Apple has removed iGBA, a Game Boy emulator app for the iPhone, after allowing it to launch over the weekend. The app was among the first to take advantage of Apple’s recently relaxed rules around retro game emulators, a move the tech giant made after EU regulators forced Apple to open up to App Store rivals like AltStore, which aims to offer game emulators and other Patreon -‘s applications. supported apps for iPhone users.
First launched on Sunday, the iGBA was an ad-supported copy of the open-source GBA4iOS project that offered a Game Boy game emulator for iOS. The new app worked as described, allowing users to download Game Boy Advance and Game Boy Color ROMs from the web and then open them in the gaming app.
However, the app was submitted to the App Store without the permission of GBA4iOS developer Riley Testuto, who also developed AltStore and Delta, Nintendo’s emulator and the popular successor to GBA4iOS.
In a Threads post on Sunday, Testut said he was angry at Apple for approving the iGBA while his own Delta app, currently on Apple’s TestFlight, is set to launch on March 5. He also wasn’t thrilled about his work being shot down and monetized in this way.
Posted by @rileytestut
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“I didn’t give anyone permission to do this, but now it’s at the top of the charts (despite being filled with ads + tracking),” Testut said on Threads. “I’ve bitten my tongue a lot in the last month…but this really frustrates me. I’m so glad App Review exists to protect consumers from scams and scams like this,” he added sarcastically.
As some have noted, the copy build used the same code as GBA4iOS. But as others have pointed out, the GBA4iOS emulator is distributed under the GNU GPL v2 license, which should otherwise allow copies – except for the fact that Testut added a custom restriction that prohibited App Store distribution of any work containing the code. They argued that such a restriction was not technically allowed under GPL v2.
Nevertheless, Apple decided that the fake app should be removed for violating the App Store’s spam and copyright guidelines (rules 4.3 and 5.2, respectively), essentially siding with Testut on the matter, despite his earlier mistake.
Posted by @kche1gamer
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Apple told TechCrunch that the functionality in the app was approved, but when the company learned that the app was copying another developer’s submission and passing it off as its own, it took steps in line with its guidelines.
The Cupertino-based tech giant is being forced to make the App Store more open thanks to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). After updating its App Store policies to comply with the new regulation, Apple has announced that it will also enable streaming of game stores globally. But additional support for retro game emulators wasn’t added until this month, with the caveat that games must use in-app purchases if they offer downloadable digital items. While this would potentially open up another revenue stream for Apple, the iGBA app was free and ad-supported, so its removal wasn’t a loss to the bottom line.