Dolphin, the fantastic GameCube and Wii games emulator, is officially coming to Steam in the second quarter of 2023.
The Steam version of Dolphin will be available for free download, as will the standalone version. It will start in Early Access, with plans to drop that moniker by the end of the year. The devs haven’t detailed much of what will be unique with this release, but “better Steam integration and a more streamlined UI for Steam Deck users” are on the table, according to the store page. Steam. opens in a new tab).
You can already install Dolphin on pretty much any platform supported by Steam, but a proper Steam build can provide some notable benefits. These include cloud saves, Steam Remote Play, and a much simpler setup process on the Steam Deck. This last point is perhaps the most notable here: Dolphin already works well on the Steam Deck, but it requires you to ditch the main handheld interface for a PC-like setup. The process isn’t hugely onerous, but it deviates from the all-in-one convenience of Steam Deck’s consolidated interface, a problem that this proper Steam version of Dolphin now solves.
You might wonder about the legality of all of this, but Dolphin’s Steam page is unlikely to go against Nintendo’s notoriously trigger-happy legal team. Classic hardware emulators are perfectly legal – it’s just the free distribution of copyrighted online games that’s against the law. The RetroArch emulator interface has been on Steam for a while now, and like RetroArch, Dolphin is careful to avoid mentioning Nintendo, its consoles, or its games directly on the Steam page.
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