Apple removes a Game Boy emulator for violating App Store rules, but says game emulators are allowed

Apple has removed iGBA, a Game Boy emulator app for iPhone, after approving it over the weekend. The app is one of the first to take advantage of Apple’s recently relaxed rules for retro gaming emulators, a move the tech giant took after EU regulators forced Apple to open up to App Store rivals such as AltStore, which aims to provide game emulators and other Patreon-powered apps for iPhone users.

iGBA, which debuted on Sunday, is an ad-supported version of the open source project GBA4iOS, which provides a Game Boy game emulator for iOS. The new app works as described, allowing users to download Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color ROMs from the web and then open them in the app to play.

However, the app was submitted to the App Store without the permission of GBA4iOS developer Riley Testut, who also developed AltStore and Delta (a Nintendo emulator and popular successor to GBA4iOS).

Testut posted on Threads on Sunday that he was angry about Apple’s approval of iGBA, while his own app Delta (currently on Apple’s TestFlight) has been ready for launch since March 5. He also wasn’t happy that his job was being taken away, monetized in this way.

Posted by @rileytestut

View thread

“I didn’t give anyone permission to do this, but it’s now at the top of the charts (albeit filled with ads and tracking),” Testut said on Threads. “I’ve bitten my tongue a lot over the past month… but this really frustrates me. Glad app review exists to protect consumers from scams and extortion like this,” he added sarcastically.

As some have pointed out, the copycat version uses the same code as GBA4iOS. However, as others have pointed out, the GBA4iOS emulator is distributed under the GNU GPL v2 license, which should otherwise allow copying – except that Testut has added a custom restriction prohibiting the App Store from distributing anything containing that code work. They argue that GPL v2 technically does not allow such restrictions.

Nonetheless, Apple decided to remove the copycat app because it violated the App Store’s guidelines on spam and copyright (Rules 4.3 and 5.2, respectively), largely siding with Testut on this issue despite its previous violations. error.

Posted by @kche1gamer

View thread

Apple told TechCrunch that the feature in the app had been approved, but when the company learned that the app was copying content submitted by another developer and passing it off as its own, it acted in accordance with its guidelines took action.

The Cupertino-based tech giant has been forced to make its app store more open due to the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). After updating its App Store rules to comply with the new regulations, Apple announced that it will also allow global streaming game stores. Additional support for retro gaming emulators wasn’t added until this month, with the caveat that if a game offers digital item downloads, in-app purchases must be used. While this might create another revenue stream for Apple, the iGBA app is free and ad-supported, so removing it won’t hurt Apple’s bottom line.