Developers of the popular Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii emulation software Dolphin have announced that it's being ported to Steam. While the Steam Deck's biggest selling point is its affordable price point compared to desktop gaming PCs and accessibility for major AAA releases, its potential for emulation has built a growing niche audience. There's a diverse range of Steam Deck emulation software available, but native support for Dolphin could prove to be one of the platform's most exciting releases yet.Dolphin is an emulator for two of Nintendo's recent consoles, the Nintendo GameCube and the Nintendo Wii. The emulation software is entirely open-source and is free to download and use for any purpose. Hundreds have worked on Dolphin over the years, and it remains in active development today as the emulators seek to continue optimization and increase support for games that may not work or hardware that may not be supported.For the time being, Dolphin is not currently supported on Steam. The developers of the Dolphin emulator have simply announced that it will be launching in the second quarter of 2023, and have started a Steam profile allowing fans to wishlist it. Planned features and the process of using Dolphin through Steam will be confirmed at a later date. It should be made clear that the Dolphin developer team refers to the release as an "experiment," though it's been in the works for months.
What's also important to clarify is that the Dolphin emulator is being released as an application for users to run their own legally acquired software on. Dolphin does not supply any games itself. It is not officially tied to Nintendo or Nintendo's software in any capacity. Users will need to legally dump copies of their own GameCube and Wii games into a compatible format, which can then be run through Dolphin.
Dolphin has technically been available to use on Steam Deck for some time now, through indirect means. Dolphin can be installed on Steam Deck via the EmuDeck software, for example. Or it can be installed using Decky and PowerTools, though it requires some extra work. This recent announcement is for official support of Steam, which means optimization and troubleshooting that wasn't available prior.
Fans of emulation will understandably be very excited about this decision by the Dolphin development team. To be able to play emulated Nintendo GameCube and Nintendo Wii games with the Steam Deck, as a handheld device, is very exciting. Expect more news regarding Dolphin's Steam release in the next several months.
