Dolphin Emulator devs abandon Steam launch following legal chats with Valve
Valve reportedly told the Dolphin developers they would have to get Nintendo's approval to release the emulator on Steam, which was likely impossible.
The developers of the Dolphin Emulator made a lot of folks happy when they announced they’d be trying to bring the app to Steam. Unfortunately, it seems that particular avenue of availability was not meant to be. After some legal back and forth between the developers, Valve, and Nintendo, the devs have abandoned their plans to bring Dolphin to Steam.
The Dolphin developers shared the current state of affairs about the emulator and what happened with Steam in a recent blog post. According to the devs, a DMCA was not issued either by Valve or Nintendo. It was a matter of getting approval that sunk the opportunity.
Source: Dolphin Emulator
The developers go on to say that since getting approval from Nintendo would likely be impossible, they decided to abandon the effort to meet Valve’s demands in having Dolphin on Steam. There is some amount of good news for the Dolphin Emulator, though. In the process of dealing with the Steam issue, the Dolphin devs also spoke with a lawyer about legal claims Nintendo was making against the Emulator in its letter to Valve. Simply put, the devs don’t feel their work could be considered law-breaking.
So, it seems a Dolphin release on Steam is dead in the water, but the program itself will not be terminated. It will remain to be seen if Nintendo tries to take further legal action, but the Dolphin team seems highly confident that nothing bad will come of it. Stay tuned as we continue to watch for further updates.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Dolphin Emulator devs abandon Steam launch following legal chats with Valve
