RetroArch is officially coming to Steam

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When you think emulator frontends, there's a high chance that RetroArch comes to mind. Its simple design and ease of use have made it an incredibly popular application, for years and years. And now, you'll be able to officially use RetroArch from the comfort of Steam. In an attempt to legitimize and grow their brand, Libretro will be releasing RetroArch on Steam, at the end of the month. It'll launch on July 30th, for free, and on Windows only, initially, with a Linux and MacOS version to follow shortly after. There won't be any difference between the Steam build and the one you can get normally on Libretro's official site, but the team is looking into incorporating features from Steam's platform in the future. This feature follows a recent RetroArch update, which lets users directly dump their official game discs to their computer, allowing for easy backups. You'll also be able to take a Sega CD, Saturn, PlayStation 1, or 3D0 disc. put it in your PC's disc drive, and run it directly on RetroArch, with more consoles to be supported in the future.

There are also plans in the works for developers of older IPs to release their games on Steam, through using RetroArch, though no further details are known about that yet.

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Rahkeesh

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Its not so much illegal as questionable strategy for a game distribution platform to provide a great tool for pirating old games. You see this philosophy difference between Apple, who bans all emulators from their store, and Google who even allows paid ones on there. Apple does make most game devs more money than Google, although easy emulation may be a minor factor in that. There's also the fact that sideloading is much trickier on apple, wheras its not too bad on android and trivial on windows, so their store ban actually means something.

That said Steam isn't actually making the pirated roms themselves available, which was always the more difficult step than finding retroarch's website. And yeah I can very much see license holders wanting to sell their roms for easy integration into Retroarch's library, so there's plenty of money to be made there for Steam if that happens. Workshop seems like it would be people just throwing up roms unless its policed though.
 
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mightymuffy

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Yeah I'm......not sure about this one either! We'll just have to see how it pans out - but maybe that's just the cynic in me: RA has been on google play for a while now, what, really, is the difference?? Plus it gets much more [well deserved] coverage. ;)
 

Ev1l0rd

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What I'm curious about is what brought this on... Seemingly out of nowhere they announce this.. Why bring it to Steam? It is, in fact, a tool for piracy. Even if you advocate the backup functionality, how many people actually use tools like that? :unsure: Guess we'll see how this turns out.
My guess is the recent trend of Mini consoles is what brought this on.

Most of those (not Nintendo) use a weakly licensed FOSS emulator. This gives those companies a way to distribute their games without getting flak from modern media for not writing their own emulators.

Their other deal could hypothetically allow for some games that aren't first party to be distributed again more legitimately easily without the studios in question getting tangled up in licensing deals.

Honestly, I just see this as something that's somewhat expected at this point.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

(specifically, see Castlevania Retro collection, which is exactly what I just mentioned.)
 
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bodefuceta

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Take the foil hat off and breathe. That's not how this works, at all.

DRM infected ROMs... Man, now I've heard it all.. Hypothetically, if this were to happen, you realize that there's other options in terms of emulator front ends? The overreaction to this choice is baffling... And raises quite a few questions. None I don't think you can calmly and rationally answer.
Go ahead and ask them.
 

Kioku

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My guess is the recent trend of Mini consoles is what brought this on.

Most of those (not Nintendo) use a weakly licensed FOSS emulator. This gives those companies a way to distribute their games without getting flak from modern media for not writing their own emulators.

Their other deal could hypothetically allow for some games that aren't first party to be distributed again more legitimately easily without the studios in question getting tangled up in licensing deals.

Honestly, I just see this as something that's somewhat expected at this point.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

(specifically, see Castlevania Retro collection, which is exactly what I just mentioned.)

Well, that'd make sense, sure. Just creates a large grey area, I think.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Go ahead and ask them.
Even if they were to answer me, you think they'd be so upfront?
 

deinonychus71

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m4xw

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But it is used to download and run emulators. Steam could still make an argument against it.
Doesn't change the fact its not.
It supports standalone games as well. The libretro api needs more mainstream adaption.
Not everything is about emulators.
There are other libretro frontends on steam already, whats your point?
 
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