The limitations of playing Nintendo games on PC
To play Nintendo games, it’s actually quite simple: you need to own a console from the Japanese giant. This rule may seem perfectly logical, but it limits the possibilities and options of the players, especially when it comes to the catalog of previous Nintendo games. The company retains control of its licenses and tries to bring as many of its old games to Switch as possible with the online subscription offering; however, this greatly restricts the accessibility of the games, so they are not available.
To combat this problem, emulators often pop up on PC, and Dolphin is a well-known one that makes it easy to access Gamecube and Wii games by offering additional features. The emulator can be found on the official website, but it gained a lot of attention when it hit Steam, the leading platform for PC gamers. Unfortunately, this arrival has been cancelled.
The end of Dolphin on Steam
When it comes to intellectual property, Nintendo is adamant and categorically refuses to allow its licenses to be tampered with without authorization. Emulators exist in a legal gray area, which allows 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.
The emulator team shared a detailed press release that sheds light on the situation and confirms the unfortunate news: Dolphin will not be available on Steam. Notably, Nintendo did not contact the Dolphin team directly; instead, Valve, the company behind Steam, handled the situation.