Valve has removed the Steam listing of Dolphin, a popular emulator for the GameCube and Wii, after it received a cease and desist order from Nintendo, the developers behind the project’s claim. The company behind Mario And zelda It accuses the emulator of illegally circumventing its safeguards, and says it only protects “the hard work and creativity of video game engineers and developers”.
Dolphin listing on Valve’s digital storefront It debuted in March. “We’re excited to announce our great experience – Dolphin is coming to Steam!” The creators wrote at that time. While the open source project has been around online for years, interest in retro emulators has been on the rise since Launch Steam Deckand the official store page will create the widget easier to access.
However, Dolphin Developers announced on May 27 that the Steam port would be “indefinitely delayed” after Valve removed the following slate for discussions with Nintendo. Emulator team wrote in Update on the project blog. “We have been notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist DMCA inference against the Dolphin Steam page, and we have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is resolved. We are currently considering our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future.” .
Based on a copy of the legal notice It has been previously reviewed computer gamesNintendo, accusing Dolphin of using “encryption keys without Nintendo’s permission and decrypting ROMs at or just before boot time.” While emulation in and of itself is legal, it provides users with ways to bypass protections on an individual game’s ROM You may infringe Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. It’s a problem to be resolved in court, though the power imbalance between large corporations and homebrew projects like Dolphin means it rarely happens in practice.
“Nintendo is committed to protecting the hard work and creativity of video game engineers and developers,” said a Nintendo spokesperson. Kotaku in a letter. This emulator illegally circumvents Nintendo’s protection measures and runs illegal copies of games. The use of 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.”
While the company has rarely looked the other way when it comes to piracy of its games and tools that can facilitate it (Such as modification chips sold online), Nintendo has been particularly aggressive lately in cracking down on leaks and what it believes to be illegal misuse of its games and technology. In February the command called Dispute over personal information Someone suspected of leaking the official The Legend of Zelda: Kingdom’s Tears art book. In April, it issued several copyright strikes Dozens of popular Breath of the Wild Gameplay videos on YouTube which was based on modified versions of the game. And in May, it appeared to have a Switch emulator, Lotpick, in it. It has been removed from github After illegal copying of Kingdom Tears It started spreading like wildfire across the internet before the game’s official release.
It’s not yet clear how existing Dolphin developers will respond, or how willing Valve is to bring the Store page back unless the issue is resolved in court, which could take years. last year, transverse valveLyu Zu Switch emulator included In the YouTube trailer for Steam Deck. The video was later edited and re-uploaded to remove the reference. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.