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Microsoft formally bans emulators on Xbox, Windows 10 download shops
- kozak 10y agoTime to write WebAssembly emulators that will run inside browsers?
- goodplay 10y agoUntil they white-list websites, you know, for your safety. Good citizens only use government-approved and microsoft-approved sites anyways.
- Fej 10y agoIt's not surprising, but still disappointing. Emulators preserve games of eras past.
- nkozyra 10y agoBut they don't monetize them ;)
- zitterbewegung 10y agoIf you allow emulator on your console that will eat into your game sales. I think this happened to the psp when it got jail broken .
- zer0tonin 10y agoIf the psp game sales were so low, it was mostly because of the very limited size of the library.
- BEEdwards 10y agoThe nintendo DS had both flash carts and emulators early in it's life and it did just fine. Good original games sell consoles, the PSP had PS2 ports with worse graphics.
- watty 10y agoSo do "Virtual Consoles" which are releasing more and more past games on different platforms and charging for it. I'm guessing if emulators weren't so rampant on the PC then companies like Nintendo would have or would think about creating a Virtual Console on PC for NES/SNES/N64, etc.
- throwaway2048 10y agoCommerically released emulations of older games almost always just package up whatever open source emulator, usually some old, broken version, with limited rom selection. No thanks, ill stick to the latest versions I can actually get games im interested in for.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- TazeTSchnitzel 10y ago…why would Nintendo port their old games to the PC? They develop almost exclusively for their own platforms.
- throwaway2048 10y agoThis logic works in the fantasy land that many gamers occupy where its pirates and hackers that cause all gamings ills. Nintendo is a badly managed company that refuses to do or release things differently, its about the pirates you see. Activision has aggressively anti consumer practices that including spying on users, and disallowing private servers, must be because of the hackers you see. Many fanboys have a pathological inability to recognise that the objects of their devotion make stupid decisions, it always must be because of some other evil force.
- watty 10y ago...why not? I'm not saying it's the correct business decision and there are pros and cons. But if Nintendo released an official Virtual Console for PC, Android, iOS, etc. (not their own platform) it'd sell like hotcakes if implemented and priced correctly. One of the reasons they wouldn't do it is because emulators and ROMs are already rampant on PC and mobile (less so). So the idea of all of a sudden releasing a bunch of classic games in your pocket is heavily diminished.
- ysavir 10y agoI guess in 10-20 years we will be telling our grandchildren about the old days, where you can do whatever you want on your computer, limited only the abilities of the hardware* . And they won't believe us. *Simplification, of course.
- kminehart 10y agoNo one has to put up with this though. Use free software and gain control over your computer again.
- ysavir 10y agoYes, I believe that these alternatives will always be available. But it has also been made apparent that the larger part of the consumer base is not interested in the alternatives; they are interested in the mainstream. And the mainstream will always bend in its own favor.
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoYou still have control over your computer in this case, just not their distribution service. You can even install Nesbox's UWP app, if you want, without using the Windows Store, as UWP is not actually a locked down system.
- Dylan16807 10y agoFor the computers that are capable of running free software, sure...
- hyperhopper 10y agoIts easy to say that, but look at the actual hardware requirements[1] for running an open and free system. You can count your options on your fingers.. [1] https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/#supported_laptops_x86intel https://libreboot.org/docs/hardware/#supported_laptops_x86in...
- najati83 10y agoI don't blame Microsoft, as they are supposed to curate their app store and therefore could be found liable of... whatever crime it is to emulate an old system. You can still run any emulator on Windows 10, you just cannot download it from their app store.
- douche 10y agoI don't know about XBox, but does anybody actually use anything from the Windows Store? The only app that I have gotten is the SlingTV app, except I ditched it for the older native app, because the UWP Store one was so hideously broken and slow.
- hacker_9 10y agoI tried to download a game off of it, some 30GBs, it took 2 days and broke at 29GBs, then tried to restart from 0%... never again.
- jasonkostempski 10y agoI tried Netflix and Hulu, both were horrible. Minecraft for Windows 10 was kind of cool since my kid always played on the iPad and I hated playing on my phone but now he's on PC.
- nozzlegear 10y agoI use the Windows Store for media apps, specifically Twitch and YouTube, because I find their UI and UX much better than the original websites. Plus I like the notifications and live tiles. I think my favorite Windows Store app is KeePassReader* though, which adds Windows Hello authentication to my KeePass database. It's a very simple app, and isn't exactly easy on the eyes, but I like being able to swipe my finger or just look at my camera whenever I need to open my KeePass database. * https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/keepassreader/9nblggh4s820 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/p/keepassreader/9nblgg...
- fernandotakai 10y agoi'm using for twitter, netflix (which i find way better than their web stuff) and forza horizon 3 (bought on xbox one, got on windows for free). i don't hate the windows store, i nothing it.
- pjmlp 10y agoYes, I have been slowly migrating to store apps, specially since they are sandboxed. I also own a couple of WP, so I now get to use those apps on the desktop as well.
- dovdovdov 10y agoHoly poop, and I thought Apple is being quirky with its App Store! Compared to the Xbox side and its costs, the App Store app review is a walk in the park. I might understand this for AAA titles, but for indies this must be a nightmare.
- hacker_9 10y agoThey probably have bad memories of their last indie store on Xbox 360 which, if you visited it, was full of tutorial games and dating apps...
- SXX 10y agoAt least in past it's was nightmare for everyone. For Xbox360 for instance Microsoft charged developers $40,000 per patch: http://kotaku.com/5884842/wait-it-costs-40000-to-patch-a-console-game http://kotaku.com/5884842/wait-it-costs-40000-to-patch-a-con...
- BoorishBears 10y agoI've had an Xbox kicking up dust for months now, this is the first I'm hearing there were even emulators to start with, pretty disappointing. But then again I guess it shows how often people actually use the App Store, I never looked at it, and I don't think anyone I know has either
- waiseristy 10y agoHah, jokes on them. I never use the Windows 10 store.
- vocatus_gate 10y agoThere's a Windows 10 store? /s
- ICRqVNmDrU8FDi 10y agoI have always seen piracy of media after 17~ years as purely productive. No jobs are lost and modern generations are enjoying media which would otherwise have been lost to time.
- bbmario 10y agoSo what? There are many Javascript-based emulators out there. You just need a browser.
- _rpd 10y agoAnd just like that, a new generation of hackers was born.
- shmerl 10y agoYeah, emulators should switch to Linux, and MS should get lost ;)
- Lev1a 10y agoIsn't the rule prohibiting "UWP games and apps that "pose a safety risk or result in discomfort, injury or any other harm" to users." kinda broad (meaning especially the "discomfort" part)? Seeing as "discomfort" was not specified in any way, it COULD mean the horror game you potentially want to release on the Windows Store could be denied a listing, because it could cause some players/people psychological "discomfort". To be clear, I would be mostly fine with this rule if "discomfort" was specified as "physical discomfort".
- catdog 10y agoWelcome to the wonderful world of "App Stores" where some random company which managed to put itself between you and a substantial part of potential customers decides what you can distribute under what conditions covered by their own vague rules which are suspect to arbitrary change at any time anyways.
- systems 10y agobad publicity for the upcoming scorpio system
- ihuman 10y agoHow is this bad publicity? Why would someone spend >$400 just to play emulators on a TV?
- systems 10y agowhy would anyone ins 2016 not have an internet connection, and dont take advantage of online play when there was a rumor or intention to make the xbox one require a net connection (a not so unreasonable requirement) most people took it negatively anything that give the perception of limiting your freedom and choices, will be viewed negatively, even if those limits wont really hurt you and i think you are correct, most people wont use emulators, most people dont even know what emulators are, so why ban them .. it is just bad publicity
- kakarot 10y agoHahahahaha Me.
- garganzol 10y agoEvery UWP app I saw poses a risk, results in discomfort, injures its users with ridiculous uselessness. Windows Store should be banned altogether, once and for all, for a brighter future of the humankind.
- and0 10y agoI made a 3D NES emulator for the HoloLens about 8 months ago http://n3s.io http://n3s.io and I pleasantly surprised that a few MS employees reached out. Some were doing internal hackathons and wanted assistance, others even contributed to the code base, but I was particularly shocked when a HoloLens dev that helped run their tutorial + social media reached out to encourage (and offer resources) to get the app on the store. My response was "no way that'd get through", but they insisted on me trying anyway and said they could try to push it through. I didn't bother for a couple other reasons (the open source libretro core I was using would need to be reworked for their managed app environment, and HoloLens performance was actually pretty crap no matter what I did), but a few days later the other emulator controversy started. I was expecting this outcome and really don't blame MS. Glad I didn't try to port my own app over (which would also work on Xbox and desktop).