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Adam Barney / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Apple has changed its App Store app guidelines to allow console emulators for the first time.
- This is due to pressure from the EU on anti-competitive issues, but the policy change is global.
- Android has had console emulation basically from the beginning.
There are many differences between iPhone and Android smartphones. One of the most notable differences is their respective app stores. The Apple App Store is more tightly shut down than a drum, but the Google Play Store is much more open. Thanks to the latter’s open door, Android users have enjoyed console emulation since the early days of the platform. Some of his very early Android apps were actually Nintendo emulators.
But today, Apple is changing its App Store policy to allow the use of emulators in the store (h/t 9to5 mac). This means that for the first time, iPhone users can visit the App Store and download an emulator without any hassle. Previously, you had to jailbreak your iPhone and then sideload an emulator, or rely on questionable apps that bypass Apple’s vetting process and hide emulators inside.
Why are these changes happening? This is undoubtedly in response to continued scrutiny from EU regulators of Apple’s business practices, which the EU Commissioner considers to be anti-competitive. . Thanks to new laws passed in Europe, Apple had to make a number of changes, including switching her iPhone to his USB-C standard. Allowing third-party app stores and being able to download apps from other sources is another thing Apple has had to change, and this policy change is definitely a direct response to this. This is a typical response.
In other words, Apple knows that people will flock to third-party platforms to get emulators, and that’s bad for Apple. This is a pure expression of how competition is good for consumers.
To be clear, this is a global change, just in response to the backlash from the EU. iPhone users will eventually have access to the emulator in the US as well.
Of course, there are some legal gray areas with emulators. While system emulation has been ruled by courts in multiple countries to be completely legal, using proprietary software in emulators (or games in the case of console emulation) downloaded for free from the internet is mostly illegal. . Apple (and developers) will need to address that going forward.
However, Google has had to deal with that problem since 2008, so it’s clearly not impossible.
Since this change has just been made, it will probably be a while before the first emulators appear on the App Store. Our money is on big emulators like RetroArch and Dolphin taking the lead, but it’s also possible that a few smaller emulators will find success first. Either way, the arrival of emulators on the iPhone is good news for retro gamers.
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