Android Market Gives Video Game Emulators the Boot

A collection of console emulators, including N64oid, Nesoid and Snesoid, have been removed from the Android Market. HotHardwareand Engadget both report that the -oid series developer, Yong Zhang, has also lost his Android Market developer account.

Although emulators have cleared various legal challenges in the past, most commercial application stores — including Apple’s App Store — ban emulators unless the packaged ROMs are specifically licensed.

Until recently, Google has seemingly turned a blind eye toward emulators, allowing users to sell emulators for virtually every classic console or old-school PC platform. That started to change in April, when Google removed the PSX4Droid emulator from the Android Market. The removal of PSX4Droid from the Android Market was suspect, especially given Sony’s announcement of the Xperia Play Android phone, which can download and play many classic PlayStation One games.

In the case of -oid series, the decision to remove the apps purportedly came after game maker (and console maker of old) Sega filed a complaint with Google. Presumably, Sega is upset that the emulators allow users who have illegally obtained ROM files for its games to play those games on their Android smartphones or tablets.


In response, the -oid developer has made its emulators available on the third-party Android market, SlideMEand is making the apps free to download for now — so that users won’t have to worry about paying for an app twice.
Although we understand the position that Google is in — as well as the reasons why company’s like Sega file complaints against emulators — we can’t help but feel like the rules are changing halfway through the game.

For the past two and a half years, the Android Market has been the Wild West of app marketplaces. The distinct lack of restrictions on the marketplace has become the rallying cry for many Android users. That openness can come at a price — malware sometimes sneaks in — but it is a distinct part of what separates Google from Apple.
It is perfectly within Google’s rights to remove applications that break its terms of service, but we can’t help but question why a category of applications is perfectly legitimate one day, then pulled without notice the next.

Application developers that believe they can use the Android Market as a platform to sell apps that might be perceived as “gray” by some other marketplaces (Amazon, Apple, Microsoft), might want to think twice before listing solely in the Android Market. If your app is for an emulator or a quasi-legal music-sharing service, the Android Market might not be the best place to go.