Apple grabbed attention recently by removing the well-liked Game Boy Advance (GBA) emulator iGBA from its App Store. This came shortly after the company surprised users with a policy update allowing video game emulators. They’re not removing it to reverse that policy, either. Removing it is actually a lot more complicated than that.
The iGBA app was removed because it was found to be a copy of the open-source GBA4iOS emulator (thanks, Macrumors). Apple doesn’t allow apps that violate copyright, and a spokesperson confirmed that emulators requiring separate game ROM downloads are still not allowed due to piracy concerns. Although requiring a separate game, ROM is exactly what these emulators do, so it’s unclear what that means.
“Pirate copies of game files are often referred to as ‘ROMs’. The uploading and downloading of pirate copies of Nintendo games is illegal.”
Apple statement
If they were to take the open source and modify it significantly, such as using it as a base, that’s one thing. Apparently, this was just copy-paste. A good example of this would be Minecraft, which uses Infiminer as a starting point but works on it so significantly that it’s a game in its own right.
The incident shows that Apple’s new approach to emulators has some unclear areas. Although Apple hasn’t listed which old consoles are allowed, approving iGBA suggests that consoles like the Game Boy Advance might be included. However, it’s unclear what exactly Apple considers old consoles. This raises questions about whether emulators for consoles like the Nintendo DS or 3DS will be allowed.
Experts think Apple is allowing emulators more now because of pressure from the European Union. The EU wants iPhones to have more open app ecosystems, and Apple might be making this change to stop users from going to other app stores. The EU has recently said that Apple will have to allow other app stores, so this could be Apple’s way of preventing that.
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