Apple Just Made Another Big Change to the App Store for Emulators. Here’s What It Means

On April 5, retro game emulators for the iPhone and iPad were allowed to be downloaded from the App Store, in accordance with Apple’s policy change. Soon after, apps like Delta were released that let users run games from Nintendo consoles and handheld devices from back in the day. Now, another policy change gives PC emulators more flexibility.

Apple has updated its App Store guidelines, giving PC emulators the green light to download games. This is great news for anyone looking to relive the glory days of old software and classic games on top-of-the-line iPhones and other Apple devices.

While console emulators have been allowed to download games for a while now, PC emulators have been stuck in no man’s land. Not anymore! The updated Guideline 4.7 now explicitly states that PC emulator apps can also offer game downloads. This change comes after Apple’s recent approval of UTM SE, a versatile emulator for old Windows, macOS, and Linux systems.

What does that mean exactly?

The UTM SE retro PC emulator initially received a lukewarm reception from Apple back in June. The reason? Apple claimed that “PC is not a console” and sent the app’s developers back to the drawing board. After some tweaking and tweaking, UTM SE got the welcome green light. It’s now a pioneering PC emulator on the App Store, paving the way for others to follow.

The new rules under Guideline 4.7 cover a lot of ground. They allow mini apps, mini games, streaming games, chatbots, plugins, and game emulators. But they also restrict apps that extend or expose native platform APIs without Apple’s consent (4.7.2) and prevent apps from sharing data without user consent (4.7.3). Before this update, these rules only applied to App Store apps, but now they also apply when you download apps from other sources in the EU.