Steam Deck Trailer Removed After Briefly Featuring A Switch Emulator Icon

In a recent trailer for the Steam Deck, Valve’s portable PC platform, you can briefly see the logo for a Nintendo Switch emulator. Shortly after the detail was discussed on social media, the trailer was removed and replaced with a new version that does away with the icon in question.

During the trailer, a Steam Deck screen is shown displaying recent games. One of the recent games listed is the application Yuzu. After the trailer was released, Nibel spotted the logo and posted it on Twitter. For the unfamiliar, Yuzu is an open-source emulator for Nintendo Switch, designed for portability. In other words, a pretty good fit for the Steam Deck, which is an effective emulation machine to begin with.

This would appear to have been an error, as the trailer was made private on YouTube shortly after the icon was noticed and replaced with a new version (embedded below) that does not include it. Emulation remains a controversial issue, so it’s an unusual detail to pick up in a major company’s marketing material. Additionally, Nintendo is notoriously punitive in relationship to piracy and the technologies that can enable it. Back in February 2022, indicted hacker Gary Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison, after already paying a $4.5 million fine.

The trailer otherwise touts that customers will no longer be put on a shipping wait list after purchasing a Steam Deck, the official Valve dock is on its way, and numerous new software features, including improvements to docked mode, additional languages for on-screen keyboards, and a more stable offline mode. In September, Valve announced that it was ramping up production of the Steam Deck, likely to enable customers to buy them without a reservation.