Whether it’s an accident or not, Valve has quickly replaced one of its official trailers due to it mentioning the Steam Deck Yuzu emulator, a popular emulator that allows users to play Nintendo Switch games on the handheld. The original video appeared on YouTube earlier today at around 7:00 AM PT, but was made private about six hours later and replaced by a new video with a quick edit.
Why the Steam Deck trailer was replaced
As noted by @Nibellion above on Twitter, the game icon for the Yuzu emulator was swapped out with one for Portal 2 instead. Valve has not stated an official reason for why this was done, though the switcheroo only brings more attention to the Yuzu than before. That said, it would make sense for Valve to change the trailer due to Nintendo’s propensity for bringing lawsuits. Even if Yuzu is technically legal on the platform, advertising it in an official trailer is another matter entirely.
Nintendo has been particularly litigious in the past, suing alleged Switch hackers in 2020 who enabled Nintendo Switch modding and game piracy, suing another man in 2018 for selling modded Nintendo Switch consoles, and successfully suing a ROM website for $2.1 million. All told, seeing Valve get out of the way of a potential lawsuit from Nintendo is well-justified.
