Game emulators for the iPhone: The obstacles Apple puts in the way
Retro game emulators are now allowed in the App Store, but important apps are not. The reasons are of a technical and commercial nature.
(Bild: Barone Firenze/Shutterstock.com)
Two popular game emulators are staying out of the App Store - for very different reasons. Although the app category of "retro game emulators", long banned by Apple, is now permitted in principle, Apple is withholding a fundamental technical component from emulators of newer game consoles. The iOS fork of the popular GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin will therefore not be available in the App Store, as the developers recently announced - after many users had asked about it.
Apple does not release JIT compilation
To run the games written for PowerPC processors with high performance on the ARM chips in iPhones and iPads, DolphiniOS uses just-in-time compilation (JIT compiler). However, the use of JIT is prohibited for iOS apps from other developers; so far, only Safari is allowed to use the technology. In future, Apple will inevitably have to release JIT for other browsers in the EU to ensure equal opportunities. The emulator developers wrote that they had requested JIT support from Apple via the new interoperability request stipulated by the Digital Markets Act, but Apple had already rejected this several weeks ago.
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The company apparently sees this as a security risk. Without JIT, Dolphin cannot even be played properly on an iPhone 15 Pro Max, as the developers demonstrate in a video.
The distribution of DolphiniOS outside the App Store, which is now possible in the EU, does not help in this case either: technical restrictions such as Apple's JIT ban also apply to apps that are offered in alternative app marketplaces or (in future) for direct download from a website.
Apple fee: Delta not in the EU App Store
The Game Boy emulator Delta is also staying out of the App Store, but only within the EU. This decision is not for technical reasons, but for business reasons, as the developer Riley Testut announced at the weekend. In Germany and other EU countries, Delta is available via "AltStore PAL", the first generally available alternative app marketplace for iPhones. In order to operate the app marketplace and offer his emulator there, he has necessarily accepted Apple's new terms and conditions, explains Testut.
If he were to sell Delta parallel to the AltStore in Apple's App Store, he would also have to pay Apple's controversial "Core Technology Fee". The new terms and conditions mean that the fee, which is calculated based on installations, is also due for apps sold in the App Store, regardless of whether they are free or chargeable. He would therefore have had to set a purchase price for Delta to pay Apple's fee. AltStore PAL requires a subscription of 1.80 euros per year, which should also cover the fees charged by Apple for the emulator distributed there, according to Testut.
If it weren't for Apple's Core Technology Fee, the AltStore would have remained free of charge, according to Testut – and Delta would also be available in the EU App Store. In the USA, Delta is available in the App Store and has remained at the top of the charts since its release last Wednesday. The emulator was downloaded well over 1 million times in the first two days alone.
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