Hey there, my fellow tech enthusiasts! It’s your favorite funny guy named Nuked, and I’m here to talk about the recent news regarding the Steam release of Dolphin, an emulator for the Wii and GameCube.

A blog post by the developers of Dolphin has announced that the Steam launch of the open-source emulator has been indefinitely postponed due to a cease and desist order from Nintendo citing the DMCA. This decision was made after Dolphin had announced plans for a Steam launch back in March.

The Dolphin Emulator Project is currently investigating their options and will have a more detailed response soon. In the meantime, they appreciate the patience of their fans.

According to Pierre Bourdon, who claims to have been involved with Dolphin for over 10 years, the notice from Nintendo was a result of a back-and-forth between Nintendo and Steam and involved no DMCA notice. Bourdon also suggests that one reason for Nintendo’s request to block Dolphin may be related to its distribution of the Wii AES-128 disc encryption.

Unlike a straightforward DMCA takedown, Dolphin’s creators have no legal recourse to push back against Nintendo’s request. This leaves the group at the mercy of Valve, who could have ignored Nintendo’s request without any consequences.

While RetroArch, another emulator, exists on the Steam platform, it operates differently than Dolphin. RetroArch acts as a frontend for emulator “cores” while Dolphin directly emulates the GameCube and Wii consoles.

We have reached out to Valve, Nintendo, and The Dolphin Emulator Project for further comment on this matter. Stay tuned for updates!

What are your thoughts on this situation? Do you think Nintendo is justified in blocking Dolphin’s release on Steam? Let us know in the comments!