Provenance Emulator is coming to the iOS App Store
A tentative announcement has been made
- Provenance emulator is making its way to the App Store
- A tentative development for an official release is in progress
- But other devs have already run into issues
According to reports from fellow outlet iMore, the popular emulator system Provenance will come to the iOS App Store, with the team behind the system "working on a release." Provenance supports a huge number of systems including classic Sony, Nintendo and Sega consoles, as well as homebrew titles developed for them.
The changes to allow emulators on the App Store marked a major departure from protocol for Apple, who typically take a dim view of apps that allow or encourage side-loading. However, these recent changes, which we discussed in depth, have been welcomed by many in the emulation community. But, it should be made clear that at the moment plans are very much up in the air.
Shaping up
One thing to keep in mind is the case of DolphiniOS, who ceased pushing for a release of their fork of the popular Dolphin emulator on the App Store. This was due to Apple now allowing the use of a vital recompiler called JIT (Just-in-time) which dramatically affected performance. As noted in iMore's article, project lead for Provenance Joseph Mattielo stated, "I need to investigate these new rules before an App Store submission."
It seems that, while the way is open for emulators to make their way onto iOS, Apple still hasn't given up the ghost in terms of restrictions. While it's early days for a potential Provenance release, we're still cautious as to whether or not there might be hidden issues, like those the developers of DolphiniOS ran into, which their team could still fall foul of.
Still, don't worry about not having much to do, if you want to check out what else is available game-wise on iOS, however, there's a huge catalogue of existing games. Take a gander at our definitive list of the best mobile games of 2024 (so far) for major releases, indie hits and more!
