App Store
You can now play Nintendo games on your iPhone without the guilt
Apple has allowed emulators onto the App Store, with Delta being one of the first to go live.
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Fans of video game emulators are getting some good news this week, as the first game emulator properly approved by the Apple App Store is now live. Called Delta, it can emulate a wide variety of classic Nintendo consoles.
Apple relaxed the App Store policies earlier this month to allow emulators, super apps, and mini-apps into the digital storefront. It also changed how streaming apps process subscriptions, allowing them to link to external websites for the first time.
Delta isn’t technically the first emulator to hit the App Store, as another app, iGBA, briefly appeared on the storefront over the weekend.
The thing is, iGBA was a clone of another emulator created by the Delta developer, who was annoyed that Apple approved that app before Delta. Apple has since removed iGBA, presumably under the App Store rule that forbids copycat apps.
You can now download Delta Game Emulator on the App Store
The Delta Game Emulator is an all-in-one emulator for many Nintendo consoles, including the GameBoy series, NES, SNES, N64, and DS.
While Delta is available on the App Store for most parts of the world, iOS users in the EU must go to another source. That’s because the developer also created an alternative App Store, AltStore.
This is from another Apple decision earlier this year, which enables third-party app stores for European users if they are on iOS 17.4 or later. Alternative app stores can even be set as the default, which is a huge change to how Apple usually works.
Game streaming apps like Xbox Cloud Gaming or Nvidia GeForce Now can also come to the App Store, as they can stream the game content from their servers now instead of having to individually get them approved by Apple.
The walled garden that Apple has operated in for so long is slowly opening. To get to this point it took intense pressure from regulators around the world.
To stay open, app developers have to be careful. Otherwise, Apple will use issues as evidence to back up its claims of security through being closed.
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