Emulation Might Be Legal, But This Handheld Maker Just Moved Into Dangerous Waters
Nick Fernandez / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Anbernic included an app called Rixelhk with a firmware update last week.
- This app allowed users to search for and download ROMs directly from their gaming handhelds.
- The app was quickly pulled, but it set a bad precedent for the emulation community.
The whole industry of retro gaming handhelds hinges on the fact that emulation is in a legal grey area, but one popular manufacturer crossed the line with a recent firmware update. In a recent update to Anbernic’s handheld lineup, the company added a new app called RixelHK, allowing users to search for and download ROMs from various systems.
In a video on the company’s YouTube channel, it showed how easy and convenient the app was to use. Users quickly pointed out the legal problems with the feature, and after a few hours, the video was taken down and the firmware scrubbed from the official Anbernic website. The YouTube channel HyperPlay RPG managed to download the video before it was taken down.
It’s worth pointing out that many of these devices have the option to ship with a microSD card with hundreds or even thousands of pre-loaded ROMs and BIOS files. Granted, many users will remove those low-quality ROMs in favor of their own, hopefully legal, collection.
While pre-loading ROMs is certainly illegal, most IP owners have turned a blind eye to the practice. Or, at the very least, it hasn’t been enough of a nuisance to pursue legal action against the Chinese companies. That hasn’t been the case for ROM websites or emulator devs like Tropic Haze, the team behind Yuzu.
But this new practice clearly crosses a line. It puts the entire handheld industry at risk of legal action and goes well beyond what’s considered acceptable, even in the piracy-adjacent world of game emulation. It flips the idea that these devices are for retro game preservation on its head, turning them into piracy machines.
Emulation already exists in a legal grey area, but this crosses a line.
To make matters worse, the app is closed-source, and a preliminary investigation by Portmaster dev JeodC revealed some serious privacy concerns. The app requires a lot of information about your network and device. It’s also unclear where the ROMs are hosted, with the app stating they’re coming from “netizens or enthusiasts,” likely as a way of shielding itself from legal trouble.
In the end, Anbernic did the right thing, scrubbing the app from its website and social media. The website that previously hosted the app has also been taken down, so hopefully we can all put this nasty business behind us.
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