Barbara
**DON’T KEEP WAITING FOR DOLPHIN – NINTENDO GAMES WON’T COME TO STEAM**
Welcome, gaming enthusiasts! We have some intriguing news to share with you. It seems that the long-awaited release of Nintendo GameCube and Wii games on Steam, facilitated by Dolphin Emulator, will not be happening after all. The Dolphin Emulator team recently announced that they have officially abandoned their efforts to bring Dolphin to the Steam platform.
You may recall that a few months ago, the release of Dolphin on Steam was postponed indefinitely. Valve, the company responsible for operating the store, had informed the Dolphin team that they would need to obtain permission from Nintendo in order for their software to be included. However, obtaining Nintendo’s approval for a release on Steam proved to be an impossible task, given Nintendo’s well-known stance on emulation. Therefore, Dolphin has reluctantly accepted that their dreams of a Steam release will not come to fruition.
Interestingly, it was revealed that Valve played a key role in Nintendo’s decision to remove Dolphin from their storefront. Valve proactively reached out to Nintendo, and subsequently, Nintendo issued a vague legal threat. This incident prompted discussions within the emulation community, with some questioning Dolphin’s position. It came to light that Dolphin indeed ships with Nintendo’s Wii Common Key, which enables the circumvention of copyright protection on Wii games (not GameCube games).
Nevertheless, the Dolphin team, having consulted legal counsel, maintain that their inclusion of the Wii Common Key does not violate any laws. They firmly believe that Dolphin is not exposed to any legal jeopardy, as they do not consider the Common Key to be copyrightable. Furthermore, they argue that the Common Key is not crucial to the legality of Dolphin’s disc decryption capabilities. They also assert that Dolphin is not primarily designed for circumvention purposes, in a manner that would contravene 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2)(A), a copyright regulation that deals with circumvention. Additionally, they contend that Dolphin should fall within the realm of the reverse engineering exemption provided by this regulation.
For detailed insight into Dolphin’s legal arguments and reasoning, we encourage you to visit their blog post. They provide a comprehensive analysis, which delves into the various aspects supporting their position.
In conclusion, we regret to inform you that Dolphin’s plans to bring Nintendo GameCube and Wii games to Steam have been abandoned due to the insurmountable obstacle of obtaining Nintendo’s approval. Nonetheless, Dolphin remains confident in the legality of their software and contends that they are not in any legal jeopardy. It will be interesting to see how this story unfolds within the gaming industry.
Stay tuned for more intriguing updates!
Sources:
1. Dolphin Emulator’s official blog post: [Link](https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2023/07/20/what-happened-to-dolphin-on-steam/#what-about-the-key)
2. Additional sources, excluding The Verge, were utilized for this article.
