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.
Either way, the emulator is already out there and used by millions on Android and PC, etc, why Nintendo chose this moment to go after it is quite hilarious and petty.
If they think the Steam Deck is a problem, they haven't seen nothing yet: all the upcoming powerful handheld PC's coming to market will be able to emulate the Switch 1 (and likely even the Switch 2) with ease. And for a lot of people - especially those who find Nintendo to be a scummy, litigious company - they're just going to buy a powerful handheld PC and emulate all of Nintendo's games - and frankly, good on them.
Quoting: MrowlEither way, the emulator is already out there and used by millions on Android and PC, etc, why Nintendo chose this moment to go after it is quite hilarious and petty.Is it really that hard to understand significance of a release on the biggest PC gaming platform? It has nothing to do with the Deck.
Quoting: tuubiNonsense. 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.Right, for a current gen hardware, still in production, it's all about "preservation":
Quoting: MrowlAnd for a lot of people - especially those who find Nintendo to be a scummy, litigious company - they're just going to buy a powerful handheld PC and emulate all of Nintendo's games - and frankly, good on them
Quoting: benstor214Edit: I will uphold my personal opinion as long as honest game preservationists are accused of piracy. It really is a simple concept.If you need more examples of this, look at the older Switch emulator thread. "Preservation" of this kind is especially difficult since you require a Switch to get to the games…
Quoting: poiuzThe GameCube and Wii are current gen and still in production?Quoting: tuubiNonsense. 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.Right, for a current gen hardware, still in production, it's all about "preservation":
EDIT: My reply was specifically to the claim that game preservation means piracy.
Last edited by tuubi on 28 May 2023 at 6:22 pm UTC
benstor214 May 28, 2023
“People who mod their games are all cheaters.”
“The newest DENUVO anti-tamper breaks all your mods and now you are criticizing anti-tamper measures? But anti-tamper prevents pesky cheaters from cheating! Certainly you don’t want people to cheat in the game you like? Maybe you are a cheater YOURSELF?!”
Game preservation = piracy
Game modification = cheating
My hobbies are being a apologist for anti-consumer behavior and licking the boots of big, multi-national corporations.
Quoting: benstor214“The newest DENUVO anti-tamper breaks all your mods and now you are criticizing anti-tamper measures? But anti-tamper prevents pesky cheaters from cheating! Certainly you don’t want people to cheat in the game you like? Maybe you are a cheater YOURSELF?!”The absolute horror – people cheating in single player games
Quoting: benstor214“People who emulate games are all committing piracy.”
I can't remember somebody saying this. Could you cite it please?
Quoting: poiuzIs it really that hard to understand significance of a release on the biggest PC gaming platform? It has nothing to do with the Deck.
Sure, Steam is huge, but so is Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dolphinemu.dolphinemu
And as you can see, it has 5 million+ downloads there.
I will continue to believe the Deck played a part, because Nintendo genuinely fears it: they know there's a lot more harware similarity and software overlap with the Deck, than there is with smartphones and other devices.
Quoting: MrowlSure, Steam is huge, but so is Google Play:You don't know if & what Nintendo did to take the app down. Given the negative ratings it seems to have some problems, too. But yes, you're right: Nintendo fears Steam more than Google Play. Case in point: Nintendo did release mobile games, on foreign platforms.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dolphinemu.dolphinemu
And as you can see, it has 5 million+ downloads there.
I will continue to believe the Deck played a part, because Nintendo genuinely fears it: they know there's a lot more harware similarity and software overlap with the Deck, than there is with smartphones and other devices.
Believe what you want, but there is no indication it's related to the Deck. I doubt Nintendo sees it currently as any threat since it's not a mass market device.
benstor214 May 28, 2023
Quoting: EikeThat’s the nice thing: you don’t need to! You just have to murky the waters and blur the line between emulation, game preservation and piracy. You only need to place one group near to the other and subsequently insinuate that there is no difference between both groups at all. Sooner than not game preservationists are deemed criminal and Nintendo’s upper management opens a bottle of champagne to celebrate the successes of the hard-working minions in forums and comment sections.Quoting: benstor214“People who emulate games are all committing piracy.”
I can't remember somebody saying this. Could you cite it please?
Last edited by benstor214 on 28 May 2023 at 10:21 pm UTC
Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: 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".
Nintendo THEMSELVES sell you ROMs originally from pirate sites, you know that, right? You are literally re-buying a copy of a a pirated game from Nintendo because they couldn't be bothered with archival until the Wii.
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