Apple is a company that likes to maintain control of its ecosystem. While Android and Microsoft have always followed the route of keeping ecosystems as open as possible, Apple has preferred to maintain curated stores and closed systems. This has worked for them for years, but recently, this has been undermined by European laws. This has led to significant changes in the Apple store.
Apple has changed its regulations for application developers for the Apple Store, allowing the distribution of retro emulators through it. A radical change because, until now, it was completely prohibited. But now, as long as all applicable laws are complied with, and the creators of the application take responsibility for it, it will be legal to distribute them through the official Apple store.
While it is true that retro console emulators could not be distributed, they have been in the Apple ecosystem for many years. This will allow you to install them legally, without the need to jailbreak your Apple device, which will be a positive thing for certain types of users.
The reason they have decided to update their developer guidelines is probably due to the European Union’s sanctions on Apple. Because the American company did not comply with the new Digital Markets Act, Apple will be forced to allow third-party stores to be installed on all its devices, at least in Europe. Since a large part of the interest in these stores is being able to install emulators, it is logical that they have decided to allow their distribution directly from their official store.
In addition to this, last January, Apple announced that it would open the store to video game streaming applications. Something that was prohibited until now and that is also one of the main factors why some people were interested in third-party stores. Therefore, it seems that, since the legislation obliges them, they have decided to take advantage of what they did not want for their devices.
