Xbox Begins Handing Out 15-Day Bans For Using Retail Mode Emulators

That sucks. But not unexpected

Is this the same as dev account unlocking your Xbox for emulators?

I'm so glad, I have a Wii U for this, which way better than the Dolphin.

Good job I stopped with doing the emulation. I had a good time while I had the PS1 and PS2 emulator. I did it though on a fake account few months ago and requested for the account to be deleted anyway.

I downloaded Retro Arch a while back but only opened it once and never played a game on it. It’s not even installed anymore so hopefully my account isn’t banned lol. I haven’t been “accessing these emulators” anymore so I suppose I’m fine.

@Cashews Who is promoting the theft of Nintendo games? I can't see any suggestion that the writer is promoting that.

In any event, I doubt Microsoft will remove the ability to use emulators in dev mode. To do so will make the Xbox a target of the hacking scene again, just like the PS4 and PS5 are.

@RadioHedgeFund I think dev mode has been in the clear all along. MS can't sell a consumer device that can emulate relatively recent games in its retail configuration. Not with how amicable their relationship with Nintendo is.

What a damn shame. Who's it harming to do this, and why should MS feel the need to police what people do with their own hardware?

@FraserG you link a Pure article that gives instructions on bypassing retail mode so they can emulate, effectively steal, games.

You can call it something else but that is what it is.

If MS tightens the screws further on dev mode, you will see a new push to hack the hardware we havent seen in 2 generations. Dev mode is really the thing that totally deincentivized that whole scene from bothering with Xbox.

This really sucks for people who used emulators on their console, but I understand why MS have done it.

Ive been emulating on pc for over 25 years now, you can invest in that platform and be sure it will still be relevant in the future, so I can only suggest that if you really want to preserve all games, getting a PC is your best bet.

I've been wanting to play PS2 games on my Series s but never did because of this.

@theduckofdeath Plus, this keeps people from hacking the Xbox. You can run home brew on the PS5 because of an exploit but this doesn’t happen on Xbox because there is no point. I spend my $20 and I’m in with little effort.

@Cashews most retro enthusiasts i know of rip their owned games to use on emulators, so they are not stealing/illegal or breaking the law

The quality of illegally downloaded roms is shocking usually

@Sakai Me, for instance. I ripped my own Gamecube and Wii discs on my Wii and I have emulated them on Xbox in high definition for as long as it was possible. Double Dash still is the best Mario Kart, in my opinion, not to mention Wave Race Blue Storm, F-Zero GX... Standard definition doesn't look great on 4K TVs and Nintendo sucks as far as retro gaming is concerned. I guess I'll have to check developer mode now.

Holy *****, they're outright handing out 15-day bans? Maybe I missed this, but did MS warn anybody ahead of time that just using it would result in one?

I haven't used emulators on my Xbox or have the time for setting it up, so I don't have a horse in this race. Just surprised if such a drastic measure was taken without a warning.

@Quasicat Yeah, that's the other aspect — it is too easy. You just buy & install an app that is in the regular store. I used to run emulation and copies on PS1, PS2, and Xbox (right as XBL was launching). You had to chip the console and run software in some cases. I installed a toggle switch to disable the chip in the Xbox, and MS detected an anomaly anyway. I just bought a second Xbox for online.

As long as developer mode still works, that's the big thing.

Emulation is an important part of keeping classic games alive and is huge part of my PC usage.

@Cashews You're either deliberately trolling or, you genuinely believe that emulation is solely piracy. If it's the latter, then you need to educate yourself before hurling such a baseless accusation at @FraserG

Serves the users and greedy Patreon creators right. I support emulation but this was ALWAYS going to be trouble.

If you're on Dev mode and use emulators you can try going offline there since it's a different console.
You can be online on retail and offline on dev for safety.

@EvenStephen7 I think this IS the warning. TBF, this was never a scene that was risk free or (generally) risk averse.

We now have Antstream Arcade. Maybe Microsoft should work with the developers to bring more games to the service? Its far better to pay a small fee and have easy access to retro games than the complications of emulation.

Buy a steam deck and be done with it. Done!

@dreadful I think you meant to say:
Every company has game delays, first rise in Gamepass since inception, changed the home screen and deincentivized emulations…

@swansea_karl I was wondering if Antstream might be a factor in Microsoft killing off retail mode emulation... Timing suggests it's a possibility.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Id be happy paying a small fee for Antstream, Microsoft should make it an Xbox exclusive and support the platform.

What are the users being banned from exactly? Why does Microsoft even have to ability to know who's running emulators and who isn't?

I'm not sure why this would mean a ban for the users of the emulators. It's on Microsoft for allowing the software through the cracks. So you can be banned by installing something that was approved and distributed via the Xbox Network? Horrible take. If you don't want emulators on the Xbox, that's fine, then just remove them from the store and ban the people who are uploading them for distribution. Banning end users is beyond stupid.

@karlhendrikse How do you think all console manufacturers check to see if your Apps and games are up to date?

@S-Bacc I have never tried developer mode. I'd probably use it if I buy a second Xbox and keep that console offline.

@S-Bacc No problem! I have only run the emulators in retail mode, when it was possible and it's amazing how well the Gamecube and Wii games run and look. They even released dedicated apps for the emulators: Dolphin, PS2, Dreamcast, PSP and even Xenia that runs the Goldeneye 007 remaster perfectly. These Xbox applications present fewer issues than running them as cores via Retroarch.

Let's see if somebody using developer mode shares more about that.

@S-Bacc If you do, let me know. I have hundreds of digital games attached to my account and I used the emulators as any other app because it was fine until now. I only have a Series X now, but I might get a Series S for developer mode. I will have more time later in the year, too.

I am one that bought & uses a series s for emulation and for that reason only, it will be offline forever as a dedicated emulation/movies machine due to me having an old Xbox one and a high-end pc, I haven't checked yet on the old console to see but I know you can't have a look at the social tab via the Xbox website so if that is included with the ban I have been suspended but oh well I've won either way.

Another reason to only use offline devices for emulation.

These days Ryzen mini PCs are around as cheap as a $300 Xbox Series S and more effective at emulation than the S is. Just use one of those if you're going to do this and don't worry about getting banned trying to play Super Mario Bros.

@Banjo- @S-Bacc I can't offer much current input on this as I haven't played my emulators in a little while but I have dev mode and did experience it on my Series X albeit sporadically.

Can say the switch between dev and retail was vastly reduced on Series X vs One X but still took a little time. Couple of minutes at most.

I ended up giving up and switching back to emulating on PC with an Xbox controller.

Like you say may be worth waiting for someone with a more current experience of dev mode to weigh in on this been at least 6 months or more since I last used it for emulation.

Is what people use in elder scrolls online to have bots go around and mine resources for them nonstop in the starter zones?

Every time I see one (easy to recognize since player name is like AZYW4677) purposefully follow them around for good 15 mins or so and mine the resource before they can.

Cheaters and exploiters in video games I without a doubt, honestly, completely, utterly, despise. Not only is it dirty, straight up loser way to game. But it hurts the game and its players.

@Cashews Honestly surprised your comment is still up. The mods on this site, delete, remove, edit, even the slightest comment. Let alone calling out a glaring error from the author of his article. Really sad to see sites when mods become tryhard, sweaty over the littlest thing or just get butthurt.

@karlhendrikse My bet is worded in terms of service not to mod or exploit any hardware of the console.

But Microsoft seems perfectly fine letting modders ruin games with hacked consoles. Just play elder scrolls online or nhl to name couple games.

Those players should have their IP address banned from Xbox forever since they are straight up ruining players experiences.

This is informative and unfortunate