Steam: Dolphin Emulator Is Coming to the Game Store This Year as Valve Plans to Drop Windows 7 and 8 Support Next Year

Emulation on PC is about to become even more easy, as everyone’s favorite emulator, Dolphin, makes its way to Steam.

A Steam version for the popular emulator has been in development for the past few months, and the developers recently unveiled a Steam store page, which showcases a Q2 2023 release for Dolphin.

However, the developers have stated that details on how users can install the emulator will be done at launch. As mentioned in the description, the emulator will allow players to try out the Big N’s (Nintendo, Duh!) 6th and 7th generation consoles, which are the GameCube and Wii, respectively.

The arrival of Dolphin on Steam will make life easier for players who want to emulate games on Valve’s new portable console, Steam Deck. With a console on the go, players will have the opportunity to experience some of the most classic titles, such as Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and more.

Valve announces plans to stop Steam support for Windows 7 and 8 devices

In other news, Valve has announced its plans to stop Steam support for devices working on Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.

The Valve-owned client won’t operate on these systems from January 1, 2024. After that date, users will need to update their operating systems to Windows 10 or 11 in order to run Steam and any of its games.

The reason behind the discontinuation of support stems from Steam’s new features, which runs on an embedded version of Google Chrome, and it no longer functions on older variants of Windows. Moreover, the developers have also confirmed that upcoming Steam variants will require “Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.”