecting the hard work and creativity of video game engineers and developers,” said a Nintendo spokesperson. Kotaku on mail. “This emulator illegally circumvents Nintendo’s protective measures and performs game piracy. Using illegal emulators and game piracy negatively affects development and ultimately stifles innovation.” Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies and expects others to do the same.”
The company rarely turned a blind eye to games or game piracy. tools that make it easier (Like mod chips sold online), Nintendo has recently been particularly aggressive in cracking down on what it perceives to be leaks and illegal exploits of its games and technology. A subpoena was issued in February Personal Information Discord of a person suspected of leaking official information The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom of Tears art Book. In April, the company issued multiple copyright strikes. dozens of popular Breath of the Wild gameplay videos on youtube It relied on modded versions of the game. And in May, the Switch emulation tool Lotpick appeared. Removed from Github after illegal copying of tears of the kingdom Before the game’s official release, it started spreading like wildfire online.
It’s not yet clear how Dolphin’s current developers will react, or how willing Valve is to revive the store page unless the matter is resolved in court, which could take years to resolve. It may take. last year, valve temporarySwitch emulator Yuzu was included In the Steam Deck YouTube trailer. This video was later edited and re-uploaded to remove the reference. The company did not respond to requests for comment.
