On Monday, Dolphin Emulator’s impending Steam launch was averted by a cease-and-desist letter from Nintendo. The company defended this action by claiming the emulator violated DMCA regulations and intellectual property rights. However, new evidence indicates another party was responsible for Dolphin Emulator’s removal.

Yesterday The Verge implicated Steam developer Valve in Dolphin Emulator’s takedown through copies of emails from Nintendo. Provided by the Dolphin team, Nintendo addressed one email to Valve’s legal department. The email reveals that Valve contacted Nintendo first about Dolphin Emulator, likely to avoid potential legal troubles.

Nintendo’s lawyers emailed Valve on May 26th. They stated, “Thank you for bringing the announced offering of the Dolphin emulator on Valve’s Steam store to Nintendo’s attention.”

In the email, Nintendo’s lawyers detail how Dolphin Emulator violates DMCA Section 1201 and their exclusive copyrights. The Verge Senior Editor Sean Hollister explains Section 1201 prohibits companies from hosting copyright circumvention technology, which gives Nintendo claim to sue Valve directly for distributing Dolphin Emulator.

“Nintendo is threatening Valve with a lawsuit, not Dolphin, and Valve can’t sidestep simply by saying ‘Dolphin filed a counter-notice, go sue them first.’ That’s how Section 512 is supposed to work, but not Section 1201.” Hollister said.

Amid this revelation, Valve provided a statement to The Verge. Valve explained, “We operate Steam as an open platform, but that relies on creators shipping only things they have the legal right to distribute. Sometimes third parties raise legal objections to things on Steam, but Valve isn’t well positioned to judge those disputes – the parties have to go to court, or negotiate between themselves.”

Valve also confirmed they first notified Nintendo regarding the matter.

“We don’t want to ship an application we know could be taken down, because that can be disruptive to Steam users,” Valve commented. “Given Nintendo’s history of taking action against some emulators, we brought this to their attention proactively after the Dolphin team announced it was coming soon to Steam.”

As of now, Dolphin Emulator’s Steam release remains indefinite.