Hi there,
Thanks for getting in touch with us about the recent ban on emulators on the Xbox store front. We appreciate your interest and concerns.
To answer your questions, the primary reason for the ban is related to legal issues with Nintendo. While emulating itself is not illegal, it can be used to play games from consoles that are still under copyright protection without permission, which can create issues with Nintendo and its affiliates.
Additionally, we take security seriously, and some emulators require permissions beyond what is typical for an app. This could create a potential security risk, as these permissions can be exploited by bad actors to gain access to sensitive information. For these reasons, we have made the decision to ban emulators on the Xbox store front.
However, we understand that many users have dev mode enabled to run legal emulation. We don't seek to remove this ability, as it doesn't grant access to the retail components of the system and is considered safe. Unlike retail emulators, dev mode is limited to certain functionalities and doesn't have system read-write functionality.
That said, we are still exploring ways to allow safe and legal emulation on Xbox. We are in talks with legitimate emulator developers to bring their software onto our platform while ensuring that all copyright laws and security protocols are followed.
We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work through 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 those goals.
If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us.
Best regards,