Tahlreth, developer of the PlayStation 2 emulator for AetherSX2 abandoned the project officially today. In a statement which is now the front page of the AetherSX2 website, the dev stated that they were suspending updates indefinitely due to “neverending impersonating, complaints, demands, and now death threats.”
An Ongoing Problem
This news comes after the developer recently expressed some loss of motivation with the project. In a Reddit comment, Tahlreth talked about feeling that some of the emulator’s users expected too much from a developer making something as a hobby project.
As we covered in our initial article on the issues, the AetherSX2 developer explained that they would receive large numbers of complaints and unrealistic demands every day via email.
Fake social media accounts posing as official AetherSX2 channels apparently compounded the problems by potentially spreading false information.
While development has ceased, Tahlreth has kept an archive up with the latest existing version of the emulator in .apk format. It’s also still available via Google Play. You’ll still be able to play, but in terms of support we can safely consider the AetherSX2 abandoned for the foreseeable future.
A Dev The Community Will Miss
This news comes as a great loss to the Android emulation community. Sadly, it’s also not a surprise. Tahlreth’s struggles with continuing development were difficult to avoid, with emails all reaching the developer personally.
We hope that one-day Tahlreth will be ready to return to work on the AetherSX2. It’s a great piece of software, though ultimately maintaining it is not worth someone sacrificing their mental well-being.
As before, we feel like this is a good time to make sure that you treat the indie developers of your favorite apps with consideration and kindness, especially if they are developing them in their spare time.
Creating is not easy, and it can feel like a very thankless job if there is too much negative response. If there’s one thing to take away from this event, it’s that toxicity is a major threat to good projects, and everyone should try and we need to remember that there are people behind the products.
