Dolphin is a cross-platform open source emulator that supports running Nintendo GameCube and Wii games on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android.
In March of this year, the Dolphin development team announced that it would land on the Steam platform in the second quarter of this year, but in May, after receiving a warning from Nintendo, the team announced that it would indefinitely postpone the plan to put it on the Steam version.
Recently, Dolphin confirmed that it has completely abandoned the Steam platform.
The Dolphin development team stated in a blog post released today that Nintendo officials have not sent a DMCA notice to the team or Valve to prevent the software from being released on the Steam platform .
The actual situation is that after learning that Dolphin was going to be on Steam, Valve's legal department contacted Nintendo and asked Nintendo about the news of Dolphin being on Steam.
In response, attorneys representing Nintendo of America said Valve was required to block the emulator from Steam under the DMCA , and Valve forwarded the email to Dolphin. Valve stated that Dolphin must resolve its own agreement with Nintendo, or it will not be available on shelves .
Considering Nintendo of America's legal team, Dolphin studied the content of the lawyer's letter very carefully internally, and also asked a lawyer to evaluate the matter. But at that time, the team was a little lacking in consideration, and issued a document stating that the launch of Dolphin was postponed. The main reason was that "Nintendo cited the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) to issue a cease and desist order against Dolphin's Steam page", which led to more suspicions from the outside world.
After a long period of consideration, Valve asked Dolphin to resolve the agreement with Nintendo, but obviously this was impossible, so Dolphin decided to give up listing on Steam.