In the last hours, lovers of emulation and ROMS have received a jug of cold water, and that is that one of the best platforms to run emulators has withdrawn its compatibility with this type of software. Yes, we are talking about Xbox Series X | S, which have stopped allowing the execution of software related to emulators, which until now could be done perfectly. But is it definitely lost?
Install emulators on Xbox
Until now, everything was extremely simple. It was enough to visit a website from the Edge browser to install a series of packages and carry Retroarch itself and other emulators in the console’s memory. For now all this is still working, but the problem is when you try to run the installed applications. And is that the message “Cannot start this game or application” appears when we try to run one of the emulation related applications.
The reasons for this block are quite obvious. The use of ROMs is an illegal practice in 99% of occasions. Normally users download ROMs from the internet and run them on emulators, and in no case do they have the original copy of the game on their shelf. For this reason, from Microsoft they have decided to cut their losses and not allow an illegal practice on their platforms, something quite obvious and that we can also find among the use policy of the Apple App Store.
Can you continue playing emulators?
Yes, the emulators will continue to work on consoles, however that will be limited to developer mode only. This means that in order to run the applications, we will have to start our console in developer mode, and to achieve this it is necessary pay 20 euro to convert our account into a developer account.
With this step done, the console will be able to start developer mode, allowing files to be uploaded through a PC browser. The problem is that this will not allow you to start the Xbox games that we have installed, so we will have to exit the mode and restart the console in retail mode, and restart again in developer mode when we want to play the emulators.
From what we have seen, in addition to having to pay for the developer account, the method is quite annoying and cumbersome (it is still a practical solution, and not an official way to play emulators), so many will not feel too interested to continue using your Xbox Series X|S as an emulator platform.
Microsoft promises a solution
In the words of Microsoft, they say they continue to explore ways to allow safe and legal emulation on Xbox. It is important to emphasize that it is safe, and it makes a lot of sense, since, as they stated, the use of applications of this type with complete freedom opened a quite serious security breach that could put the security of their devices in trouble. However, one of the main reasons for the blockade is related to Nintendo, since the company expressed its discomfort at seeing how Xboxes were used to run illegal copies of its games and platforms, so something tells us that it will be quite difficult to return. to get the panorama we were enjoying today. Meanwhile, many users are showing their discomfort on social networks, feeling disappointed by Microsoft’s decision and using the hashtag #LetsUsEmulate (Let us emulate) to express the global discontent that exists among users.
