Microsoft bans emulators on Xbox and revolts users

Microsoft finally figured out how to fix a loophole that allowed unauthorized emulators to be downloaded and used on Xbox consoles to play games on other platforms. The change was pointed out a few days ago by emulator users and their creators.

As expected, the emulation community was outraged by Microsoft’s decision, as many users used the feature to emulate old Xbox games that they already had, but were not available for the Xbox Series.

That said, there were also several titles playable via emulation that were never available on Xbox, such as Wii, GameCube and PS2 games.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a good run.

But now we’ve no choice but to @Xbox @XboxP3 #LetUsEmulate pic.twitter.com/K9KO1p655K

— 🇮🇪 gamr13 🇮🇪 (@gamr12) April 6, 2023

Rumors arose about what made Microsoft decide to ban the use of emulators, with the main one being Nintendo supposedly asking the company to take action in this regard, as it is well known for not allowing them to use or modify your games without your authorization.

However, a statement given to the IGN by Microsoft makes clear the real reason behind the decision:

“Information currently circulating on Twitter is not accurate,” Microsoft’s statement reads. “Our actions build on a long-standing policy on content distributed to the Store to ensure alignment with our Microsoft Store policies. According to (the policy) 10.13.10, products that emulate a game system or game platform are not allowed on any device family.”

Microsoft has not explained why it has taken so long to remedy the situation, as the policy it refers to has been in place for many years. In a statement to kotakuthe company said that “we continually evolve our mechanisms to review and take actions to apply distributed content to the store to ensure alignment with our Microsoft Store policies”, implying that it has only now discovered a way to resolve the issue involving the emulators.