{"id":808297,"date":"2025-12-06T16:46:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy?utm_source=feed&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=feed"},"modified":"2025-12-06T16:46:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-06T16:46:40","slug":"apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>\nJust days after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/apples-app-store-permits-game-emulators-for-the-first-time\">changing its policies to allow video game emulators on iPhone<\/a>, Apple has pulled Game Boy Advance emulator app iGBA from its App Store. <\/p>\n<p>\nBut this wasn&#8217;t due to a change of heart by Apple on the moralities of emulators themselves. Instead, it was because iGBA turned out to be a rip-off of another emulator, the open-source GBA4iOS.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAn Apple spokesperson confirmed the decision and the company&#8217;s reasoning for the emulator takedown to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.macrumors.com\/2024\/04\/15\/apple-further-explains-igba-removal\/\">MacRumors<\/a>, and restated its position that emulators which ran downloaded versions of games, or ROMs, were still allowed on the App Store, despite piracy concerns. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy?utm_source=feed&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=feed\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy?utm_source=feed&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=feed\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just days after changing its policies to allow video game emulators on iPhone, Apple has pulled Game Boy Advance emulator app iGBA from its App Store. But this wasn&#8217;t due to a change of heart by Apple on the moralities of emulators themselves. Instead, it was because iGBA turned out to be a rip-off of another emulator, the open-source GBA4iOS. An Apple spokesperson confirmed the decision and the company&#8217;s reasoning for the emulator takedown to MacRumors, and restated its position that emulators which ran downloaded versions of games, or ROMs, were still allowed on the App Store, despite piracy concerns. Read more Source<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":808298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[1387,159,13,6929,21,5949],"class_list":["post-808297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eurogamer","tag-apple","tag-ios","tag-nintendo","tag-nintendo-game-boy","tag-nintendo-switch","tag-switch-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just days after changing its policies to allow video game emulators on iPhone, Apple has pulled Game Boy Advance emulator app iGBA from its App Store. But\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy | Arcader News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just days after changing its policies to allow video game emulators on iPhone, Apple has pulled Game Boy Advance emulator app iGBA from its App Store. But\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-06T16:46:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Arcade News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"headline\":\"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-06T16:46:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":117,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Apple\",\"iOS\",\"Nintendo\",\"Nintendo Game Boy\",\"Nintendo Switch\",\"switch 2\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Eurogamer\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/\",\"name\":\"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy | Arcader News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-06T16:46:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\"},\"description\":\"Just days after changing its policies to allow video game emulators on iPhone, Apple has pulled Game Boy Advance emulator app iGBA from its App Store. But\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/04\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg\",\"width\":480,\"height\":270,\"caption\":\"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"description\":\"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839\",\"name\":\"Arcade News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Arcade News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/cricketgames.tv\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/arcader.org\\\/news\\\/author\\\/arcade-news\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy | Arcader News","description":"Just days after changing its policies to allow video game emulators on iPhone, Apple has pulled Game Boy Advance emulator app iGBA from its App Store. But","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy | Arcader News","og_description":"Just days after changing its policies to allow video game emulators on iPhone, Apple has pulled Game Boy Advance emulator app iGBA from its App Store. But","og_url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/","og_site_name":"Arcade News","article_published_time":"2025-12-06T16:46:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":480,"height":270,"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Arcade News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Arcade News","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/"},"author":{"name":"Arcade News","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"headline":"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy","datePublished":"2025-12-06T16:46:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/"},"wordCount":117,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg","keywords":["Apple","iOS","Nintendo","Nintendo Game Boy","Nintendo Switch","switch 2"],"articleSection":["Eurogamer"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/","name":"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy | Arcader News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg","datePublished":"2025-12-06T16:46:40+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839"},"description":"Just days after changing its policies to allow video game emulators on iPhone, Apple has pulled Game Boy Advance emulator app iGBA from its App Store. But","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy.jpg","width":480,"height":270,"caption":"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/apple-pulls-iphone-gba-emulator-but-not-because-it-encourages-piracy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Apple pulls iPhone GBA emulator, but not because it encourages piracy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/","name":"Arcade News","description":"Free Arcade News from the Best Online Sources","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8460f5e5076b52fb2369f2f7ce6f2839","name":"Arcade News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3fea48a614d86edd987bc7bb25f4707c69546d4b1f78ad4aa20b26316bad1f9d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Arcade News"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/cricketgames.tv"],"url":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/author\/arcade-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808297"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1417359,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808297\/revisions\/1417359"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}