Emulator developers report that Microsoft has begun tightening controls for emulator software on Xbox Series X and S consoles.
Emulators, which are one of the sine qua non of Xbox consoles, allow you to emulate a different game system on the device. Of course, Microsoft’s store has a policy against such software and prohibits its use on console.
Will emulators on Xbox Series X/S be completely blocked?
You can access games from the past generation and on different platforms through emulators such as Xenia or Dolphin installed on the console. We do not know if this situation directly affects the game sales of the companies, but it seems that the access of the players to the old generation games will be difficult after these increased measures.
On the other hand GamesradarAccording to , there is a way to overcome this. If you turn your Xbox console into development mode, you can access such applications. However, it also has a $20 fee.
A developer, Alyanna McKenna, sent a question to Microsoft about the subject. The response reveals the company’s rationale:
The primary reason for the ban has to do with legal issues with Nintendo. While the emulation itself is not illegal, it can be used to play games on consoles that are still copyrighted without permission, which could cause problems with Nintendo and its affiliates.
Also, we take security seriously and some emulators require permissions for an app beyond what is normal. This can pose a potential security risk, as these permissions can be used by malicious people to gain access to sensitive information. For these reasons, we have made the decision to ban emulators on the Xbox store front.
But we do know that many users enable development mode to run legitimate emulation. We do not want to remove this feature as it does not provide access to the retail components of the system and is considered safe. Unlike retail emulators, the development mode is limited to certain functions and the system has no read-write functionality.
That said, we continue to explore ways to allow safe and legal emulation on Xbox. We are negotiating with legitimate emulator developers to bring their software to our platform while ensuring that all copyright laws and security protocols are complied with.
Thank you for your understanding and patience as we work on 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 these goals.