Tweets started appearing today from users who found that the emulators that they had downloaded from the Xbox store no longer worked. Instead of being able to hop into a retro classic or two, players have been greeted with a message stating "the game or app you're trying to launch violates Microsoft Store policy and is not supported."
Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a good run.
— 🇮🇪 gamr13 🇮🇪 (@gamr12) April 6, 2023
But now we've no choice but to @Xbox @XboxP3 #LetUsEmulate pic.twitter.com/K9KO1p655K
While there hasn't been any formal announcement of the ban on the Xbox social media channels or the Xbox Newswire blog to explain the reasoning behind the ban, one Twitter user has come forward claiming to have been told about the ban by a colleague at Microsoft.
Twitter user @AlyannaMcKenna, who is actually a Microsoft employee in the firm's Azure division, has posted the contents of an email supposedly sent from a friend who works in Xbox QA. We have not seen the original email, only the contents that have been copied and pasted to Twitter, so we can not verify the authenticity, though given it's coming from a Microsoft employee, it does carry some weight.
The email in question states that the "primary reason for the ban is related to legal issues with Nintendo," which makes it sound like the house of Mario has raised the issue of its games being played on Xbox. It's also said that some emulators posed security risks for players by requiring permissions that are beyond the typical reach for an app. This could lead to sensitive information being stolen, and given that many of us store our payment methods on our consoles for easy access to games, it could potentially spell disaster for players and for Microsoft.
The email states that for these reasons, Microsoft has decided to ban emulators from the Xbox store for the time being. The email also goes on to say that Microsoft is "exploring ways to allow safe and legal" emulation on the Xbox consoles, and that the firm is in talks with legitimate emulator developers.
While this may be a blow to those who enjoyed the ease of use of retail mode emulation, it's not the end of the world and emulators can still be used on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. While Microsoft has banned emulators from running in retail mode on Xbox consoles, players can get around the ban by using development mode on their machines. Development mode essentially walls the console off from the outside world, creating a sandbox environment that is intended for developers to test their software. However, fans have been using this mode for years to launch homebrew applications and emulators, and for now, that option is still safe.
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Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/microsoft-bans-legal-emulators-xbox/
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