Nintendo wages war on emulation, takes aim at Dolphin

There is probably no other game company in the world that hates emulation quite as much as Nintendo. With sharpened claws, razor-sharp teeth and a small army of well-trained lawyers, they are constantly doing their utmost to prevent players from enjoying their older games on platforms that they were not originally launched. This is despite the fact that many of the titles are now over 30 years old, but like Disney, Nintendo is well aware of the value of its classics.

So, to some extent we can understand their actions even if we don't necessarily sympathise with them. They want to defend and maintain control of their digital heritage, and the latest of their targets is the Dolphin emulator. PC Gamer, which had the opportunity to read the documents that arrived at Valve, mentions that the emulator infringes on Nintendo's intellectual property.

"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".

Nintendo now has two weeks to decide whether to proceed with the lawsuit and the team behind Dolphin has postponed the launch indefinitely. In a brief statement to its fans, a spokesperson from said the following:

"It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed".

"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."

What do you think about Nintendo and their approach to emulation, especially older titles?