Dolphin on Steam Postponed Due To a Lawsuit

The Dolphin emulator will not initially appear on Steam. The lawyers for the publisher Nintendo have filed a cease and desist letter and temporarily blocked the release. However, it is questionable whether a lawsuit by Nintendo will stand up in court.

Dolphin is one of the most famous GameCube and Wii emulators. Two months ago, the developers announced that they would also offer the program via Steam. This would allow the software to be more widely distributed and used more easily on the Steam Deck. In order to be able to run games, the ROMs of the respective titles are required in addition to the emulator. The files are copyrighted and are not included.

Developers consider their options

After the relevant Steam page was cleared, Nintendo’s lawyers have now sent a cease and desist letter to Valve’s legal department. The message states that the emulator infringes on Nintendo’s intellectual property rights and is to be removed from the store under the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The message was forwarded to the development team, who initially complied with the request.

The developers have postponed the release indefinitely and are currently evaluating their options. If the team cannot reach an agreement with the Japanese console manufacturer, the case should end up in court. Whether Nintendo can win a lawsuit remains to be seen. It has long been a matter of debate whether ROM decrypting code contained in emulators infringes copyright or not. In theory, the program can only be used to run homebrew apps. A judgment could have positive or negative consequences for the emulation scene.