Console Manufacturers Pressure Google Into Pulling Emulators From The Android Market
from the it-takes-a-lot-of-effort-to-make-your-IP-worthless dept
In what is a rather unsurprising move, Sega and Nintendo have pressured Google to remove certain emulators from the Android Market. Some of the details via Geek.com:
Over the weekend developer Yong Zhang, known on the Android Market as yongzh, saw his Android developer account revoked and all the apps he offers removed from the Market. The apps he was offering were all emulators for popular older systems including the NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, Atari, Game Gear, and Game Boy. But Google has seen fit to remove all of them ( including Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, Ataroid, Gearoid, and Gameoid).Now, I know the rationale behind this. Or rather, I know of it. I don't know as in understand it.
I can see console developers having an issue with someone making money with their IP. I can understand why that's an issue. What I don't understand is why forcing these emulators and roms to be removed is the answer.
Reggie Fils-Aime has stated before his dislike of indie developers and the general race-to-the-bottom price competition, but has anybody at Sega or Nintendo or Sony ever considered the possibility of contacting these developers and licensing the emulators?
[CLARIFICATION (mainly for the benefit of console developers): By "licensing," I don't mean wave the lawyer stick around threateningly until they give up all commercial rights in perpetuity in exchange for a lawsuit-free existence and a signed copy of Tamigotchi: Party On!
I mean actual fair licensing agreements in which both parties have a chance to make some money. END CLARIFICATION.]There are thousands of fans out there, cranking out amazing stuff simply because they love the consoles and the games. Emulators, ROMs, fan fiction, fan movies, translations, you name it, somebody is out there doing it.
And it's not like most of these consoles are still available from the developers and they're certainly not cranking out new titles for the Genesis or the SNES. So why not take all this fan power and harness it into something that makes you money (granted, not at $40-50 a pop) rather than just shutting it down and collecting a big fat $0 for your efforts.
Mobile gaming is the new console gaming. All those kids who grew up with a NES or a Genesis are now cruising around with their smartphones looking for a hit of nostalgia. Besides, any gamer worth his fanboyism will tell you that all the best games were released at least a decade ago, if not longer. (See also: Final Fantasy VII, Sony Playstation, 1998.)
Besides, all the programming and debugging (well, most of it) has already been done. All it needs now is the official go-ahead from the console manufacturers and everyone can start printing money or bitcoins or whatever. You're not going to get rid of them. The fans are everywhere and they've got more enthusiasm than you've got lawyers. If you can't beat 'em, monetize 'em.
UPDATE: As Chris Rhodes (and others) have pointed out, this emulator removal does not have anything to do with Nintendo. In fact, it looks as if yongzh brought this upon himself by selling open source code as his own.
The two links I used to put this story together (the one in the post) and this one over at Engadget both mention Sega's hand in getting some emulators pulled and conjecture that Nintendo may have been involved with getting the rest removed. It's not until you start reading the comment thread at Engadget that any of yongzh's misdeeds are even mentioned. Generally, I don't head to the comment threads to get the real story, but there's a first time for everything and unfortunately, this wasn't it.
Between those two articles and a long history of console developers battling emulator/ROM programmers, not to mention Nintendo's obvious lack of interest in developing for smartphones, I assumed that Nintendo was involved.
Well, as the old saying goes: "Never assume, because it makes an ass out of the author and often leads to public evisceration and eternal damnation thanks to Google cache."
My thanks to everyone who pointed this out and my apologies to everyone else.
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Filed Under: android, emulators, market
Companies: google, nintendo, sony
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Clarification
So it might still be copyright-related, but not for the reasons you suggest.
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The fact that put them up elsewhere actually supports the "Snes9x Infringement Theory" over the "Angry Nintendo Theory".
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Because Google booted him from the marketplace entirely.
Calling up Google and saying "Hey, this guy ripped off our code. Please stop supporting him." is much easier for a cashless FOSS developer to do than hiring a lawyer and going after him in court. If Nintendo was behind this, do you think putting the same infringing code up elsewhere would be the logical thing for him to do?
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Google is also fairly good at only pulling the offending item, not the entire account (at least on the first offense).
I guess there's really only one way to be sure, and I don't know if it's possible for us to find out.
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It's kind of like, if you're giving out Apples at Halloween, and only one of them has a razor blade in it, people should still throw out any apple that came from your place and prevent their kids from trick-or-treating at your house.
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And your apple analogy is way over the top. It's like saying take away his right to make any app just like we would take away the right to be free from someone who only killed one person.
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What does a DMCA have to do with violating a terms of service? Did he even get hit with a DMCA? I didn't see anything in the post that would lead me to believe that Google didn't investigate the claim before they booted him. Do you know otherwise?
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Also, I'm not saying to throw anything out. That's just what I interpret the Google terms of use to be if you're an app dev. The same terms that each app dev should read and agree to before posting their apps in the market.
I thought you were one of the people here who could logically think through things like this....having an off day??
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That's because today's gamers are still trying to install their games purchased 2 years ago...
... well, those who have access to the game servers, that is.
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You see, Android is lovely b/c it is so open. You can install apps from other app sites...ones Google doesn't own or have pull over.
Thus, b/c instead of using their hammer to kill out infringement, they have instead turned it into that cushioned hammer from whack-a-mole. Good job.
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I could go into how stupid it is, but I feel you are actually just a troll and can't honestly be that stupid.
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-----------------------------> THAT WAY.
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It should read VI, not VII.
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Re: VII
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Re: Re: VII
*hugs his original FFIII (aka FFVI) cartridge*
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might just be me...
Can we try one purely factual? I'll even settle for well sourced potential facts over fantastical three paragraph run-on summations.
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I mean actual fair licensing agreements in which both parties have a chance to make some money. END CLARIFICATION.]"
Why should the guy that compiled the code for the emulator get anything? If Nintendo or whoever decides to put out their own emulator I think they'd be able to do that in-house. All the emulator does is pass calls from the ROM to the hardware. Most of the work has been done already by the people/companies that wrote the original OS and ROM. All this guys is doing is making it compatible with Android.
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Which is why it's valuable to us Android users. If it was only compatible with, say, the Commodore 64, the market for it on Android systems would be somewhat less, you know?
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This whole episode shows that there is a void that will be filled. The console makers can do it or the community can. Either way it's going to happen. It just didn't make sense to assume that they should license the emulator is all.
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You will never see Nintendo release an emulator for any system other than their own. They don't want people to be able to play games from any of their consoles on any system other than one from their own company. A generic emulator allows people to download and play any game they want and that can NEVER be allowed. They want to have complete control over what games are available in what areas.
Just like how Sony fought to have the Playstation emulators killed off.
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You know, you lose some to piracy but suddenly everyone who owns a computer is part of your market. There's plenty of console games that never get ported.
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You lose time by playing older games.
Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft are losing money because you aren't playing their new games.
Sega is losing money because you're playing Sonic 2 instead of Sonic Adventures...
Scratch that last one. Sega's a time sink anyway.
Point is, the older game market could probably be nurtured but none of the current console manufacturers are doing a decent job of it for various copyright reasons.
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It's all about control. Which is why Nintendo and other consoles from the NES era on, used regional lockout chips to prevent people from playing games from other countries. I remember going to a TurboGrafx16 exhibition at a local mall and all the new games being shown had to be plugged into a special cartridge because none of them were available in the US yet and the Japanese versions wouldn't work in US systems.
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It's all about control. Which is why Nintendo and other consoles from the NES era on, used regional lockout chips to prevent people from playing games from other countries. I remember going to a TurboGrafx16 exhibition at a local mall and all the new games being shown had to be plugged into a special cartridge because none of them were available in the US yet and the Japanese versions wouldn't work in US systems.
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Serious Question
Do Android apps HAVE to be downloaded through an App Store or could I cook up my own homebrew kinda thing and use it as an app on an Android?
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I wouldn't want to get stuck in another walled garden, even if it is Google's garden.
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Re: US Carrier Lockin
Do people in the US never buy phones except from a carrier as part of a contract? Is it so hard to buy your own phone, unlocked and unencumbered, and simply connect it to the carrier of your choice?
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Oof. I really dislike that kind of thing.
I get it that the software is copyrighted and probably proprietary. But, the phone itself is akin to hardware to me, like my computer, and belongs to me. I should be able to use whatever software or OS I choose, providing it's compatible with and doesn’t interfere with the carriers' network in any way.
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Drivers are only needed for Windows. Linux connects to the phones just fine.
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NESoid and SNESoid
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Seriously Sega could set up a store and sell every Genesis game for 50 cents a piece and make a ton more money than they do sitting on the content. Instead they release a package of 8 games(2 good 1 ok 5 shitty) every few years and sell it for 60 bucks. Greed, stupidity, fear of innovation
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_cross
So, are you sure you own the original copy... and that somehow the memory chips (on your CD ROM?) are going bad?
For the record, I still have a SNES and a copy of Chrono Trigger that works just fine. Actually, the battery backup on my NES version of Zelda still works... after I blow on it, of course.
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PS3 (old) >PS2 only
Now, Sony took that out of the slim versions. Dunno which firmware exactly...
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"...Pulling Emulators From The Android Market"
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Re: Android is essentially a heavily modded version of GNU/Linux.
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I'll stick with my wide open PC, thanks.
Buncha of paddle-slapping apes!
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How is that "locked in"?
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