Emulator frontend Emulation-Station has been removed from the Amazon Appstore, less than a week after its launch. The reasoning for the app's removal, is, according to Amazon, Emulation-Station, "facilitates emulating and pirating of games from third-party sources without explicit authorization from those sources", despite Emulation-Station merely acting as a frontend, and not actually including any emulators in the app.

The development team behind ES-DE has instead decided to go ahead with self-publishing the APK for the Android version of their frontend. In order to get the app now, you'll need to join Emulation-Station's Patreon, for $5.50 USD a month. You'll then be given access to the Android APK that you can install on your device. The devs note that you can cancel Patreon support after a month, and still keep the app and get future updates for it.

This is the second time in the past week that an emulator has been targeted specifically for "facilitating piracy", following Nintendo's lawsuit against the Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator. If you did happen to purchase ES-DE from the Amazon Appstore, you can at least still install it, however the developers urge anyone who made the purchase to get the app refunded, as Amazon will not be paying the developers because the emulator frontend is "illegal".

News 2024-02-28: Amazon has decided to remove ES-DE from their Appstore because "The app facilitates emulating and pirating of games from third-party sources without explicit authorization from those sources." Everyone that knows anything about emulation knows that this is not true, and especially not for a frontend that does not ship with any games or any emulators. We have attempted to appeal this decision but Amazon has refused to reinstate the store entry.

Therefore we have decided to self-publish the APK instead of relying on any app stores. As a first step you can join our Patreon to receive a download link to the APK. Note that this is NOT a subscription, you can turn off recurring payments at any time and you will still receive future APK updates. But if you do choose to support the project long term in these difficult times then it's much appreciated. I have worked four years on ES-DE without making any money from it, and it's almost like a second job now. Supporting us financially instead of pirating the app is a way to make sure development will continue and that ES-DE has a future long term.



Please spread the word of what has happened and if you did buy the app from the Amazon Appstore then ask them for a refund and don't hesitate to criticize them for their decision. We have not yet received any money from amazon and due to them claiming that ES-DE is illegal we doubt that will change. Anyway, it seems like you can still install the app from the Amazon Appstore app if you have bought it, but there will obviously be no further updates published there.

Source

 

[AlexMCS]

-_-

 

[Chary]

This one's beyond stupid, because Emulation-Station doesn't even have emulators. Is file organization illegal now???

 

[Flame]

If only Amazon cared this much for people and the workers who work for them as they do for another companies one's and zero's on a hard drive.

 

[linuxares]

This one's beyond stupid, because Emulation-Station doesn't even have emulators. Is file organization illegal now???

Yes, organization is now illegal only anarchy!

 

[ZeroT21]

LOl, I would not be surprised if piracy was blamed for all the layoffs at this point

 

[tech3475]

Would this be the same Amazon selling devices with pirated roms on them?

 

[RAHelllord]

Would this be the same Amazon selling devices with pirated roms on them?

That is indeed the same Amazon, it is also the same Amazon that allows retroarch to still be on their store.

 

[GengarsGhostlyGiggles]

looks like charging for emulation related stuff has really drawn the ire of a bunch of big companies especially as the game industry is taking a beating layoffs everywhere..

 

[slaphappygamer]

The internet facilitates piracy let’s ban that. Where you at Nintendo?

 

[SDA]

That was fast, or I'd even say... faster than Sonic. I knew about this thing only two days ago and now it's gone already.

 

[Noctosphere]

If only Amazon cared this much for people and the workers who work for them as they do for another companies one's and zero's on a hard drive.

they care much more about companies totally unrelated to them than their own customers.
*MINDBLOWN*

Post automatically merged: Feb 28, 2024

The internet facilitates piracy let’s ban that. Where you at Nintendo?

probably the best move they could do if they really want to fight piracy

 

[hippy dave]

The internet facilitates piracy let’s ban that. Where you at Nintendo?

I mostly play pirated games on my Nintendo Switch, so it's the console that's facilitating my piracy. Nintendo, sue Nintendo!

 

[Viri]

Yeah, and so do you Amazon. It's not even hard to find this shit.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=retro+game+console+with+built+in+games

 

[Marc_LFD]

I'd have forgotten Amazon had an App Store because I got rid of it from my Fire tablet and have not used it in many years.

I do remember Amazon Underground App Store which gave a ton of free games, but I got tired of using another store so I just use Google's instead.

Anyway, this sure doesn't help Amazon's App Store.

Post automatically merged: Feb 28, 2024

Yeah, and so do you Amazon. It's not even hard to find this shit.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=retro+game+console+with+built+in+games

If Amazon were to remove all those listings, it'd be amazing, but that's not happening.

Even worse:



Amazon has definitely went down the shitter. I claimed free PC games on my Amazon account, but I doubt I'll still have it in 15-20 years time.

 

[DragonMals]

according to Amazon, Emulation-Station, "facilitates emulating and pirating of games from third-party sources without explicit authorization from those sources", despite Emulation-Station merely acting as a frontend, and not actually including any emulators in the app.

This is fucking stupid. This isn't even piracy!!!

Post automatically merged: Feb 28, 2024

This is the second time in the past week that an emulator has been targeted specifically for "facilitating piracy", following Nintendo's lawsuit against the Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator.

Speaking of the Switch emulator, I didn't want to say anything without knowing more context about the situation between Nintendo and Yuzu. What is even going on within those two?

 

[jordash25]

How many emulators are obtainable on android!?

 

[Axido]

Good thing that Android devices that are not forced to rely on the Amazon App store still have access to emulators.

Who does this actually help and why is there a sudden increase of actions against emulators (or not-even-emulators in this case) that try to question the Bleem ruling?

 

[Maximo101]

I have unknowingly bought multiple fake, counterfeit items on Amazon, and when I pointed out to Amazon they were selling fakes, they told me my opinion didn't count...

I just put emulation station on my steam deck and it was free. Was Amazon charging for the Emulator file system?

 

[Quore]

I don't know if I laugh at Amazon for being such a dummy of if i swear to them because of this poor "reason" to removed