diff --git a/libretro-common/compat/fopen_utf8.c b/libretro-common/compat/fopen_utf8.c
index 42d4c08310..85abb59ef9 100644
--- a/libretro-common/compat/fopen_utf8.c
+++ b/libretro-common/compat/fopen_utf8.c
@@ -21,7 +21,6 @@
  */
 
 #include <compat/fopen_utf8.h>
-#include <retro_miscellaneous.h>
 #include <encodings/utf.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
@@ -37,13 +36,9 @@
 
 void *fopen_utf8(const char * filename, const char * mode)
 {
-   const char * filename_local = NULL;
-   const char* windows_long_prefix = "\\\\?\\";
-   char long_filename[PATH_MAX_LENGTH];
-
 #if defined(LEGACY_WIN32)
    FILE             *ret = NULL;
-   filename_local = utf8_to_local_string_alloc(filename);
+   char * filename_local = utf8_to_local_string_alloc(filename);
 
    if (!filename_local)
       return NULL;
@@ -52,17 +47,7 @@ void *fopen_utf8(const char * filename, const char * mode)
       free(filename_local);
    return ret;
 #else
-#ifdef _WIN32
-   /*
-      prefix to tell Windows to bypass the ~260 characters limit in many I/O APIs
-      https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/naming-a-file
-   */
-   snprintf(long_filename, PATH_MAX_LENGTH, "%s%s", windows_long_prefix, filename);
-   filename_local = long_filename;
-#else
-   filename_local = filename;
-#endif
-   wchar_t * filename_w = utf8_to_utf16_string_alloc(filename_local);
+   wchar_t * filename_w = utf8_to_utf16_string_alloc(filename);
    wchar_t * mode_w = utf8_to_utf16_string_alloc(mode);
    FILE* ret = NULL;