Dolphin Emulator Won’t Release on Steam After All

Dolphin, the open-source emulator for Nintendo GameCube and Wii, will no longer release on Steam.

In a blog post published today, the Dolphin Emulator Project Team announced it is canceling the Steam release of the emulator. “We are abandoning our efforts to release Dolphin on Steam,” the Dolphin Emulator Project team said. “Valve ultimately runs the store and can set any condition they wish for software to appear on it.”

The team behind Dolphin announced its plans in late March to release the emulator on Valve’s PC digital distribution platform, Steam. However, in May, the team announced that the Steam release was “indefinitely postponed” after receiving a cease-and-desist order from Nintendo.

A few days later, it was reported Valve had notified Nintendo that the Dolphin Emulator was being released on Steam. The emulator’s project team notes in the blog post that Nintendo’s legal counsel requested Valve stop the release of the emulator on Steam and that Valve told the team it “had to come to an agreement with Nintendo” before it could release on the platform. Nintendo defended its decision to issue a cease-and-desist against the emulator, insisting its existence “harms development and ultimately stifles innovation”.

Dolphin Emulator was initially released in 2003, and in addition to running on Windows computers it runs on several other platforms. The ethics and legality of video game emulation is a regularly discussed topic in the industry, but Nintendo’s position is clear, and it’s had a chilling effect on the emulation community. Last month Reddit shut down the most prominent Nintendo Switch emulation and piracy subreddit after its member count balloned following the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.