ACNH Remake Coming 2023 - Rumors & Theories about Shutdown of the Dolphin Emulator
In this guide, we are going to breakdown the latest Nintendo news surrounding the shutdown of the Dolphin Emulator Animal Crossing, and discuss rumours and theories as to why Nintendo decided to do this.
ACNH Remake Coming 2023 - Rumors & Theories of Shutdown of the Dolphin Emulator
Nintendo has been hitting the headlines over the weekend as they have effectively stopped the Dolphin Emulator releasing on Steam. And no-matter how you feel about emulating games, this could be great news for the Switch, and maybe even Animal Crossing.
Now, the Dolphin Emulator is essentially a third-party Emulator that lets allows users to play Gamecube and Nintendo Wii games, off console and on their computers. This is no secret, emulation has been around for as long as the Internet, but it seems this week Nintendo decided they didn’t like the idea of people playing Gamecube and Wii Games directly through Steam. So issued a DMCA takedown for the listing, to essentially stop it before it was released. Now, Nintendo are well within their rights to protect their IP, but for now at least, this does seem limited to the Steam Release.
Anyway, the first thing that comes to mind is why would Nintendo care about people playing old games, that are no-longer officially supported, if they’re not planning something. So, this has got people wondering whether this is less about Nintendo protecting their old games, and more about future-proofing what’s next for Nintendo Switch. And when you consider the Steam release of Dolphin would have allowed users to play Gamecube games on Desktop or handheld using the Steam Deck for example, you can see why Nintendo would be concerned about this. And in short, makes you wonder is this because Nintendo are actually preparing to bring Gamecube and Wii games to Nintendo Switch in some capacity?
Now Nintendo have released a pretty in-depth statement regarding this matter that you can read it here:
This essentially states this version of Dolphin circumvents Nintendo’s protection measures and ultimately harms development and innovation. Which sounds like it could be damaging for something Nintendo is developing. Anyway, after the Pikmin Release which is in July, Nintendo doesn’t have too much announced for what’s next, other than a few Gameboy Game Titles, so its feasible to think maybe Nintendo are planning to either finally bring Gamecube Games to Nintendo Switch Online later this year, just like they did recently with Gameboy Games, or even port some Best-Sellers from Gamecube and Wii to Nintendo Switch. Should this be the case, you can see why Nintendo wouldn’t want anything like Dolphin releasing on Steam, affecting this era of video games.
Anyway, with all this in mind, things may be starting to fall in-place for Animal Crossing. Because if this does hint that Nintendo are planning to release a Gamecube App, then the Gamecube version of Animal Crossing will almost certainly get a release. And if this hints at ports rather than the App, there’s a good chance Animal Crossing will get a port instead. So with nothing much announced after Pikmin, and Nintendo confirming their presence at conventions later in the year, which will feature Animal Crossing by the way, it really gets you wondering what exactly are they planning. Especially seems we don't know too much about what's happening in the second half of the year. And Animal Crossing New Horizon has been out for 3 and a half years now, it's been incredibly popular, and not only are they going to want to do more, with the likes of Nintendo Switch Online, they're going to want to do something with Animal Crossing pretty soon, and what better way to keep the franchise alive than release a port, or release a retro version of Animal Crossing.
This is all rumour and speculation, and Nintendo could just be protecting their back catalogue but the timing certainly seems strange. But what do you think? Could we finally see GameCube games on Switch, and a retro Animal Crossing no-less?
