Google kills off popular emulators
Posted: 30 May 2011, 13:19
Search outfit Google has decided to pull the plug on a popular emulator which helped the operating system gain traction in the marketplace.
Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, Ataroid, Gearoid and Gameboid were video game console emulators developed by yongzh and were some of the most popular paid apps on the Android Market.
The emulators have attracted a legal letter from briefs working for Sega and have been suddenly removed.
According to Engadget two emulators were pulled late last month.
What is a little more alarming is that Google has revoked yongzh's developer privileges, just like PSX4Droid comrade-in-arms ZodTTD.
Yongzh, whose real name is Yong Zhang, said Google's action had cut off his primary source of income and leaving him with an inbox stuffed with worried email from customers.
He has migrated his emulators to the third-party app store SlideME, where they'll be free for a while. This will allow customers to get updates without paying a second time.
However, he does not hold out much hope that SlideME will be able to stave off Sega either.
Google should probably have held out a bit against Sega. The emulations, which were pretty good software, did help sell Android phones. It is also a bit on the nose that Google took away Yong's ability to make software for its app store.
To be fair, we have not seen a response from Google to explain its actions, but we would have thought that if the search engine wants good developers to come up with ideas for its apps, it should do a little more backing and a lot less sacking.
Source: TechEye.net
Nesoid, Snesoid, Gensoid, N64oid, Ataroid, Gearoid and Gameboid were video game console emulators developed by yongzh and were some of the most popular paid apps on the Android Market.
The emulators have attracted a legal letter from briefs working for Sega and have been suddenly removed.
According to Engadget two emulators were pulled late last month.
What is a little more alarming is that Google has revoked yongzh's developer privileges, just like PSX4Droid comrade-in-arms ZodTTD.
Yongzh, whose real name is Yong Zhang, said Google's action had cut off his primary source of income and leaving him with an inbox stuffed with worried email from customers.
He has migrated his emulators to the third-party app store SlideME, where they'll be free for a while. This will allow customers to get updates without paying a second time.
However, he does not hold out much hope that SlideME will be able to stave off Sega either.
Google should probably have held out a bit against Sega. The emulations, which were pretty good software, did help sell Android phones. It is also a bit on the nose that Google took away Yong's ability to make software for its app store.
To be fair, we have not seen a response from Google to explain its actions, but we would have thought that if the search engine wants good developers to come up with ideas for its apps, it should do a little more backing and a lot less sacking.
Source: TechEye.net