Emulator frontend Emulation-Station has been removed from the Amazon Appstore, less than a week after its launch. The reasoning for the app's removal, is, according to Amazon, Emulation-Station, "facilitates emulating and pirating of games from third-party sources without explicit authorization from those sources", despite Emulation-Station merely acting as a frontend, and not actually including any emulators in the app.

The development team behind ES-DE has instead decided to go ahead with self-publishing the APK for the Android version of their frontend. In order to get the app now, you'll need to join Emulation-Station's Patreon, for $5.50 USD a month. You'll then be given access to the Android APK that you can install on your device. The devs note that you can cancel Patreon support after a month, and still keep the app and get future updates for it.

This is the second time in the past week that an emulator has been targeted specifically for "facilitating piracy", following Nintendo's lawsuit against the Yuzu Nintendo Switch emulator. If you did happen to purchase ES-DE from the Amazon Appstore, you can at least still install it, however the developers urge anyone who made the purchase to get the app refunded, as Amazon will not be paying the developers because the emulator frontend is "illegal".

News 2024-02-28: Amazon has decided to remove ES-DE from their Appstore because "The app facilitates emulating and pirating of games from third-party sources without explicit authorization from those sources." Everyone that knows anything about emulation knows that this is not true, and especially not for a frontend that does not ship with any games or any emulators. We have attempted to appeal this decision but Amazon has refused to reinstate the store entry.

Therefore we have decided to self-publish the APK instead of relying on any app stores. As a first step you can join our Patreon to receive a download link to the APK. Note that this is NOT a subscription, you can turn off recurring payments at any time and you will still receive future APK updates. But if you do choose to support the project long term in these difficult times then it's much appreciated. I have worked four years on ES-DE without making any money from it, and it's almost like a second job now. Supporting us financially instead of pirating the app is a way to make sure development will continue and that ES-DE has a future long term.



Please spread the word of what has happened and if you did buy the app from the Amazon Appstore then ask them for a refund and don't hesitate to criticize them for their decision. We have not yet received any money from amazon and due to them claiming that ES-DE is illegal we doubt that will change. Anyway, it seems like you can still install the app from the Amazon Appstore app if you have bought it, but there will obviously be no further updates published there.

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[mrmagicm]

Amazon should ban hard drives and SSD.....They facilitate piracy!! They are so folish to think this!!

 

[Axido]

Are you insinuating that Amazon has become a lawless shitfest, too big to coherently manage, overrun with so many different products and sellers that quality control has become all but impossible?

ARE YOU?!

They just caught a group of Spanish boys who caused €350.000 in damages by returning cheap shit instead of the MacBooks they bought and sold on a different website. It took those guys around 200 attempts to successfully trigger any alert in Amazons system.

https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-...gest-ever-fraud-against-amazon-in-europe/amp/

People getting a sole CPU cooler in their "brand new" AMD Ryzen 9 box is not unheard of.

Amazon is held together by good will and duct tape.

 

[chrisrlink]

i would make an arson joke but there's too many warehouses to torch...oh wait i just did

 

[spinal_cord]

Wait, so you can't download a file launcher because "piracy" yet you can go on their website and buy "24,000 buit in games console"...

 

[Maximo101]

what are the best 5 switch games that play on yuzu? On a steam deck...

 

[Phearoz]

Since when did Amazon get its own appstore???

 

[TomSwitch]

Since when did Amazon get its own appstore???

FireOS is Amazon's Android fork. Amazon don't do Android only FireOS which is bend to Amazon's will. ES file manager used to be good, then it changed into some kind of a malware suspect.

Post automatically merged: Feb 29, 2024

what are the best 5 switch games that play on yuzu? On a steam deck...

Soon to be no more yuzu unless Elon Mask or you help fund their legal fight with Nintendo

 

[BigOnYa]

Amazon is shit anymore, they also stopped the installing of 3rd party apps (ADB) on they're devices. Time to boycott!

 

[TomSwitch]

Amazon is shit anymore, they also stopped the installing of 3rd party apps (ADB) on they're devices. Time to boycott!

You mean the option to side load is gone? the last one I bought was many years ago, I used to be a amazon content consumer, ebooks and audio books, some how just stopped for no apparent reason. Kind of one fine day I say hey I used to do that.

I used to buy a lot of paper books and then it is hey I used to do that.

 

[BigOnYa]

You mean the option to side load is gone? the last one I bought was many years ago, I used to be a amazon content consumer, ebooks and audio books, some how just stopped for no apparent reason. Kind of one fine day I say hey I used to do that.

I used to buy a lot of paper books and then it is hey I used to do that.

Yes they removed (or stopped the functioning of) the ADB feature on the latest update of FireTV and FireTablets, to stop sideloading of 3rd party apps.

 

[realtimesave]

lmao facilitates piracy... well no shit sherlock

 

[TomSwitch]

Yes they removed (or stopped the functioning of) the ADB feature on the latest update of FireTV and FireTablets, to stop sideloading of 3rd party apps.

You don't even need ADB before, just use ES file explorer is enough if you enable third party app to run in settings

Didn't find a need for a Android tablet since a long time but I am very sure you can easily get a good one at similar price as Fire Tablet. Only reason to buy it is to consume Amazon contents and you don't need it to consume Amazon contents, it just make it more convenient and there used to be some perks for users of FIre tablet.

 

[BigOnYa]

You don't even need ADB before, just use ES file explorer is enough if you enable third party app to run in settings

If you have ES file explorer on there now may work, but on new devices, how you gonna install ES file explorer to begin with. It's always a cat and mouse game. I'm sure someone will find a way.

 

[TomSwitch]

If you have ES file explorer on there now may work, but on new devices, how you gonna install ES file explorer to begin with. It's always a cat and mouse game. I'm sure someone will find a way.

ES file explorer used to be on Amazon store. This removal thread is talking about ES file explorer or they have a variant for emulation and that got removed?

I think some website support installing APK if you enable third party app. Has that been disabled? Many people got scammed by this feature of Android and lost all their money in the bank that they use the same device to access.

I am not sure if I still have any functioning Fire Tablet, they have all become sticky(cheap plastic) but maybe may still work. The feature to function as a smart display / Alexa machine is not bad.

 

[HarveyHouston]

This. Is. Pathetic. What next, RetroArch?

 

[Exidous]

Yeah no doubt about it. This is Amazon trying to cover their ass so that they stay out of Nintendo's warpath.
It's puzzling, because
A. Nintendo definitely wouldn't go after Amazon, as Amazon has money to spend on good lawyers
B. As everyone here has pointed out, Amazon blatantly sells pirated content, so this action doesn't save them from anything if Nintendo wanted to go after them
C. They definitely aren't earning any street cred from consumers by taking that action
D. Nintendo going after a company as big as Amazon is unprecedented. They've historically gone against smaller companies and even individual people (Nintendo v. Lewis Galoob Toys, Nintendo v. Gary Bowser) and never the big fish, because that's what scares the most people out of emulation/hardware modding/etc. So Amazon making this choice is even more baffling.

It makes sense that Amazon's removal (rationale) is related to Nintendo's actions, but your reasons indicate it's not because Amazon is afraid of Nintendo suing them.

It could be all sorts of other things.

Maybe Nintendo's suit is is the tip of a larger movement by content owners who specifically want to expand legal precedent concerning anti-circumvention and other DMCA provisions to combat their competition pirates. Amazon could already be on board.

 

[Maximumbeans]

They just caught a group of Spanish boys who caused €350.000 in damages by returning cheap shit instead of the MacBooks they bought and sold on a different website. It took those guys around 200 attempts to successfully trigger any alert in Amazons system.

https://www.theolivepress.es/spain-...gest-ever-fraud-against-amazon-in-europe/amp/

People getting a sole CPU cooler in their "brand new" AMD Ryzen 9 box is not unheard of.

Amazon is held together by good will and duct tape.

Amazon is somehow too big to fail but also too big to succeed at once.

 

[zebrone]

This is a process to the intentions...
Stupid m*****F*****.

 

[regnad]

This one's beyond stupid, because Emulation-Station doesn't even have emulators. Is file organization illegal now???

It’s even stupider than that, because actual emulators are still available.

 

[codezer0]

This one's beyond stupid, because Emulation-Station doesn't even have emulators. Is file organization illegal now???

With how smart phones deliberately obscure the file system on them nowadays, it sure seems like Apple and Google think so.