2024 will be an exciting year for iPhone users, largely thanks to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Some features, like sideloading apps, are only available to iPhone users in the EU, but this new feature that enables retro game emulators in the App Store will be available to everyone (via Ars Technica ).
Before you get too excited, there’s a big caveat about Apple’s seemingly friendly addition to the App Store. While Apple now allows “retro game console emulator apps” that allow users to download games, the company says all app software must comply with “all applicable laws” or face app rejection.
The text is irritatingly vague, as you’d expect, but here’s what it could mean for the future of retro game emulators on iOS.
Retro game emulator may be limited on iOS
Emulator apps are completely legal, but the legality of ROM files downloaded and used to play games via emulators is not always clear.
Some ROMs are public domain or are allowed to be distributed by the original creator. Other ROMs are copyrighted intellectual property with unknown or unchanged ownership. Many of the most popular or sought-after ROMs, such as Nintendo games, are legally not allowed to exist in emulators because the company that owns them still wants to control distribution.
Due to the legal gray area when it comes to downloading and running ROM files, emulator apps on the iPhone are likely to be more limited than what you’d find on Android and desktop platforms.
In Apple’s exact words, the apps “may offer certain software not embedded in the binary,” including “retro game console emulator apps [that] may offer game downloads,” but developers are responsible for “ensuring that such software complies with these Guidelines and all applicable laws.”
The fine print goes on to state that “Software that does not comply with one or more of these guidelines will result in your application being rejected.” Game emulators are probably one of the biggest reasons iPhone users in the EU would want to use third-party app stores and side apps, so it’s possible that Apple added this feature as an attempt to get users to stick with the App Store.
But if Apple is going to force the removal of emulator apps from the App Store that technically violate “applicable laws,” there may not be a huge selection of retro games to play unless the original game publishers use emulators to run ROMs of their own titles.
In the past, Sega offered standalone apps to emulate individual games, such as Sonic the Hedgehog. So while you may not see any retro titles from Nintendo emulated on the iPhone anytime soon, Sega could be the first major player to launch a single app to download and run its massive library of popular retro games.