Nintendo has issued a DMCA takedown notice to Valve and the Dolphin Emulator development team, preventing the release of the GameCube and Wii Dolphin Emulator on Steam. The Dolphin Emulator is a popular game console emulator that enables users to play GameCube and Wii games on their PC, Android, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The development team had planned to release the emulator on Steam in the second quarter of 2023, but further progress updates have been put on hold due to the recent legal action.
Nintendo has taken action against the Dolphin Emulator by sending a DMCA takedown notice to Valve. The notice stated that the emulator violated Nintendo's rights as per the provision of the DCMA relating to anti-circumvention. Nintendo claimed that the emulator makes use of certain cryptographic keys without their authorization.
The Dolphin Emulator development team has announced in a blog post that the release of Dolphin on Steam has been postponed indefinitely. They are currently exploring their options and plan to provide more details soon. This move by game and console developers to block emulator use is not new, with Microsoft previously taking measures to prevent emulators from being used on Xbox consoles. While emulators have generally been given some leeway as their use is not illegal, Nintendo's anti-circumvention argument could set a new precedent if they win a legal case against game console emulators. It's unclear why Nintendo has only recently taken issue with the Dolphin Emulator's release on Steam, given that its use and functions have not been a problem in the past.
Sources: PC Gamer, Dolphin Emulator
