We recently reported the faux pas made by the company in charge of the Android-based micro console Ouya—a console which allows people to not only play certain smartphone and tablet games on your home TV, but which also supports some emulators… thereby allowing anyone to play retro titles on the system.
The PR issue came when the team tweeted an image of the Super Mario Bros. running on their Ouya system, which is of course illegal. And until very recently, the UK retailer GAME actually featured an image of GNES, a free SNES emulator on the Ouya online marketplace, on the sales page for the console.
But, guess what? Seems word got out about the illegality of the emulator, because the image has now been removed from the sales page.
Speculation is ongoing as to whether Nintendo applied pressure to do this, or if someone with a dose of common sense saw what was there and fixed the issue before it became a larger problem. Considering that Nintendo is attempting to monetize its back catalogue through Virtual Console services and offerings on the 3DS eShop, the appearance of a widely known emulator that allows players to play their retro games for free (illegally) isn’t something they’re going to just let slide.
