Tech

Nintendo forces Steam to remove a famous GameCube and Wii emulator from its platform

Nintendo recently sent Valve and the Dolphin emulator development team a DMCA takedown notice blocking the release of the Dolphin emulator for GameCube and Wii on Steam.

nintendo-switch
Nintendo Switch / Credit: 123rf

Bad news for emulator fans, Valve has been forced to block the release of one of the main Nintendo game emulators from its Steam platform. The creators of the Dolphin emulator, which would allow users to play GameCube and Wii games, announced that the planned release of the emulator on Steam was now postponed indefinitely.

Nintendo reportedly filed a DMCA takedown notice with Steam owner Valve against Dolphin’s page on the platform, and so that page has now been taken down. ” It is with great disappointment that we have to announce that the release of Dolphin on Steam has been indefinitely postponed. Valve informed us that Nintendo issued a cease and desist order citing the DMCA against Dolphin’s Steam page, and removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is resolved. We are investigating our options and will have a more detailed response in the near future. “, can we read in the announcement of the developers.

Nintendo goes on the hunt for emulators

Nintendo sent Valve a DMCA takedown notice to forward to the Dolphin development team, which states that the Dolphin emulator violates Nintendo’s rights under the DCMA’s anti-circumvention provision. According to Nintendo, the operation of the emulator implies that it uses certain cryptographic keys without permission from Nintendo.

Although emulation is in itself legalproviding users with ways to circumvent the protections of individual game ROMs could potentially violate Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. This is an issue that should be settled in court, but there is often a great imbalance between large companies and small developers.

It’s not not the first time that Nintendo has attacked emulators in this way. A few days ago, when Zelda Tears of the Kingdom leaked just before its release, Nintendo attacked other developers. Skyline, the extraordinary Nintendo Switch emulator on Android, had been forced to close its doors.

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