Dolphin Emulator devs give up on Steam release

Good news failed successfully. Screw Nintendo.

That's a shame

And to all the armchair lawyers out there, the letter to Valve did not make any claims that we were violating a US copyright by including the Wii Common Key, as a short string of entirely random letters and numbers generated by a machine is not copyrightable under current US copyright law. I

Well, as an armchair lawyer myself I can tell you that it's not any alleged copyright on the key that is the legal problem, it's that one can use the key to circumvent digital restrictions.

For the same reason, most linux distro's don't ship with decryption libraries for dvd's or bluray disks.


Last edited by emphy on 20 July 2023 at 10:07 am UTC

Good news failed successfully. Screw Nintendo.

Very few companies go so far to screw their customers as Nintendo goes. And even fewer have a fanbase as fervorous when it comes to defend it as Nintendo does.
I loved Nintendo games, but enough is enough and one day I had enough of their BS so it's been years now since last time I bought a Nintendo game.

Not a single day passes without my friends calling me a hater because I don't accept Nintendo's BS and instead point it out every time they screw customers. Apparently, having someb principles means being a sad troll that only wants to hate Nintendo because it's mainstream.

Scumbag Nintendo

but some elements from the Steam release will still be continued like the big screen interface that can be used directly with a gamepad.

That's good news, at least. Dolphin already has an excellent, clear interface, and it'll be nice to have a gamepad-friendly equivalent going forward - that's been one of the only things that I felt was missing.

Very few companies go so far to screw their customers as Nintendo goes. And even fewer have a fanbase as fervorous when it comes to defend it as Nintendo does.

Even when I was a fan myself, I was never happy with that status-quo - it was difficult to have sensible conversations about what the business got right or wrong, to say the least!

I loved Nintendo games, but enough is enough and one day I had enough of their BS so it's been years now since last time I bought a Nintendo game.

Sounds like we're in the same boat, as that's the direction that I took a bit shy of two years ago (I mentioned that in the previous Dolphin news-thread, though). Turns out that the grass really was greener on the other side, thankfully!

Not a single day passes without my friends calling me a hater because I don't accept Nintendo's BS and instead point it out every time they screw customers. Apparently, having someb principles means being a sad troll that only wants to hate Nintendo because it's mainstream.

Funnily enough, I've had the opposite experience amongst my gaming friends, many of whom I met via Nintendo's games. We've all ended up similarly disillusioned for similar reasons, so we just reminisce about the good games we grew up with, whilst sharing word on new non-Nintendo titles of interest.

There've been some very good indie spiritual-successors lately! Pizza Tower and Ex-Zodiac have been particular highlights for me, since Nintendo stopped bothering with Wario Land and Star Fox a long time ago.


Last edited by Pengling on 20 July 2023 at 11:13 am UTC

Not a single day passes without my friends calling me a hater because I don't accept Nintendo's BS and instead point it out every time they screw customers. Apparently, having some principles means being a sad troll that only wants to hate Nintendo because it's mainstream.

Even when I was a fan myself, I was never happy with that status-quo - it was difficult to have sensible conversations about what the business got right or wrong, to say the least!

I get this a lot too....... It gets annoying seeing people irrationally defend a giant soulless corporation like its a close personal friend...... I honestly have never understood that mentality...... These corporations are not your friends...... They just want your money......

Genuine question here : what's the benefit of having an emulator on Steam, apart from the automatic updates ?

Genuine question here : what's the benefit of having an emulator on Steam, apart from the automatic updates ?

Public visibility, I guess?

Sounds like we're in the same boat, as that's the direction that I took a bit shy of two years ago (I mentioned that in the previous Dolphin news-thread, though). Turns out that the grass really was greener on the other side, thankfully!

To me the break point was a horrible experience with the customer service and a pair of joycons (it took them 6 months to correctly repair them, veeeeery long story). After that, I decided that Nintendo was too much crap for me to accept.

Funnily enough, I've had the opposite experience amongst my gaming friends, many of whom I met via Nintendo's games. We've all ended up similarly disillusioned for similar reasons, so we just reminisce about the good games we grew up with, whilst sharing word on new non-Nintendo titles of interest

I have friends that play PS, Xbox and Nintendo. By far, the worse are the last ones. In the end I just accept that they are similar to religious fanaticals and simply ignore them, because it's impossible to talk about Nintendo and not feel like you're talking about religion with them.

To me the break point was a horrible experience with the customer service and a pair of joycons (it took them 6 months to correctly repair them, veeeeery long story). After that, I decided that Nintendo was too much crap for me to accept.

Joy-Cons were one factor for me, as well. The innards are, unsurprisingly considering their fundamentally-broken design, designed to be easy to repair. But I got to a point where, along with the other factors that caused me to leave them behind, I found myself questioning why a consumer should have to constantly repair lightly-used gear that fails early into its warranty; Since Nintendo already had excellent and durable controls on previous portables, including one with analogue inputs, their excuses about this particular hardware needing to be improved over time simply don't wash. Repairs in the UK weren't free (I believe that's changed since then), so that was the best option before deciding that the company just wasn't worth bothering with anymore.

Though they've always been a harsh company for sure, they did at one point have a more pro-consumer streak to them (primarily driven by the late Satoru Iwata during his tenure, it seems, as the man famously genuinely loved his job and what the company had to offer), and it's been a shame to see that end.

Could it be possible to include the Emudeck (because that's the one I know and use) or any automated script that deals with Dolphin/Emulation installation/Configuration in the Steam store? There is no Wii key in the codebase of these scripts, I think?

It reminds me of ubuntu-restricted-extras, back then...

Seriously, Dolphin doesn't need a Steam release. It's quite easy to find with google when you search for emulation and/or Steam Deck and these scripts are taking care of everything. The result feels fully integrated to BPM.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 20 July 2023 at 1:06 pm UTC

Genuine question here : what's the benefit of having an emulator on Steam, apart from the automatic updates ?

Cloud saves. Say you own a Steam Deck in addition to your PC: you could be playing a game on Dolphin at home, leave for an extended period of time whilst having your Steam Deck with you, and be able to pick up where you left off.

I'll forever be bemused by the special hatred Nintendo seems to attract from corners of the internet; they simply act like any other corporation; corporations are not your friend and are businesses first—including Valve who notified Nintendo about Dolphin on Steam and set the ball rolling.

Emulation is also legally shakier than most people realize and I'd recommend anyone curious as to the why and how of this whole fracas watch this video from an actual lawyer. There's good historical context there that gets omitted or distorted in most discussions about emulation.

Genuine question here : what's the benefit of having an emulator on Steam, apart from the automatic updates ?

As someone else said: Cloudsaves. Especially with the Steam Deck an absolute game changer compared to manually setting up semi-working auto-sync systems like syncthing or mega. Fortunately, all the big emulators are absolutely fantastic in terms of controller support, so Steam Input isn't that big of a deal compared to games not being on Steam. Steam Deck has better compatibility with games from the Steam Store compared to the desktop mode generic linux app store. While dolphin has a good forum and you can find a lot of stuff on reddit, having an official Steam discussion board is always a big win for finding help with issues of software, exchanging opinions, etc.
And yes, visibility and user base is a big perk of Steam that could potentially heavily increase the Dolphin users and emulator users in general.

But the cloud saves are the biggest perks of having any game/emulator on a gaming platform such as Steam.

Genuine question here : what's the benefit of having an emulator on Steam, apart from the automatic updates ?

As someone else said: Cloudsaves. Especially with the Steam Deck an absolute game changer compared to manually setting up semi-working auto-sync systems like syncthing or mega. Fortunately, all the big emulators are absolutely fantastic in terms of controller support, so Steam Input isn't that big of a deal compared to games not being on Steam. Steam Deck has better compatibility with games from the Steam Store compared to the desktop mode generic linux app store. While dolphin has a good forum and you can find a lot of stuff on reddit, having an official Steam discussion board is always a big win for finding help with issues of software, exchanging opinions, etc.
And yes, visibility and user base is a big perk of Steam that could potentially heavily increase the Dolphin users and emulator users in general.

But the cloud saves are the biggest perks of having any game/emulator on a gaming platform such as Steam.

Are you close to the project? Because you seem to know much...

Just an idea and I don't know for sure about it's feasability (more like brainstorming for a solution), but couldn't it be an app that manages all emulators and cloud saves at a "higher level"? Some kind of a custom EmulationStation for Steam BPM/Steam Deck that lets you manage, integrate and save your emulators/roms/saves (all or in part) to the cloud?

Edit: Personnally, I'd be willing to pay for that because having to copy my emulators setups from one rig to another is a pita... Emulators configurations (custom controller configurations) and save games backed up on the cloud, not just for Dolphin, would be a boon!


Last edited by Mohandevir on 20 July 2023 at 3:26 pm UTC

It's ok, the disgruntlement towards Nintendo will keep rising

Yes, I'm sure there are many who are, if not actually disgruntled yet, certainly far from being gruntled.



Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 20 July 2023 at 4:15 pm UTC

I'll forever be bemused by the special hatred Nintendo seems to attract from corners of the internet; they simply act like any other corporation; corporations are not your friend and are businesses first—including Valve who notified Nintendo about Dolphin on Steam and set the ball rolling.

The impression I get is that people don't see Nintendo like a normal soulless corporation; rather, they feel it has a soul and that soul is hostile. There's a widespread perception that Nintendo make special efforts to be anti-consumer even when it certainly looks as if those efforts are actually harming their business, or at least require failing to take steps that would help their business. So there's a feeling that while for most companies it's nothing personal, just business, Nintendo has an active bias towards actually hating their customers. It's like those stores that are so paranoid about shoplifters that they will have people following you around the whole time you're there and so you get the hell out without buying anything and tell your friends what jerks they are.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 20 July 2023 at 4:14 pm UTC

It's usually best to walk away from a fight you have no chance of winning.

These companies have their fanboys, but there are also more passive aggressive defenders... defending the behaviour in the first place, admonishing everyone that "All corporations are the same and they have every right..." etc.

I don't accept that. Sure, they may have the legal right to do the things they do, but I also have the right to hate and dis-promote them.