Rumour: Xbox Series X|S console emulators in retail mode no longer working reportedly due to Nintendo

There was quite a large uproar yesterday when classic game emulators on Xbox Series X|S consoles stopped working when the console is in the default retail mode. The reason for emulator support suddenly being disabled on the platform has not been disclosed by Microsoft. However, an Xbox support team member has apparently disclosed the reason. The Xbox support team member says that it is due to current legal issues with Nintendo. They also went on to say that an additional reason for pulling emulators from retail mode is that they require permissions beyond normal app usage which could be considered a security concern. One of the big draws is the fact that the Xbox Series X|S consoles can provide excellent emulation of many classic video game consoles and games.

“Hi there, Thanks for getting in touch with us about the recent ban on emulators on the Xbox store front. We appreciate your interest and concerns. To answer your questions, the primary reason for the ban is related to legal issues with Nintendo. While emulating itself is not illegal, it can be used to play games from consoles that are still under copyright protection without permission, which can create issues with Nintendo and its affiliates.

Additionally, we take security seriously, and some emulators require permissions beyond what is typical for an app. This could create a potential security risk, as these permissions can be exploited by bad actors to gain access to sensitive information. For these reasons, we have made the decision to ban emulators on the Xbox store front. However, we understand that many users have dev mode enabled to run legal emulation. We don’t seek to remove this ability, as it doesn’t grant access to the retail components of the system and is considered safe. Unlike retail emulators, dev mode is limited to certain functionalities and doesn’t have system read-write functionality.

That said, we are still exploring ways to allow safe and legal emulation on Xbox. We are in talks with legitimate emulator developers to bring their software onto our platform while ensuring that all copyright laws and security protocols are followed. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through this issue. Our goal is to provide a safe and enjoyable gaming experience for everyone, and we are committed to finding a solution that meets those goals. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us.”

I’ll copy and paste my email from a friend at the Xbox QA team :

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch with us about the recent ban on emulators on the Xbox store front. We appreciate your interest and concerns.

To answer your questions, the primary reason for the ban is…

— Alyanna McKenna (@AlyannaMcKenna)

Why in the world is Microsoft paving the way for people to illegally play games? Because let’s be real, most people pirate the games they’re using for emulation, which are, as the MS employee says, are copyrighted

Emulators aren’t illegal and there are people who collect physical and backup their legally purchased games.
As for playing downloaded games majority of games people tend to play are old arcade games whom the publishers and developers are no longer in business hence those games are in fair use to download as roms, which there are literally hundreds of thousands of old arcade games that can be downloaded and emulated.
Yes there are some illegal e.ulation going on but the wide majority of emulation is being used for games that no company has any right to stop others from playing.
Sega also turned to emulators, which are created by individuals that Nintendo are trying to stop btw, in order to regain and resell their older games because Sega lost the development data to almost all of their games from the Sega master system to Saturn.
If it weren’t for emulators and individuals archiving older games Sega and many other companies wouldn’t be able to port any older games to the new systems, like the Cotton games for example which uses emulation to play on current consoles.
As much as people hate emulation if it weren’t for emulation Nintendo wouldn’t have that Ni tendo Online subscription service on the swit h because every single gle game on that service is using emulators that Nintendo themselves didn’t create.

Oh behave you wetwipe. You’re the reason why Microsoft makes stupid decisions such as this. It’s called preservation! It’s about keeping the history of video games alive by providing means to play/experience older titles, which aren’t always available to purchase outside the second hand, overly inflated market. If this is something you have no interest in, don’t get yourself involved.

I really don’t understand why these whole emulator concerns is a huge issue to the Xbox company honestly. Some people always find ways to pirate unreleased games just for the sake to gain attention on social media.

Nintendo: closes the 3ds and Wii U eshop and gets no more money for hundreds of classics games because of their choices. Also Nintendo:

Statement From Microsoft:

“The information currently circulating on Twitter is not accurate,” reads a statement from Microsoft. “Our actions are based on a long standing policy on content distributed to the Store to ensure alignment with our Microsoft Store Polices. Per 10.13.10, Products that emulate a game system or game platform are not allowed on any device family.”