People have many reasons Buy Steam Decks, Valve’s new portable gaming PC. This allows them to take their favorite Steam games on the go. Others use it to get the most out of Xbox Game Pass on PC. Some people use it to run a Nintendo Switch emulator called Yuzu. Valve also acknowledged it in a recent YouTube video showing off the handheld’s very Switch-like HDMI dock.
You’d have to be pretty eagle-eyed to spot the reference in the less than three-minute YouTube clip, but Twitter gaming insider Nibel did, and he mentioned it in his tweet that immediately exploded. Yuzu’s thumbnail only appears on the main screen for a few seconds, but it’s totally there and was probably uploaded by whoever at Valve helped make the YouTube video.
By the end of the day, Valve had removed the video and replaced with a new one where the Yuzu miniature has been replaced with art Portal 2. But the damage is done: One of the world’s biggest game companies has officially addressed the taboo subject of video game emulation. “The Streisand effect is strong with this one,” said one commenter. “I’ll definitely be emulating the Switch on Steam.”
As an emulator, Yuzu allows people to play Switch games on non-Switch devices. Traditionally, this means computers, but Valve and a flood of others portable gaming computers market, there are other options that are hitting now. While some people are likely to pirate any Switch game they play using an emulator, it is possible to legally buy a Switch game, flash the ROM to a PC, and then run it using Yuzu or another emulator. higher resolution and frame rate More than possible on a Nintendo device. (More people who want to support the game’s developers will pay for the game and then download the ROM separately, which isn’t strictly legal, but is considered brainwashing in many people’s minds.)
The Mario However, the manufacturer has historically taken a very hard line against any form of imitation. After the DS and 3DS were hacked, they became popular hotbeds for piracy of not only old and discontinued games for decades, but new ones as well. Earlier this year, the anti-piracy company Denuvo announced a new set of products It’s aimed specifically at developers with games on the Switch and promises to protect them from trying to play elsewhere through a new type of proprietary DRM.
Steam deck, meanwhile, has become a hotspot for all other types of emulation besides the Switch, including the Game Boy Advance, GameCube, and PS2. If you’ve ever heard someone extol the merits of Valve’s new Switch competitor, its capable emulation capabilities are likely to be listed among its main advantages. Normally, Valve doesn’t make this clear. I can only imagine how quickly founder Gabe Newell started getting phone calls from Nintendo’s lawyers, although of course we currently have no evidence that the latter was involved in the video being taken.
Valve and Nintendo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
