The The App Store has finally opened up to allow video game emulators and the biggest launch yet shined a light on problems with Apple’s review process.
GBA4iOS was an emulator that originally launched over ten years ago, allowing users to play GameBoy games on their the best iPhone. After downloading, Riley Testut, its developer, made the entire application open-source, meaning that anyone can access the code and run it themselves, with enough knowledge and experience. Over the weekend, another developer took advantage of it being open-source to upload his own copy of the app, which Testut ranted on his Mastodon account
Testut bemoans the fact that a copy of the app sat at the top of the App Store charts “despite being filled with ads + tracking” and says he didn’t give permission to any developers to make it. He followed this up by saying, “I’ve been biting my tongue a lot in the last month…but this is really frustrating me. I’m glad App Review exists to protect consumers from scams and scams like this 🙄“. This is a very cheeky way of scathingly criticizing Apple, as it allowed its app to be “pretended”, despite the fact that its own app was supposedly ready to launch as of March 5th. Delta, his new and improved emulation application has been approved for distribution and we think it could make the iPhone the ultimate emulation smartphone. The disputed posts do not clarify whether Testut sent the application for review or not, and he he didn’t say yes when asked if there is more.
Bigger problem
MacRumors reports that Apple has removed this copy of the GameBoy emulator for violating the Spam and Copyright App Review Guidelines. Even so, we don’t actually know the details of these claims or what Apple claims the app broke. One could assume that the spam and copyright issues are related to the fact that this app was not originally created by the people who published it, but Apple has not yet confirmed that this is the case.
This is currently part of the problem with new apps, once emulators are allowed in the App Store. Testut is becoming increasingly frustrated with how long the app approval process can take, despite copies of his app getting the green light for publication. IN subsequent post, Testut clarified that he is not angry with the developer. “My frustration stems entirely from the fact that we have been ready to launch Delta since last month. This whole situation could have been avoided if Apple hadn’t delayed our approval until they changed their rules to allow emulators.”
We’ve reached out to Apple for comment