The Promise of Finding Nintendo Games on PC
To play Nintendo games, it’s actually quite simple: you need to have a console from the Japanese giant. This rule may seem perfectly logical, but it limits the possibilities and choices for gamers, especially when it comes to Nintendo’s catalog of past games. The company retains control of its licenses and tries to bring as many of its old games as possible to the Switch with the online subscription offer; however, this greatly restricts the accessibility to games, making them unavailable.
To combat this issue, emulators often emerge on PC, and Dolphin is a well-known one that makes it easier to access Gamecube and Wii games, offering additional features. The emulator can be found on the official website, but it gained significant attention when it arrived in the Steam catalog, the leading platform for PC gamers. Unfortunately, this arrival has been canceled.
Dolphin on Steam, it’s over (definitely)
When it comes to intellectual property, Nintendo is firm and categorically refuses to allow its licenses to be manipulated without authorization. Emulators exist in a legal gray area, allowing them to survive under certain conditions. To effectively combat these emulators, Nintendo prefers to target the sites that distribute or host them. This is exactly what happened with Dolphin, as its Steam page was recently taken down.
A detailed press release was shared by the emulator’s team, shedding light on the situation and confirming the unfortunate news: Dolphin will not be available on Steam. Notably, Nintendo did not directly contact the Dolphin team; instead, Valve, the company behind Steam, handled the situation.