Microsoft bans emulators

The time has come, as every one is finding out, emulators used to play copyrighted content are actually illegal cause it provides a way to play copyrighted content without the creators consent. And now the mighty Xbox has layed down the law on these filthy thieves, sending millions of low life pirates into a fit of rage. These scum were even trying to blame Nintendo for their shortcomings.

"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."

Even the worlds most advance AI that can read through and analyze millions of copyright laws in mere seconds states having a copy of copyrighted material against the creators intent is against the law. Even playing copyrighted material you have about in anyway that is against the creators intent is illegal.

Source

Are you dim? Emulators are not illegal.

@Pedro: Emulators themselves are not illegal, but the things people do with those emulators most likely are.

OP

"The time has come, as every one is finding out, emulators are actually illegal cause it provides a way to play copyrighted content without the creators consent."

@Pedro: Ill rephrase it, using an emulator to play copyrighted content is illegal.

@mesome713: Even your chatGPT is disagreeing with you and you don't even realize.🙄

Your claim "using an emulator to play copyrighted content is illegal.",

Your bot's claim"However, using an emulator to play games or run software that YOU DO NOT OWN OR HAVE NOT OBTAINED LEGALLY can be illegal and may violate copyright laws."

Now you have been wrong twice.😂

@Pedro:

Been playing a lot of Nintendo games this year.

Haven't turned on a Nintendo device in over a year.

4k/60 Tears of the Kingdom gonna be great.

@ConanTheStoner: The hard working developers thank you for your theft.

@mesome713:

What theft tho?

I buy my games. Hell, I gift games I like to others as well, do plenty to support the games I like.

If I can bypass trash hardware and enjoy those games even more, great!

@mesome713: Nope!

@Pedro: Nothing seeing anything stating otherwise.

The only thing that makes Nintendo games relevant. Wish you could emulate the online infrastructure that isn't from 2001 as well.

That's unfortunate for Xbox fans. Doesn't bother me though. Never had and never will have an Xbox.

Spreading misinformation is a really annoying trait in a person, and I'm very glad that you got shut down. I hope you'll stop, but it looks like you still don't understand, so we'll see.

I love playing my Nintendo games on PC, it's a very smooth experience. My PC plays them way better than my Switch. Especially those games I own but Nintendo doesn't let me play, unless I bust out old dusty (probably non-functional) hardware from up to 35 years ago. All I want is to play my Nintendo games that I bought easily and comfortably. If Nintendo themselves can't provide that, I'll fix the problem myself.

Emulators FTfuckingW!

Nintendo fans are such shills they will actually be against emulating their games.

@mesome713

This has only stopped the emulators running on Xbox in retail mode (i.e. the dashboard). RetroArch is still working, and will likely continue to run for the foreseeable future in Dev mode.

Probably a bit of envy. Gotta wait another gen or two to experience Nintendos current batch of games the way we're enjoying them on PC now. And of course, buy the games again to do so.

And that's assuming they don't phone it in like 3D All Stars.

And as Litchie points out, access to classics, depending on the whims of Nintendo. Drip fed, or in some cases never seen. Screw that.

“My hope (and I think I have to present it that way as of now) is as an industry we'd work on legal emulation that allowed modern hardware to run any (within reason) older executable allowing someone to play any game,”

- Phil Spencer

Except whoever made the Xenia emulator, that person can go to hell I guess. Huh. MS?

To think that so many people were trying to sell Series consoles on emulation too. Oopsie! Will people get their money back paying for the retail versions of emus just for Xbox? The dev versions might be toast in the future too

Wouldn't mind Microsoft doing more with their emulation/BC stuff. It's their best work. Xbox/xbox360 games in 4k, improved filtering, fps boost in some cases. I have all my Splinter Cell games on there. All run, look and play great.

@freedomfreak:

Yeah man, love that shit for the Ninja Gaiden games. NG2 especially, the performance is perfect now.

But MS did that and worked very hard on it. :-S

How do you think Original Xbox games work so well on the Series consoles?

Xbox 360 games actually work better in every way on the Series consoles which also have hardware acceleration for certain XMA file types.

Nearly every re-released 2D game is running in software emulation.

Sounds like you may have mixed up on what he's talking about. I highly doubt he'd say "man emulators to run any illegally obtained software... AWESOME". :-S

Emulators are used often and in many forms. Even apples Rosetta 1 & 2 are forms of emulation. Actually Rosetta 2 may be some of the most important emulation there is that apple need... Without it, apple silicon would fall flat on it's face in the market.

It's not Steam but... called it!

@mesome713: wondering, let’s say that a person buys a game, then emulates it on their PC (say, for convenience or whatever).

While technically illegal, would you consider it morally wrong?

Plus, anyone who knows Nintendo's policies on unofficial (keyword) emulation should've seen this coming.

It's not the same. Unlike Xenia which is a pure software emulator, the Xbox One and Series X consoles don't actually emulate the Xbox 360 and original games in software. The games were actually re-coded as Xbox One games.

That was the only approach they could use as the poor Jaguar CPU cores were far too low powered and weak to do true emulation. They work well because they have coded to take advantage of the more powerful hardware, at least they do on the Series hardware.

Can use the same argument for Windows, after all, Windows is not illegal, but you might use emulators on it and do with those emulators illegal things, which makes Windows illegal using the same logic.

Devs don't get any better pay just because you buy or not buy the game. They are exploited no matter what. It's the big wig publishers who take in all the extra money.

Other than that, in most cases the old games are being emulated, and they are not even on sale anyway, so it's impossible to get them legally.

@mesome713 said:

@Pedro: Ill rephrase it, using an emulator to play copyrighted content is illegal.

So they're legal to have and legal to use, then?

Good to know.

Not really sure why you felt like you had to lie on your original post, but thanks for correcting yourself.

I love (not really) the corporate worship that occurs in System Wars. It's just beautiful. MS bans emulators and suddenly they're the god damned supreme court, setting law for the country and world lol. "OH MS said it?! Well then obviously it's illegal".

No, folks. They changed their policy to cover their ass and avoid lawsuits, legitimate or otherwise. It has zero bearing on the legality of having and using emulators.

I can run over someone with my car and that is illegal, therefore cars are illegal or might as well be. Right?! LOGIC!

@rmpumper: I understand what you mean, but it’s a bit of a stretch. I can use Windows to perform a wide variety of things like study for an exam, send emails, book meetings, gather documents to apply for a home loan, among of other things. Not too sure if you can use a SNES emulator to study for an exam or apply for a home loan.

Retro emulation is real big on the Series S. It’s a great box for that. And with retro consoles becoming more and more scarce, emulation is necessary for game preservation.

Was considering getting a series S just as a retro box in the bedroom

That's not really the same. Xenia opens a much wider door as an emulator than the games MS are porting to be playable on b/c. Which I guess they stopped since they actually have new games on the horizon, I guess?

Phil said ANY game via older executable like PC, so that's all I'm going by. Xbox turned a blind eye to emulators on the platform for quite sometime. Almost as if to dare his rivals to complain about it, and to lowkey use it as a selling point without openly endorsing it.

It's convenient that "emulators bad" is the new stance at Xbox not too long after Xenia was able to be used on the console. Then they decided the party was over when it stepped on their toes. I'm sure they're not losing much sleep if it got a lot of people in the door by buying a console.

@BenjaminBanklin: Stop being an idiot. Xbox is the only console you can use an emulator but you are here whinning about a loophole that has been closed in retail mode.

I'm not whining about anything. You're the one with the Xbox. A lot of people who don't want to futz with the dev mode to play these emus got left holding the bag. What are you so defensive for?

You literally created two essays whining about the loophole being closed as someone who doesn't own an Xbox but you are not whining.😂 Stop being an idiot.

This must be sensitive topic in the Xbox community if you're crying at me about it. Also, it wasn't a loophole if the full retail product was available, dumb ass. Being able to still play these emus in the meantime in dev mode is the loophole.

@girlusocrazy: As long as the copyright holder says you can, you can. Its that simple.

Weird, I am crying about what now? Last I check you are the one whining about the removal, not me.😂 Playing Xenia or any other emulator in retail mode was a loophole. Retail mode doesn't allow for the running of unsigned code or software that is not in the Xbox Store. This is basic shit man. Anything in dev mode is running as intended because it is dev mode. Stop being an idiot.

Microsoft has finally cracked down on a loophole in the Xbox Store that allowed emulators to be downloaded and used on Xbox consoles to play older games, including many unavailable on Xbox consoles.

Microsoft has finally cracked down on a loophole in the Xbox Store that allowed emulators to be downloaded and used on Xbox consoles to play older games, including many unavailable on Xbox consoles.

Uh huh. That sure was a long lasting loophole. I'm just saying, it seemed like Xenia was the crossing the line point. Someone tried to play defense and blame Nintendo for the pull which MS admitted they weren't behind it.

And how would that work, if the emulator itself is banned? The copyright holder is selling an emulated game, but you can't play it, because the emulator itself is not available, because "emulation illegal".

I am not sure what was the cause for the delayed fix but even when it was available the warning that MS will patch it out was always present. The main reason I believe it was addressed is that it allowed for unauthorized software to run in retail mode. That opens the door for a lot of opportunities. If they purposely blocked emulators in dev mode, then that is an issue. Personally, I think they should remove their policy on emulators in the store and allow for the legitimate running of emulators but I also understand that they don't want the legal backlash and the possible pandora's box effect. As you have stated, if they are all for emulation, remove the clause and officially support it. We are in 2023 and there is still no legal way to digitally purchase ROMS. 🤷🏽‍♂️

How is MS infringing on the rights of gamers here?

Dolphin on Steam laughs at this.

@mesome713: cheezus, the shilling don't stop with you. Didn't you say Nintendo don't like money?? Then they should be happy people are using emulators to play their grimy 40 year old 8bit games. The funny thing is, patents for that game should have run out by now. But knowing how shady our laws and court system are, there's probably another 200 years before the license ends. Business interest and all, gotta milk people as hard as possible, even with 40 year old games. Even at the cost of our free speech.

Sony is about to remaster tlou for the 6th time, how exciting.