Emulators to be banned on more systems in the future?

[Zak]

I've heard that Microsoft banned Emulators from their X-Box. Check this video for it:

[ Show youtube player ]

I have also found people saying, this could be the future on more systems such as Windows in the future. Will we see the end of retro gaming soon, or do I misunderstand something?

No more WinUAE?

[Anubis]

Nah, not really.


Having recent consoles play emulated game probably not the best thing to do. While MS first allowed it in developer mode to run RetroArch, latest temp bans are for people who used exploit to run emulators in gaming mode.


I would not go that far to predict that this is even possible with current Windows machine, and if it ever would happen, it will be already past time to switch to Linux. (or Workbench 3.3 )

[Seiya]

Originally Posted by Zak

I've heard that Microsoft banned Emulators from their X-Box. Check this video for it:

[ Show youtube player ]

I have also found people saying, this could be the future on more systems such as Windows in the future. Will we see the end of retro gaming soon, or do I misunderstand something?

No more WinUAE?

we have to preprare to preserve our emulators

[malko]

GAFAM are so eager to control their slaves (oups), customers, that it won't be surprising if they are going to remove from their shops the emulators. Then they will not allow installation of software that are not from their shops. Of course, security reasons will be given...

[DisasterIncarna]

emulation has always been bad for business for those that want people throwing money at their online stores rather than installing emulators and playing other stuff they cant leech money from.

[TCD]

I personally wouldn't worry too much about emulation on PCs. For consoles it's not good if people do not buy new games for their systems and mainly use them for emulation. That's the reason why Nintendo and Microsoft are very anti emulation. On the PC (or Macs) that's not really an issue as they don't rely on games sales.

But of course that doesn't mean that it is not worrying and that there should be legislation that protects preservation of old video games (including their emulation). Here's a thread about the 'other side' of that coin: https://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=115001

[Captain_ Kal]

There are two modes in X/S.

Retail , a.k.a normal mode where you play your games and run Microsoft approved apps.

Developer mode: An xbox devkit is included with every xbox series S/X, and you have to pay an one time small fee (about 20 euros including VAT), to have access to it.

You can still run emulators in dev mod. You cannot run emulators in retail (normal) mode, but even if you could, you would have a rather complicated method to follow just to install them.

[Anubis]

I tried emulation on xbox when it got out, in developer mode.I installed retro arch and decided that I can't be bothered switching between modes in order to use emulator and did not want to run exploit to enable emulator in retail mode.

To TCD's point, xbox now offers AntStream (we had some previous discussions about this here @ EAB iirc) where you can play C64, Amiga, Arcade and some other retro games.

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/sto...e/9n0bxmrl9x66

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Anubis

To TCD's point, xbox now offers AntStream (we had some previous discussions about this here @ EAB iirc) where you can play C64, Amiga, Arcade and some other retro games.

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/sto...e/9n0bxmrl9x66

Ah, that might be the reason to ban free alternatives.

[Anubis]

That would be a good guess who asked for a ban/removal, just as GOG did the same for abandoware sites....

GOG probably closed more sites then Nintendo and Microsoft combined did.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Anubis

GOG probably closed more sites then Nintendo and Microsoft combined did.

Hehe, that's actually a good point As they say: Business is business.

[Dunny]

It's a capitalism failing.

You have a product that does well, makes money, you want to develop and expand so you take in loans from investors. They buy a controlling interest in your company and you have to keep increasing profits or they can literally prosecute you and have you removed.

So you keep improving, you get more customers and all is well with the world; your stock price keeps rising.

But then you have no more improvements to make. People stop buying into it. So you add in retention mechanics to keep people spending. You add in bonus features that you can sell as addons.

Then those addons become subscriptions the users need to pay for. It keeps the profits going up.

Then those subscriptions become tiered as profits decline. Profits go up, but much slower than before.

Then you start selling access to your product to 3rd parties like advertisers. Profits rise again, but not because of customers buying the product. Users start to leave.

Eventually there are not enough users and in order to prevent the investors from prosecuting, you declare bankruptcy. Investors move elsewhere, you are out of a job.

Someone else offers what you offered originally, as a "breath of fresh air" and the process starts all over again.

And it happens for every single business out there that takes investor cash or floats publicly. Without fail.