Update 29/05: According to Pierre Bourdon on Mastodon, who was Dolphin's treasurer for the foundation backing the project (Bourdon is stepping down), Valve actually initiated the conversation to check in with Nintendo on this. So this is not a DMCA takedown request but Nintendo said it would violate the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions, so Valve took it down. So there's technically nothing for Dolphin to counter here.
Kotaku also got a statement from Nintendo on this:
“Nintendo is committed to protecting the hard work and creativity of video game engineers and developers,” a spokesperson for Nintendo told Kotaku in an email. “This emulator illegally circumvents Nintendo’s protection measures and runs illegal copies of games. Using illegal emulators or illegal copies of games harms development and ultimately stifles innovation. Nintendo respects the intellectual property rights of other companies, and in turn expects others to do the same.”
The article title was updated to better reflect the situation.
Original article below for context:
Back in March the plan was announced for the Wii and GameCube emulator Dolphin to release on Steam, along with some useful Steam features but now that seems unlikely to happen.
The Dolphin team has now announced that their Steam page was taken down, as Nintendo sent a cease and desist notice to Valve about it. Here's the statement they released:
It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed. We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin's Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future.
We appreciate your patience in the meantime.
Such a shame.
Why now though? Dolphin has been around since 2003 for GameCube, adding basic Wii support in 2007, so Dolphin was there during the time the Wii was still being fully supported. Nintendo also only went after the Steam page, not the project as a whole as it can still be found on GitHub and official site. According to a comment from the Citra developer on Reddit, it's due to Dolphin including decryption keys with the project.
Really, it's not going to do Nintendo much good, it's put Dolphin all over the news and even more people will now know about it and end up using it.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: pb> Why now though?maybe they want to re-relase some of those games on switch , that will attract atention to many games that people forgoten about and they dont want those same people to know about any easy way to play then for free...
Perhaps they want to prevent Dolphin from being discovered and easily available for the SteamDeck crowd?
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: DesumQuoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Desum"B-but these other companies are bad too"I'm not convinced that Nintendo is doing anything unethical.
So, if everyone else is being unethical and scummy, that makes it OK? I don't care about Sony either. Nintendo is an unethical company selling low-quality hardware and subsists mostly off of nostalgia addiction.
Attacking game preservation is unethical. Selling hardware you know is defective is unethical. And those are just two very obvious examples.
On top of that it is doing the gaming equivalent of telling people where they are allowed to hang their paintings.
A gross overreach of restricting people's freedoms for no better reason than to protect the dubious business model of catching customers into a console ecosystem.
Last edited by emphy on 28 May 2023 at 8:39 am UTC
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Quoting: elmapulQuoting: pb> Why now though?maybe they want to re-relase some of those games on switch , that will attract atention to many games that people forgoten about and they dont want those same people to know about any easy way to play then for free...
Perhaps they want to prevent Dolphin from being discovered and easily available for the SteamDeck crowd?
The thing is, it's not "for free". If you bought the old game, you've already paid for it. Essentially Nintendo is fighting tooth and nail to prevent their customers from playing games they've bought, and that's not a good look.
You can try to make this about piracy again but that's a whole different discussion, and not really an excuse when the paying customers get equally shafted in the process.
8 Likes, Who?
Quoting: KlaasI've read so much about troubles with quality of the Joy-Cons, but to be fair poor build quality seems to be everywhere. Logitech has had trouble with the quality of the micro switches for the buttons for a long time and they've stopped using optical mouse wheels and have switched to cheap encoders (OT: encoders are always a huge pain – the biggest German electronics compendium has a very long article for workarounds).It's true that poor build-quality is everywhere nowadays, but the Joy-Cons are of unusually poor-quality - going on my own experience, you'll get anything between 6 to 18 months of gentle use out of a brand new one*, and in the UK while I was a Switch owner you had to pay the cost of a new controller to get them repaired. I believe this has changed now, however.
*I'm a woman, though, so I don't know how well these things last in rougher hands. I've seen reviews suggesting that it may be as little as three months in such cases.
I learned to repair them myself (to their credit, they're designed to be very easy to repair), but there came a point where, on top of everything else that I mentioned, I ended up asking myself why an end-user should have to repair carefully-used almost-new products constantly.
Quoting: elmapulmaybe nintendo used quantum controllers, they break by just looking at thenHahaha, yes, let's go with that explanation!
Quoting: BelaptirYup, this is me. I went from having a collection of original games for every Nintendo console to date (all bought legally and, when possible, new) to not buying anything Nintendo related at all.I used to play some of their games competitively, for a number of years, so I was VERY invested in their ecosystem! But I wasn't blinded by that - when things didn't suit my tastes anymore, I didn't see any reason to keep buying. Companies aren't our friends, after all, even though we naturally develop attachments to products that we like.
It's been years since I've last bought something from them and with how they are behaving lately, it seems some more years will pass for me to buy something from them again (if ever at all).
They are one of the worst (if not the worst) videogame companies ever.
I honestly don't see myself going back, at this point. The style of games that I enjoy are now very well catered for outside of that realm, and much more affordably, to boot.
Quoting: elmapulSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate contains promotions for the following;Quoting: Penglingpromoting adult-rated games in non-adult-rated games,example?
Anarchy Reigns
Assassin's Creed
Bayonetta
Devil May Cry
Doom Eternal
Fallout
Fatal Frame
No More Heroes
Persona 5
Resident Evil
4 Likes, Who?
CyborgZeta May 28, 2023
Quoting: PenglingHonestly, stuff like that makes me sad to hear, regardless of my feelings towards Nintendo today. My experience growing up with Nintendo handhelds was they they were extremely durable and reliable; even the original "phat" DS could withstand a drop on a concrete driveway without it breaking a sweat. And as far as console were concerned, the GameCube had long been my gold standard for reliability; I never had a single problem with it. The only other console I have that can match it in the regard is my PS3 Slim. My JP Dreamcast is pretty old as well and runs good...but I only acquired it last year, and don't know its entire history prior to my obtaining it. Had fun playing Sakura Wars 2-4 on it though!Quoting: KlaasI've read so much about troubles with quality of the Joy-Cons, but to be fair poor build quality seems to be everywhere. Logitech has had trouble with the quality of the micro switches for the buttons for a long time and they've stopped using optical mouse wheels and have switched to cheap encoders (OT: encoders are always a huge pain – the biggest German electronics compendium has a very long article for workarounds).It's true that poor build-quality is everywhere nowadays, but the Joy-Cons are of unusually poor-quality - going on my own experience, you'll get anything between 6 to 18 months of gentle use out of a brand new one*, and in the UK while I was a Switch owner you had to pay the cost of a new controller to get them repaired. I believe this has changed now, however.
*I'm a woman, though, so I don't know how well these things last in rougher hands. I've seen reviews suggesting that it may be as little as three months in such cases.
I learned to repair them myself (to their credit, they're designed to be very easy to repair), but there came a point where, on top of everything else that I mentioned, I ended up asking myself why an end-user should have to repair carefully-used almost-new products constantly.
Apologies for the rambling.
Last edited by CyborgZeta on 28 May 2023 at 11:02 am UTC
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: tuubiQuoting: elmapulQuoting: pb> Why now though?maybe they want to re-relase some of those games on switch , that will attract atention to many games that people forgoten about and they dont want those same people to know about any easy way to play then for free...
Perhaps they want to prevent Dolphin from being discovered and easily available for the SteamDeck crowd?
The thing is, it's not "for free". If you bought the old game, you've already paid for it. Essentially Nintendo is fighting tooth and nail to prevent their customers from playing games they've bought, and that's not a good look.
You can try to make this about piracy again but that's a whole different discussion, and not really an excuse when the paying customers get equally shafted in the process.
im not talking about people who own the game and cant play anymore.
if the consoles break with the time, that is a different discussion and in that case i agree they should have the right to play anyway.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: CyborgZetahttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FA_uS4nMvtAQuoting: PenglingHonestly, stuff like that makes me sad to hear, regardless of my feelings towards Nintendo today. My experience growing up with Nintendo handhelds was they they were extremely durable and reliable; even the original "phat" DS could withstand a drop on a concrete driveway without it breaking a sweat. And as far as console were concerned, the GameCube had long been my gold standard for reliability; I never had a single problem with it. The only other console I have that can match it in the regard is my PS3 Slim. My JP Dreamcast is pretty old as well and runs good...but I only acquired it last year, and don't know its entire history prior to my obtaining it. Had fun playing Sakura Wars 2-4 on it though!Quoting: KlaasI've read so much about troubles with quality of the Joy-Cons, but to be fair poor build quality seems to be everywhere. Logitech has had trouble with the quality of the micro switches for the buttons for a long time and they've stopped using optical mouse wheels and have switched to cheap encoders (OT: encoders are always a huge pain – the biggest German electronics compendium has a very long article for workarounds).It's true that poor build-quality is everywhere nowadays, but the Joy-Cons are of unusually poor-quality - going on my own experience, you'll get anything between 6 to 18 months of gentle use out of a brand new one*, and in the UK while I was a Switch owner you had to pay the cost of a new controller to get them repaired. I believe this has changed now, however.
*I'm a woman, though, so I don't know how well these things last in rougher hands. I've seen reviews suggesting that it may be as little as three months in such cases.
I learned to repair them myself (to their credit, they're designed to be very easy to repair), but there came a point where, on top of everything else that I mentioned, I ended up asking myself why an end-user should have to repair carefully-used almost-new products constantly.
Apologies for the rambling.
More on subject: maybe they are planning on releasing a Wii Classic running Dolphin? Would be quite fun ^^'
More seriously, hating on Nintendo for this would also mean hating on Sony for terminating both Bleem and Connetix Virtual Game Station...
Console market is ultra protective by design.
1 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man May 28, 2023
Quoting: DesumQuoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Desum"B-but these other companies are bad too"I'm not convinced that Nintendo is doing anything unethical.
So, if everyone else is being unethical and scummy, that makes it OK? I don't care about Sony either. Nintendo is an unethical company selling low-quality hardware and subsists mostly off of nostalgia addiction.
Attacking game preservation is unethical. Selling hardware you know is defective is unethical. And those are just two very obvious examples.
Right, "game preservation", by which most people mean "free games".
1 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man May 28, 2023
Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: Mountain ManOh, come on, Mountain Man, they're a big corporation! That's like saying you're not convinced a politician is lying!Quoting: Desum"B-but these other companies are bad too"I'm not convinced that Nintendo is doing anything unethical.
So, if everyone else is being unethical and scummy, that makes it OK? I don't care about Sony either. Nintendo is an unethical company selling low-quality hardware and subsists mostly off of nostalgia addiction.
Sure, it's possible, in theory, that they have acted unethically at some point in the company's history, but in this instance, no. Valve asked them if they wanted the emulator removed from Steam and Nintendo said yes. There's nothing unethical happening here.
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Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: DesumAttacking game preservation is unethical. Selling hardware you know is defective is unethical. And those are just two very obvious examples.
Right, "game preservation", by which most people mean "free games".
Nonsense. Game preservation essentially means keeping games playable on modern hardware. It's not a hard concept to grasp. Emulation is an important part of it, for obvious reasons.
Your "most people" hypothesis is irrelevant in any case as long as this hurts paying customers as well.
4 Likes, Who?
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