Dolphin Emulator Team Abandons Plan To Launch It On Steam

Dolphin, a piece of software that can emulate GameCube and Wii games, is no longer coming to Steam. It was initially announced for Steam in March of this year, before being pulled from the storefront shortly thereafter. After working with a lawyer, the Dolphin team has released a statement explaining what happened.

Initially, it was believed that Nintendo might've sent Valve a DMCA takedown notice, requesting that the Dolphin Emulator be pulled from the storefront. However, the Dolphin team explains this isn't exactly what happened. "What actually happened was that Valve's legal department contacted Nintendo to inquire about the announced release of Dolphin Emulator on Steam," reads a statement from Dolphin.

The team then went on to explain that Nintendo apparently requested that Valve prevent the Dolphin Emulator from launching on Steam, "citing the DMCA as justification." The team was told by Valve that it had to come to an agreement with Nintendo in order to launch the Dolphin Emulator on the platform.

Since Steam is Valve's storefront, the company can set whatever restrictions it wants. With that in mind, the Dolphin team said, "Given Nintendo's long-held stance on emulation, we find Valve's requirement for us to get approval from Nintendo for a Steam release to be impossible." As such, the team is halting plans to release Dolphin on Steam.

Despite this, the Dolphin Emulator isn't in any danger of shutting down entirely. According to the Dolphin team, the only request made from Nintendo was for Valve to prevent the emulator from launching on Steam. The Dolphin team will still continue to work on the emulator and even has plans to release a Big Picture graphical interface that can be used with a controller.