Valve has quickly taken offline a trailer for the Steam Deck handheld PC that advertised it running the Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu. The Steam Deck has been advertised as a fully capable PC since it was first announced, meaning buyers would be able to install the software they choose regardless of whether it's Valve-approved. Valve had only ever shown products available on Steam installed on the Steam Deck in its own advertising. However, that recently changed.
The advertisement in question was a short video announcing that Steam Deck is "available now, without reservation!" The video details many of the Steam Deck's features. It's during a brief segment mentioning improvements to the Steam Deck's Offline Mode where several applications are shown installed on a Steam Deck. These include Fae Tactics, Vampire Survivors, Tunic, and Hades. It also shows Yuzu, however, it's a third-party Nintendo Switch emulation app that allows users to run unofficial digital Switch files.
At first, many PC gamers and Steam Deck users assumed this was an intentional choice by Valve. Emulation is a very popular use for the Steam Deck, after all. Promoting the emulation of Nintendo Switch games, which Nintendo would very likely describe as illegal, would be particularly brazen of Valve, however. Unsurprisingly, that video has now been taken down, and any indication of Yuzu running on a Steam Deck has been scoured entirely.
It should be made clear that Valve isn't likely in any sort of legal trouble. Downloading, installing, and running the Yuzu app is not a crime, and Nintendo hasn't pursued legal efforts against emulation software so far. It's the process of turning Nintendo Switch games into digital copies and offering them online that Nintendo takes issue with. That doesn't mean Nintendo won't be very cross with Valve over the "accident," however.
How exactly Yuzu ended up in the video is a particularly intriguing mystery. It's possible that a Valve employee's own Steam Deck was used for the recording and that no one else in the production realized what Yuzu was until the video was already live. The possibility that a Valve employee is playing Nintendo Switch games on their Steam Deck isn't surprising, but that no one else caught the issue is.
The heart of the matter is that Yuzu is used for widespread piracy of Nintendo Switch, and Valve's video could be interpreted as an endorsement of that piracy. The Steam Deck is, ultimately, a competitor to the Nintendo Switch. Valve advertising that Steam Deck users can illegally pirate Switch games is obviously a bad look. Taking the video down likely isn't going to blunt what a disappointing situation it is for the Steam Deck.
Source: VGC