4 ms·

Valve already knew that Nintendo is against emulation prior to sending the letter to Nintendo. The important datum here is that Nintendo has legal arguments why

by erfgh 3y ago

Valve already knew that Nintendo is against emulation prior to sending the letter to Nintendo. The important datum here is that Nintendo has legal arguments why Dolphin is illegal software and that's presumably why Valve decided to drop Dolphin.

dathinab 3y ago
> Nintendo has legal arguments why Dolphin is illegal software no Nintendo might have enough arguments to make a DACM take down request, but from the POV of many lawyers most likely not enough legal claims to have any chance at winning the dispute in court which would likely follow this is IMHO why they don't do a claim at all outside of steam But Nintendo is quite worried about emulation on Steam especially with the Steam Deck. They are obsessed with controlling the games through the hardware and have low end hardware many people would love to replace with something more beefy even if it's not officially supported. So I would be surprised if Nintendo hadn't pressured Valve into an agreement that they would reject and tell them about any Nintendo emulators long before Dolphin tried to go onto steam. Now due to the lack of DMCA claim and lack of access to steam Dolphin has two choices: 1. give up on it (for now) 2. provoke a legal case in one of multiple ways which would legally clarify if they are covered under law or not (which is expensive and while not very likely there is always the risk to lose it). Through if they are unlucky winning doesn't solve the problem as Valve could just add "no nintendo emulators allowed" to their TOS in which case they would have to sue Valve and Nintendo together for unfair market practices. ... as a non profit project it's pretty clear which option Dolphin can practically take, especially given that you still can put it on a steam deck etc. just with a bit extra steps.
easyThrowaway 3y ago
My guess is that in the past they probably had a nice talk where they pointed out they could pressure various publishers to drop Steam if Valve started adding current-gen emulators. Valve sent a letter and published nintendo's response just to make it very obvious they had their hands tied on the matter.
- LocalH 3y ago
  Dolphin is not a "current-gen emulator"
  - easyThrowaway 3y ago
    Yup, sorry - I conflated it with more recent systems due to the recently announced remakes for several Gamecube games.
sumtechguy 3y ago
Also maybe Valve just did not want to be the ones to have to fight it in court? Even if they were victorious it takes time from them that they can do other things. Many businesses will settle rather than fight something just because it is more expedient/cheaper not because it is right or wrong.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago
  Absolutely. No dog in this fight. Why risk it? A few months of legal jousting with Nintendo could cost more than any amount of money Dolphin would bring in, and plenty of other Nintendo IPs are sold on Steam. Valve publishes games for Switch, too. Whole lotta risk for 0 net gain, and possibly steep consequences.
yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
> The important datum here is that Nintendo has legal arguments why Dolphin is illegal software and that's presumably why Valve decided to drop Dolphin. If Nintendo had sound legal arguments, they would have already won a lawsuit, ergo it is reasonable to assume that they're just being Nintendo (i.e. loudly screaming that emulation is illegal regardless of the actual law).

by erfgh 3y ago

dathinab 3y ago

> Nintendo has legal arguments why Dolphin is illegal software no Nintendo might have enough arguments to make a DACM take down request, but from the POV of many lawyers most likely not enough legal claims to have any chance at winning the dispute in court which would likely follow this is IMHO why they don't do a claim at all outside of steam But Nintendo is quite worried about emulation on Steam especially with the Steam Deck. They are obsessed with controlling the games through the hardware and have low end hardware many people would love to replace with something more beefy even if it's not officially supported. So I would be surprised if Nintendo hadn't pressured Valve into an agreement that they would reject and tell them about any Nintendo emulators long before Dolphin tried to go onto steam. Now due to the lack of DMCA claim and lack of access to steam Dolphin has two choices: 1. give up on it (for now) 2. provoke a legal case in one of multiple ways which would legally clarify if they are covered under law or not (which is expensive and while not very likely there is always the risk to lose it). Through if they are unlucky winning doesn't solve the problem as Valve could just add "no nintendo emulators allowed" to their TOS in which case they would have to sue Valve and Nintendo together for unfair market practices. ... as a non profit project it's pretty clear which option Dolphin can practically take, especially given that you still can put it on a steam deck etc. just with a bit extra steps.

easyThrowaway 3y ago

My guess is that in the past they probably had a nice talk where they pointed out they could pressure various publishers to drop Steam if Valve started adding current-gen emulators. Valve sent a letter and published nintendo's response just to make it very obvious they had their hands tied on the matter.

LocalH 3y ago
Dolphin is not a "current-gen emulator"
- easyThrowaway 3y ago
  Yup, sorry - I conflated it with more recent systems due to the recently announced remakes for several Gamecube games.

sumtechguy 3y ago

Also maybe Valve just did not want to be the ones to have to fight it in court? Even if they were victorious it takes time from them that they can do other things. Many businesses will settle rather than fight something just because it is more expedient/cheaper not because it is right or wrong.

red-iron-pine 3y ago
Absolutely. No dog in this fight. Why risk it? A few months of legal jousting with Nintendo could cost more than any amount of money Dolphin would bring in, and plenty of other Nintendo IPs are sold on Steam. Valve publishes games for Switch, too. Whole lotta risk for 0 net gain, and possibly steep consequences.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago

> The important datum here is that Nintendo has legal arguments why Dolphin is illegal software and that's presumably why Valve decided to drop Dolphin. If Nintendo had sound legal arguments, they would have already won a lawsuit, ergo it is reasonable to assume that they're just being Nintendo (i.e. loudly screaming that emulation is illegal regardless of the actual law).