A recent Steam Deck trailer received an edited re-release that erased footage of a Nintendo Switch emulator. The footage came from the announcement earlier this week that Steam Deck reservations will no longer be required. The original trailer was seen by millions of fans excited to finally get their hands on the Valve console, but it's likely many never even noticed the Nintendo emulator's presence.
The Steam Deck is arguably one of the most highly sought-after current-generation consoles due to its versatility as a machine, able to not only access users' Steam libraries but run other programs like video game emulators and entirely different operating systems as well, with the added bonus of its portability. Although the Steam Deck officially released in February of this year, it's been hard for many to get their hands on the device - the pre-orders were hard to come by, with many Steam Deck reservations ending up on eBay for high prices. Thankfully, Valve announced reservations were no longer necessary earlier this week alongside a celebratory new trailer.
The new Steam Deck trailer was replaced with an edited version this week, after industry insider Nibellion (via PC Gamer) pointed out that the original video featured the program icon for a Nintendo Switch emulator in footage of the Steam Deck's menu. The open-source emulator, Yuzu, was eliminated in the new version, replaced by an icon for Portal 2 instead. The original trailer has reportedly been made private. At this time, Valve hasn't commented on the re-release of the trailer.
Steam Deck Ad With Switch Emulator Yuzu Could've Led To Trouble With Nintendo
There's technically nothing wrong with Valve briefly showing the Yuzu emulator program, as the software itself doesn't inherently break any laws, and it's no secret that the Steam Deck is a great emulator for a myriad of consoles and games. However, it's not very good from an optics perspective when it comes to fostering a professional relationship between Nintendo and Valve. Not only is this simply a good business practice in general, but Nintendo is particularly fervent when it comes to defending copyrighted material, being known for filing DMCA strikes against users on YouTube and Twitch for things like using music from Nintendo games in videos.
Nintendo also tries its best to censor content about things like modding the Nintendo Switch, and it certainly would not be a fan of a company as large as Valve essentially promoting and endorsing playing Switch games on another console. Additionally, the situation is made even more precarious because of how often the Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch are compared. Although the editing and subsequent rerelease of the trailer may seem like an overreaction to some players, it helps avoid any misunderstood messaging on Valve's part about the Steam Deck being a replacement for the Nintendo Switch.
Source: Valve/YouTube, Nibellion/Twitter (via PC Gamer)