The reveal comes from X user @ChrisMack32, who posted a video showing them unplugging a Super Nintendo controller – connected via USB – at one of the Nintendo Museum’s booths. Removing the cable from the controller results in what sounds like the familiar noise that plays when a Windows device is disconnected. If you listen carefully, you can also hear the Windows ‘device connect’ sound when the controller is plugged back in.
Is this news? Emulation has been supported in official capacities since the virtual NES in game cube Animal Crossing. There’s probably even earlier examples. The Wii virtual shop, the Switch has that classic games library and even those mini consoles.
Yeah, it’s definitely a weird case of perception rejecting nuance. Nintendo accosting third party emulators (which sucks, for the record) is in no way inconsistent with them having in-house emulators.
Now if somebody showed those PCs running off-the-shelf open emus that’d be a different story, but the narrative is what it is regardless, it seems.
Even earlier with Pokemon Stadium’s Gameboy emulator.