Nintendo blocks Dolphin emulator from Steam

Nintendo has forced Valve to remove Dolphin, a free open-source emulator for GameCube and Wii games, from Steam. The company sent a legal notice to Valve on May 26, accusing Dolphin of violating its intellectual property rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The Dolphin team can either challenge the notice or comply with it. If they challenge it, Nintendo may sue them in court, which could affect the future of emulators. The Dolphin team says it’s still deciding what to do and will update the public soon. Meanwhile, Dolphin is still available on its website and GitHub page since Nintendo did not contact the Dolphin team directly.

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Steam to halt Windows 7, 8 support in 2024

Image: Valve

Steam will officially stop supporting Windows 7 and Windows 8 (and Windows 8.1) starting January 1, 2024. According to Valve, the newest features in Steam need an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer works with these older versions of Windows. Plus, future versions of Steam will need Windows features and security updates available in Windows 10 and above. So, if you haven't made the shift to the newer Windows operating system yet and use Steam, now is the time to switch.

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2 unreleased Mac models were found in Steam's database

A couple of unreleased Mac models were spotted in Steam's November 2022 survey. This survey gathers anonymous information from willing Steam users on details about their computers (including computer models, memory, CPU type, and more). Two unreleased Macs with the identifiers "Mac14,6" and "Mac15,4" were seen at the bottom of the list alongside identifiers for Apple devices like the Mac Studio, M2 MacBook Air, and 13-inch M2 MacBook Pro. The two devices were listed with 0% usage on Steam's platform, but their inclusion in the list suggests the company is testing the devices with upcoming Apple silicon chips on the gaming platform.

The "Mac14,6" was already spotted before in two separate Geekbench score entries with the M2 Max processor. That chip is rumoured to come out in the upcoming 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros, which has been reportedly delayed to 2023.

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Valve won't host a Lunar New Year sale anymore

Source: Valve

Valve is changing the frequency of its big sales. Starting in 2023, Steam will forego its Lunar New Year Sale for the spring sale. That will run from March 16 to 23. According to the company, the spring sale is a popular request from developers and publishers. Many commented how the Lunar New Year sale (around late January or early February) ran too close to the December holiday sale.

"It will allow us to create more space between our four major seasonal sales and provide more opportunities throughout the year for developers to expand and execute their discounting calendar," Valve said in a blog post. "We think many publishers will still opt to discount games around the Lunar New Year holiday, using the custom discount tools. But we suspect customers will be better served by a little bit more time between the big Steam-wide seasonal sales."

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