Despite Apple’s recent rule change, it has been a bumpy few days for emulators on the App Store as small developers fear the wrath of Nintendo and others.
Software emulation has been around for decades and is perfectly legal, at least the technology is. The implementation of emulators, business models, and how users obtain games live in this unchallenged legal gray area that developers are scared to test.
The Google Play Store doesn’t restrict developers from submitting emulators either, and plenty of popular versions exist. So, since Apple now allows emulators on the App Store, the world has been standing by waiting for a flood of software built to play old video games — yet it hasn’t arrived.
