UPDATE: Microsoft has released a new statement explaining the reason they had emulators removed on the Xbox stores. This statement seems to rule out any plans to license emulators directly from developers after all.
As reported by GoNintendo, you can read the statement below.
“The information currently circulating on Twitter is not accurate. Our actions are based on a long standing policy on content distributed to the Store to ensure alignment with our Microsoft Store Polices. Per 10.13.10, Products that emulate a game system or game platform are not allowed on any device family.”
The original story follows below:
Microsoft seems to be planning something interesting when it comes to video game emulation on their Xbox consoles.
As some fans found that they could no longer install emulators on their Xbox Series X consoles, they received a secondhand reply from Microsoft about the matter.
As originally posted on Twitter and duplicated on Reddit, here is what a Microsoft employee said:
I’ll copy and paste my email from a friend at the Xbox QA team :
“Hi there,
Thanks for getting in touch with us about the recent ban on emulators on the Xbox store front. We appreciate your interest and concerns.
To answer your questions, the primary reason for the ban is related to legal issues with Nintendo. While emulating itself is not illegal, it can be used to play games from consoles that are still under copyright protection without permission, which can create issues with Nintendo and its affiliate.
Additionally, we take security seriously, and some emulators require permissions beyond what is typical for an app. This could create a potential security risk, as these permissions can be exploited by bad actors to gain access to sensitive information. For these reasons, we have made the decision to ban emulators on the Xbox store front.
However, we understand that many users have dev mode enabled to run legal emulation. We don’t seek to remove this ability, as it doesn’t grant access to the retail components of the system and is considered safe. Unlike retail emulators, dev mode is limited to certain functionalities and doesn’t have system read-write functionality.
That said, we are still exploring ways to allow safe and legal emulation on Xbox. We are in talks with legitimate emulator developers to bring their software onto our platform while ensuring that all copyright laws and security protocols are followed.
We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through this issue. Our goal is to provide a safe and enjoyable gaming experience for everyone, and we are committed to finding a solution that meets those goals.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us.
Best regards,”
Video game emulation is the process of copying the way a video game system operates so that it can duplicate its functions. That includes running video games, but also extends to enabling saves, duplicating controls, etc.
There is no legislation that determines the legality or illegality of emulation. A 1999 US case between Sony v Connectix led to a verdict that the act of video game emulation does not lead to copyright infringement. However, there remain many grey areas on this matter so nothing is really cut and dried.
Interestingly enough, and you may already know this, but many game companies themselves also use emulators to rerelease their games. Emulators replaced the prior practice of porting games when computer systems (including video game consoles) had become powerful and sophisticated enough that it was easier to emulate than to remake games from scratch. Sometimes the companies licensed or made these emulators themselves, but sometimes not, as you’ll see below.
Of course, you probably got into emulation yourself as a hobbyist; by downloading emulators and games to play on them. Even if the emulators and emulation process has been deemed legal, some of these games are still under copyright. Playing games in this way enters that grey area.
So, you can imagine how Microsoft surprised many gamers by allowing them to install emulators on their Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles. This can be done by using a workaround and entering Dev Mode on your console.
Subsequently, emulator devs conceived of a way to install emulators without using Dev Mode. You could install an app on your Xbox from your browser, and then use that app to install apps like Retroarch and DuckStation.
As some gamers found out, Microsoft disabled that capability without explanation. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft will later make an official comment on the matter, as this is all just secondhand and somewhat hearsay. Based on this message, however, it seems they are seriously considering talking to developers on an individual level, so that they could officially publish their emulators on their console.
This would be incredible groundbreaking, for what has been so far an uneasy relationship between emulator devs and game console companies. While Nintendo seems cited to be the culprit for blocking emulators here, things can swing in another unfavorable direction as well. Sony produced their PlayStation Classic using PCSX Rearmed, which they did not develop themselves and they did not pay for. Sony went out of their way to follow the terms of PCSX’s GPLv2 license so they would not have to pay PCSX’s developers. Microsoft seems to not only condone emulator devs, they want to pay them, or at least bring them in as legitimate developers to Xbox.
Microsoft seems to be the most friendly platform holder with the emulator community. Xbox head Phil Spencer has called for the industry to more proactively handle video game preservation using emulation. So, this is no idle statement. If any video game console company would move towards this direction first, it would be Microsoft. It will be interesting to see what direction this takes if Microsoft really will follow through with it.
