9 ms·
Possibly an unpopular opinion, but I think this is a reasonable strategic move by Valve. They're a game distributor, Nintendo is a massive game publisher. Dist
by mijoharas 3y ago
Possibly an unpopular opinion, but I think this is a reasonable strategic move by Valve.
They're a game distributor, Nintendo is a massive game publisher. Distributing dolphin would piss Nintendo off.
As much as I'd like it as a user, it makes sense for Valve as a company.
- tadfisher 3y agoValve and Nintendo have no working relationship. There is an approximately 0% chance that Nintendo, as a game publisher, will ever publish on Steam. This is a pessimistic move by the legal department, nothing more.
- ThatPlayer 3y agoBut Valve does publish on Nintendo's eShop.
- thebigwinning 3y agoHow would their partners feel about how they treat others intellectual property?
- flangola7 3y agoNo IP is being infringed in this topic
- thebigwinning 3y agoWhether they are or not, it would be foolish to make any move that suggests they don't care about IP. That's how their partners make money on Steam.
- TylerE 3y agoNever say never. Look at Sega.
- cglong 3y agoEven Sony and Microsoft are now publishing their recent Greatest Hits on Steam!
- dustymcp 3y agoisnt that the sane option just keep the steam price higher than your own price and people would mostly prefer to buy directly to save money, then you get the exposure from steam but you can convert them to your platform.
- largepeepee 3y agoWell they are also discovering that many people would rather pay the 20-30% extra than deal with the hassle of a subpar platform. The cost to build/maintain a competent platform is also not cheap even for the big boys like EA.
- esrauch 3y agoI think there's some limit to that; Nintendo could sell the new Zelda for $250 on Steam and get some takers, but it won't make them more money just make them look greedy.
- Fire-Dragon-DoL 3y agoI think Valve has a clause in the contract that says the price on other platforms should be as low as the price on steam at most. Otherwise everybody could just use Steam as advertising platform. Of course I have no idea how contracts for big companies work
- sk0g 3y agoSega do not produce games to drive console sales. Nintendo's games rarely, if ever, hit other platforms.
- asveikau 3y agoApart from this being false as mentioned by other replies, Nintendo is a large player in the space with a big legal department. It could be a good strategic move not to piss them off.
- wodenokoto 3y agoNone at all? Then how did portal end up on my switch?
- stuckkeys 3y agoFor starters. He prolly never heard of portal lol
- jahsome 3y agoWould you elaborate on "no working relationship?"
- kupopuffs 3y agoStrong opinions here
- mijoharas 3y agoI was wondering things along these lines. I don't see there being a 0% chance (though admittedly a low one) that they bundle some of their back catalogue with an emulator and release the titles on PC (like Sega on Android/iOS). If they think the value of those sales would exceed the value added to the switch of eg Mario kart 64 being exclusive, then it'd make sense.
- hsbauauvhabzb 3y agoWhy back catalogue? Modern switch games on PC would appeal to a significant audience.
- mijoharas 3y agoTrue, but I think there is a much better argument in favour of gating the IP to promote switch hardware sales. (Again, from the perspective of Nintendo. It'd obviously be great if they released these things on different platforms from a user perspective)
- skeeter2020 3y agoNintendo only sells hardware because of exclusive titles. I think it's also unlikely that anyone on PC will pay $90 for a new title more than 3 months after release.
- mynameisvlad 3y agoNo, but who said it had to be full price? Sony has shown that people are willing to pay $50-60 for games that are a few years old but newly released on PC. See God of War, Horizon, Spider-Man, and I think there were a few more too.
- nazgulsenpai 3y agoI guess it just goes to show that even a juggernaut like Valve cowers in fear to appease Nintendo's lawyers. I saw a few weeks ago some coverage of the first E3 where Nintendo's entire presentation was about the dangers of the internet and software piracy and it was really enlightening and hilarious. Here's a video with some commentary: https://youtu.be/uMuJWADkMYY?t=1787 https://youtu.be/uMuJWADkMYY?t=1787
- candiodari 3y agoOr it could be that Nintendo's position is an interpretation of the law as intended by Congress. You know the law doing what it was meant to do. You don't agree. Great. But, sadly, the correct forum for that is Congress, not Steam.
- tinus_hn 3y agoAlternatively they didn’t cower in fear, they just didn’t see a business case in pissing off a big potential partner just so they could host a free app and gain nothing.
- santoshalper 3y agoHere's the thing though, Valve could have just waited to see what Nintendo would do. If Nintendo had submitted a DMCA takedown request, Valve could have evaluated it then. Admittedly, whether any of us like it or not, the takedown request would probably have been valid and Valve probably would have honored it. Still, I can't think of one good reason to ask.
- croes 3y agoBut Valve and Steam are PC, people can just install Dolphin without Steam
- haunter 3y agoSo Google is okay with it? It’s available for years + Play Store has a much bigger market reach https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dolphinemu.dolphinemu&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.dolphinemu...
- wiseowise 3y agoGoogle is a monopolist on Android. What Nintendo is going to do about? Create their own store?
- pmontra 3y agoSamsung does have its own store for stuff that's essentially a duplicate of what's available on Google Play. F-Droid is a store for open source apps that are often also available on Google Play. Nintendo could create its own store for its games, why not?
- wiseowise 3y agoAsk Epic how it went for them.
- rocketnasa 3y agoAmazon has an app store too
- eterevsky 3y agoIt's quite possible that nobody at Google actively looked into this. I don't know what would be the outcome if Nintendo sent Google a cease & desist regarding this.
- valianteffort 3y agoDoes it even matter? In the US emulators do not violate any laws.
- 3y ago
- janmarsal 3y agoA lot of evil deeds make perfect financial sense.
- jmorenoamor 3y agoI support emulation, but emulating a live system __and__ publishing it in Steam is pushing some ethical limits. I don't say breaking them, just entering a gray area. Nobody raised an eyebrow with RetroArch, which for me is the proper use for emulation. Software preservation and keeping alive out-of-market systems.
- thargor90 3y agoIs the Wii stillconsidered to be in the market?
- dingledork69 3y agoExplain why? Do you think it's ethical to have sold games that can't be played anymore?