Devs speak out.
It turns out it’s Valve’s fault that the Wii and Gamecube-focused Dolphin emulator isn’t available on Steam, its developers have recently explained.
While a majority of players assumed that it was Nintendo that sent a cease and desist letter to Valve to block Dolphin’s appearance, it turns out the whole thing is Valve’s doing. At least, according to Dolphin devs.
“Nintendo did not send Valve or Dolphin a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) section 512(c) notice (commonly known as a DMCA Takedown Notice) against our Steam page,” reads a post on the Dolphin blog. “Nintendo has not taken any legal action against Dolphin Emulator or Valve.”
Instead, Valve contacted Nintendo to “inquire about the announced release of Dolphin Emulator on Steam”, then “forwarded us the statement from Nintendo’s lawyers, and told us that we had to come to an agreement with Nintendo in order to release on Steam.”
The Dolphin devs announced they’re “abandoning our efforts to release Dolphin on Steam” as a result. It’s not all bad news, though — the emulator can still be downloaded directly.
This news comes alongside a report that 9 in 10 games before 2010 are inaccessible to players; we spoke about the phenomenon here on our most recent Friendly Fire Show podcast.
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