Apple on Sunday removed Game Boy emulator iGBA from the App Store for violating the company’s App Review Guidelines. At the time, Apple did not provide specific details about the violations. Now, the Cupertino firm has shared additional details about why it removed iGBA from the App Store, while also clarifying its guidelines for emulators.
iGBA was a clone of developer Riley Testut’s open-source GBA4iOS app (with added advertisements), which has long been available outside the App Store. This may have led to the removal of the app from the App Store. The emulator was one of the top apps on the App Store when it was removed.
MacRumors reports that while Apple did not specifically name GBA4iOS, the company told it that it was removed from the App Store after learning that it was a knockoff app by a developer who copied another developer’s work and attempted to pass it off as their own.
Apple also confirmed that emulators that load ROMs downloaded from the web are allowed, so long as the app is emulating retro console games only.
Apple also said it had approved iGBA’s functionality before learning that it was a knockoff app. So, it appears iGBA was removed from the App Store because it was a copy of GBA4iOS, rather than due to piracy concerns.
Nintendo’s customer support website in the U.S., Nintendo says downloading pirated copies of its games is illegal. Nintendo had long led the battle against emulators.
Pirate copies of game files are often referred to as “ROMs”.
The uploading and downloading of pirate copies of Nintendo games is illegal.
This means that it is possible that Nintendo will still send complaints to Apple about emulators as they become available in the App Store.