Apple has removed the iGBA Game Boy emulator from the App Store for violating the company’s guidelines related to spam and copyright. The emulator, which was a copycat version of developer Riley Testut’s open-source GBA4iOS app, rose quickly in the App Store charts before being taken down. Users complained about the app being a ripoff filled with ads, prompting Testut to express his disappointment in a Threads post.
It is unclear whether Apple removed iGBA due to concerns about it being a copy of GBA4iOS or other violations of App Store guidelines. The emulator allowed iPhone users to play Game Boy games by loading ROMs downloaded from the internet, a practice that Nintendo deems illegal. Testut, the original developer, has since moved on to create another emulator called Delta, which is available outside the App Store and may eventually be offered through his alternative marketplace AltStore in the EU.
Apple’s decision to remove iGBA comes shortly after updating its App Review Guidelines to allow retro game console emulators, raising questions about what will be permitted in the future. The situation highlights the ongoing challenges and controversies surrounding app development, copyright issues, and the distribution of emulators on Apple’s platform.