Apple has altered its App Store guidelines, allowing console emulators for the first time. This change is global and is undoubtedly in response to the ongoing scrutiny from EU regulators towards Apple’s business practices, which EU commissioners think are anti-competitive.
Android has had console emulation since the platform’s beginnings. Some of the very first Android apps were actually Nintendo emulators. Today, though, Apple has changed its App Store policies and will allow emulators in the store. This means, for the first time ever, iPhone users can visit the App Store and download an emulator without jumping through any hoops.
Previously, they have needed to jailbreak an iPhone and then sideload emulators or rely on shady apps that skirt Apple’s vetting process and hide an emulator inside. In other words, Apple knows that people will flock to third-party platforms to get emulators, which is bad for Apple. It’s a pure representation of competition being good for the consumer.
Of course, emulators touch on some legal gray areas. While it has been held up in courts in multiple countries that emulating a system is completely legal, using proprietary software in those emulators you downloaded for free from the internet — games, in the case of console emulation — is very much not legal. Apple (and developers) will now need to contend with that.
Since this change just happened, it will likely be a while before the first emulators appear on the App Store.
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