The most popular GameCube and Wii emulation platform, Dolphin, is surprisingly slated for a release on Steam.
The announcement comes from Dolphin itself, which made a post on its website linking to the Steam page where the emulator can currently be wishlisted. Dolphin also claims that it will "have a feature article detailing the process and features" upon its release. It's currently slated for Q2 2023, and will include the usual bells and whistles that can be seen on emulators, such as save states, increased resolution and netplay.
Dolphin has been knocking around for almost as long as the GameCube itself, first being launched in September 2003, however, it had a bit of a rocky launch being temporarily discontinued in December 2004 before seeing the light of day again in October 2005. It later went on to become an open-source project (meaning anyone could use and modify the emulator) on May 13, 2007. It wasn't until 2009 that the emulator began to see Wii support. In 2016 version 5.0 of the emulator was released, and has since remained the current version up to now.
Steam currently has an array of emulators available on the platform, including the likes of RetroArch which, in itself, supports numerous plug-ins for platforms such as PSP, GameBoy, and SNES. Additionally, the emulation scene on Steam Deck has proven extremely popular, with even the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, being compatible with the platform.
Incidentally, 2023 has been somewhat of a resurgence for GameCube titles, with the likes of Metroid Prime Remastered and Resident Evil 4 Remake being the first and third high-rated games respectively on Metacritic released so far this year, while also taking the top two spots on Opencritic's overall 2023 rankings. Both games are currently rated above 90 on both aggregate sites.
Metroid Prime Remastered received a staggering 9.5 out of 10 from DualShockers, with its antiquated approach to saving being the only criticism levied against the title. It was otherwise praised as being the most visually impressive title available on Nintendo Switch while maintaining the "spirit of the original". Conversely, Resident Evil 4 Remake received a less glowing (but still positive) 7 out of 10 in the DualShockers review for the game, and while it was acknowledged as a competent game in its own right, it was criticised for lacking the timeless nature of the original.