Nintendo sends Valve DMCA notice to block Steam release of Wii emulator Dolphin

John Elden Ring

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On Friday, the developers behind open source GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin received a DMCA takedown notice from Nintendo blocking Dolphin's impending release on Steam.

The development team launched a Steam page on March 28 and announced it on the Dolphin blog, writing: "We're pleased to finally tell the world of our experiment. This has been the product of many months of work, and we look forward to getting it into users' hands soon!"

The legal notice, reviewed by PC Gamer, is addressed to Valve's legal department and dated May 26, 2023.
"Because the Dolphin emulator violates Nintendo’s intellectual property rights, including but not limited to its rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)’s Anti-Circumvention and AntiTrafficking provisions, 17 U.S.C. § 1201, we provide this notice to you of your obligation to remove the offering of the Dolphin emulator from the Steam store.

Under the DMCA, notices like this one are sent to service providers—Valve, in this case—who then must notify the allegedly infringing party. The Dolphin development team has the option to file a counter-notice with Valve if it believes the emulator doesn't violate the DMCA as Nintendo claims, or to comply with the takedown. If the team does file a counterclaim, as explained by Copyright Alliance, Nintendo has about two weeks to decide whether to sue. If it doesn't, Dolphin could then potentially be re-added to Steam.

The question is whether Nintendo would truly pursue legal action in this case—and if it did, what would happen. A ruling in either direction would have far-reaching implications for emulation, as most if not all emulators of modern game systems could likely be held in violation of the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions if Nintendo were to win the case. If a ruling went in Dolphin's favor, it would likewise be a major vindication for the emulation scene.

Previous lawsuits to do with emulation, filed by Sony against Bleem! and Connectix, both found that the emulators had not violated copyright with their use of the PlayStation BIOS and firmware. Those lawsuits have long been used as a precedent to uphold emulation as legal in the United States, but it's a complex topic, and Nintendo's case here would likely be argued on different legal grounds.

The DCMA letter sent to Valve cites the anti-circumvention language of the DMCA and specifically claims that "the Dolphin emulator operates by incorporating these cryptographic keys without Nintendo’s authorization and decrypting the ROMs at or immediately before runtime. Thus, use of the Dolphin emulator unlawfully 'circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under' the Copyright Act."

For the time being Dolphin will remain off Steam. Its Github page and website remain unaffected—the emulator developers have received no direct contact from Nintendo or takedown notices targeting the other places where the emulator is hosted.

It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed," the Dolphin development team stated on its blog Friday. "We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a DMCA against Dolphin's Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future.
 
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KnittedKnight

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DMCA Notice by Sony to Steam to remove Sony PC games from SteamDeck when Project Q releases?

Or am I expecting too much from the idiots at SIE?

At the very least a clause that says that no game released on the Steam store shall be sold in fixed hardware handhelds or fixed hardware consoles carrying Steam?

If Steam were to say no to a clause modification then you know for sure their intentions - that is, that they have intentions now or in the future, even if never realized to directly compete with you and regard you internally as a competitor. It's the perfect bait short of doing what should be done (no PC releases). Of course Valve may come up with the BS that in order to agree to such a thing they'll have to actually tweak Steam and UA's etc .... so as to make it an "unreasonable ask" but still.....

Incompetence can sometimes be infinite.

Nintendo ain't taking no chances, as it should. This Dolphin release was an affront with the sole purpose to bait and see the response.
 
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Satoru

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DMCA Notice by Sony to Steam to remove Sony PC games from SteamDeck when Project Q releases?

Or am I expecting too much from the idiots at SIE?

At the very least a clause that says that no game released on the Steam store shall be sold in fixed hardware handhelds or fixed hardware consoles carrying Steam?

If Steam were to say no to a clause modification then you know for sure their intentions - that is, that they have intentions now or in the future, even if never realized to directly compete with you and regard you internally as a competitor. It's the perfect bait short of doing what should be done (no PC releases). Of course Valve may come up with the BS that in order to agree to such a thing they'll have to actually tweak Steam and UA's etc .... so as to make it an "unreasonable ask" but still.....

Incompetence can sometimes be infinite.

Nintendo ain't taking no chances, as it should. This Dolphin release was an affront with the sole purpose to bait and see the response.

Why should Sony do this? Like, the steamdeck is a computer. That would be proper anti consumer of them.
 
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Nhomnhom

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DMCA Notice by Sony to Steam to remove Sony PC games from SteamDeck when Project Q releases?

Or am I expecting too much from the idiots at SIE?

At the very least a clause that says that no game released on the Steam store shall be sold in fixed hardware handhelds or fixed hardware consoles carrying Steam?

If Steam were to say no to a clause modification then you know for sure their intentions - that is, that they have intentions now or in the future, even if never realized to directly compete with you and regard you internally as a competitor. It's the perfect bait short of doing what should be done (no PC releases). Of course Valve may come up with the BS that in order to agree to such a thing they'll have to actually tweak Steam and UA's etc .... so as to make it an "unreasonable ask" but still.....

Incompetence can sometimes be infinite.

Nintendo ain't taking no chances, as it should. This Dolphin release was an affront with the sole purpose to bait and see the response.
Gtfo, it's their choice to release their game on Steam an they should have no say on what type of computer people will play it once they bought it.

Sony/ND even promoted their botched TLoU Part I port as Deck compatible if I'm not mistaken.
 

ethomaz

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DMCA Notice by Sony to Steam to remove Sony PC games from SteamDeck when Project Q releases?

Or am I expecting too much from the idiots at SIE?

At the very least a clause that says that no game released on the Steam store shall be sold in fixed hardware handhelds or fixed hardware consoles carrying Steam?

If Steam were to say no to a clause modification then you know for sure their intentions - that is, that they have intentions now or in the future, even if never realized to directly compete with you and regard you internally as a competitor. It's the perfect bait short of doing what should be done (no PC releases). Of course Valve may come up with the BS that in order to agree to such a thing they'll have to actually tweak Steam and UA's etc .... so as to make it an "unreasonable ask" but still.....

Incompetence can sometimes be infinite.

Nintendo ain't taking no chances, as it should. This Dolphin release was an affront with the sole purpose to bait and see the response.
That doesn’t even make sense.

Sony release games for PC (that include Steam Deck).
Project Q is just a mobile screen accessory for PS5… not a gaming device… it won’t run games.
 

Gods&Monsters

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I won't get into it because "game preservation" is a hot topic but I agree with Nintendo. Delete all emulators.
 

Satoru

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Nintendo is a trash company. They'd be more evil than Disney if they had a comparable IP catalog. I'd be embarrassed to own a Nintendo Switch.

Are you 12? Why should anyone be embarrassed of owning a console?
 

KnittedKnight

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Every gaming device is a computer.

Steam Deck is a fixed hardware, handheld, gaming dedicated personal computer (it runs Steam Os).

You know what is also like a SteamDeck? The Nintendo Switch - a fixed hardware, handheld, gaming dedicated personal computer (it runs the Nintendo OS).

It seems that the widespread usage of terminology like "gaming dedicated device" and "console" has confused some when it comes to the proper terminology of these things. Not that old to remember the FAMICOM aka the Family Computer aka the Nintendo Entertainment System?

The slippery slope is simple.

There is absolutely nothing stopping today an agreement between Steam and MS from agreeing to have the Steam Store launcher on an Xbox Series S/X.

In that scenario I wonder if some folks here rushing to give their comments on the matter approve or think it's appropriate that PlayStation exclusives run through Steam on Xbox Series X - a direct competitor to Sony's Personal Computer (aka the PS5). Since of course the essence of the argument most are focusing on is the unclear competitive position and nature of the SteamDeck vs. Project Q. Of course there are questions as to why MS would even agree since the Steam Store directly competes with them for third party royalties but that is not the point - the point is it's a possible scenario, however unlikely, describing a potential conflict.

But more to this case, and even worse, say an emulator to the PS4/5 running through Steam to support emulated """"""self-owned""""" releases, more so than just launching properly cracked pirated releases, which you can do through Steam btw. Of course it won't get to that because then it would also cut into the pockets of third-party publishers and Steam's own pocket thus they'll clamp down on it and boot it out - hence why they hold ultimate veto on what goes on their store (they're not stupid, they rule their castle, nobody else does).

But lets even flip it.... I'm extremely sure that Valve won't be a massive hypocrite and cry to high heavens if Sony were to allow a Half Life Alyx emulator on PS VR 2 with the sole purpose of skirting Steam's exclusivity, and all the old Valve games no one gives a shit about anymore. Of course, when your ultimate goal is to position yourself as the one stop shop of every publisher in gaming and become the ultimate middle-man (pushing all the other middle-man out through a slow grind - including Nintendo/Sony).... being in the software business is counter-productive for this very reason (which is why Valve has given up more or less on software and doesn't stray away from their Steam Store anymore - unless forced by competition, occasionally). Valve is a slimy snake, and Gabe is a shrewd MF, smart, but not something you can't see through. I'm even sure in this scenario they would contemplate a trade-off in a war cause they have less to lose than a Sony or Nintendo. Gabe is not foreign to this - we've already seen it. Thus it's imperative for Sony to get a hold of this shit before it bites them in the ass. That Valve is not a publicly-traded holding stock company but private also says a lot - for the face of PC gaming. Financials are quiet, everything is quiet.

Folks are not giving this more than superficial thought and that's fine but most don't understand what's the problem at play.

Reminds me of Connetix, and the horrible precedents set then. This BS eventually came to backfire on American companies, despite the initial target being mostly the Japanese.

I'm expecting full compliance from Steam here, I don't think at this stage in the game Valve will pick a fight to stick it to Nintendo - just yet. If they are smart they will continue to play the long game, they need more leverage on the market, say 20m least consumers on the SteamDeck.... despite the obvious gains that a publicized fight may give them short term - it'll hurt them long-term. God knows their fans are rabid and crazy - for the ultimate middle-man.
 
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Satoru

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You are personally complicit in this, as are all switch owners:

Wait, you're saying I'm complicit of someone's poor life choices? Get out of here. I could say the same about PlayStation owners.


Your argument is dumb.
 
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