Recently Apple did the unthinkable and allowed emulators on their devices. Soon after it happened we already got two of them in the App Store: Emu 64 XL (Commodore 64) and iGBA (Game Boy).
While the first one can still be found and downloaded from Apple’s App Store, the latter has already been pulled out. It turns out the creator of the emulator, Mattia La Spina, released a knockoff of a popular emulator, GBA4iOS, created by Riley Testut.
Here’s Riley Testut’s comment about the situation:
So first of all, the knockoff should not happen at all, but the worst part is Apple approved a work that was infringing on Testut’s copyright. Not the best impression for the first official and popular Game Boy emulator on your devices..
After intervention from GBA4iOS creator Apple immediately pulled the iGBA app from the App Store for copyright infringement. Not only was the emulator, let’s say, an imitation of someone else’s work, it was full of ads and trackers, of which the app did not inform the users. Not the best first impression for both the developer and the giant from Cupertino.
As we see Riley Testut was pretty chill about Mattia La Spina’s actions and way more frustrated with Apple. And I get it. I would probably feel the same way. It’s a new territory for Apple and hopefully, this was the last time we see them embarrassing themselves like that.
Hopefully, we can get the GBA4iOS officially released on the iPhone and give much deserved credit and recognition to its creator.
It’s awesome we will finally see emulators popping out in the App Store. More ways to play our favorite titles are always welcome. Plus it’s nice to see a company such as Apple being pushed by the US and the EU to loosen its grip on what can and can’t be allowed in their App Store.
In recent years emulation really hit it off on many devices, such as Xbox, Steam Deck, and a whole plethora of emulation handhelds. Gaming, and more importantly, retro gaming is now more accessible than ever and I could not be more excited.
