News

[Updated] Another emulator pulled from the market by Yongzh. Gensoid is no more, at least right now.

It seems as though another emulator has bit the dust when it comes to the Android Market and it is another one by the one-man emulator show himself, Yongzh. However, this time, it wasn’t his doing as such was the case with the N64oid emulator which he took down recently after complaints and other issues surrounding it.

So why was Gensoid taken down? According to the developer, it was at the request of Sega. They must have contacted Google and gotten the emulator taken off the market. What exactly Sega claimed in order to take it down isn’t know as Google usually isn’t forthcoming with details, just general overviews, when asked. The next question is, why now?

Sega, and soon to be other companies as well, may be getting more aggressive in protecting their brand and games due to services such as Valve’s Steam and the GameStop game-streaming/DLC service they are developing, both of which are heading to Android. This could spread pretty big as not just Yongzh but other developers have plenty of emulators up there. Sega currently sells Genesis ports of their games on Steam. So while we may be excited to see game-streaming and DLC services coming to Android in the very near future, the emulator developers might not be so happy.

This, however, doesn’t mean that Yongzh can’t/won’t put it up on another market such as Amazon’s App Store.

Update April 29th, 4:31pm: Our inquisitive staff member William got in contact with Yongzh and asked a few hypothetical questions regarding both the N64 and Gensoid emulators. He also asked about future emulators being pulled. Here is what we found out:

1) I paid for N64 and your Sega Genesis emulators, will I ever get those back on the Market?

I am trying to get them back to the Market.

2) Are your other emulators at risk of being removed off the Market?

I am afraid yes.

3)The only emulator you have that I have not purchased yet is Atari and I don’t want to spend more money on apps I wont be able to keep when I get a new phone.

I can send the apk file directly to you through email if they get pulled.

4) Would they make you take down your emulators if they were free with in-app purchases for pro features?

I am not sure about this.

It is good to see developers who are willing to stand by their product even in the event that it gets pulled from the market regardless of the reason. Thanks to Yongzh for being so forthcoming.

Website Referenced: XCJS

Share This

You Might Also Like