News Microsoft Bans Gamers Using Retail Mode Emulators on Xbox

[Admin]

Microsoft has banned old-school gamers from running emulation applications on its Xbox consoles. Additionally, Microsoft has also implemented a 15-day suspension for anyone daring enough to work around the ban.

Microsoft Bans Gamers Using Retail Mode Emulators on Xbox : Read more

 

[ezst036]

It's always Nintendo. Good grief!

 

[atomicWAR]

You can't buy new old consoles/arcade cabinets or many of the games so this expectation by companies, like Nintendo, that gamers give up their old legally purchased games is ludicrous (or for those who get interested in retro gaming for those who are younger and want to buy/play old games). Backing up your roms/ISOs/CDIs/BINs etc to your PC then playing them via emulation when your old hardware (PC or console) dies and is discontinued should be completely legal/acceptable. I am not condoning pirating mind you. Own or be willing to buy games you find yourself playing that you download if that's the route you go. I am even fine with people 'demoing' a game to see if they want to purchase it (remember demo disks Sony/MS/Nintendo??) as long as people pay for what they play (ie more than a hour), if possible as some games devs or new disks/cartridges don't exist anymore so there is no one to pay. Honestly I think all the console makers would be wise to push for law changes allowing for emulation of discontinued hardware and if they were smart they'd continue to sell these games as long as possible. I own remasters and still sometimes play the OG for game-play or nostalgia. Our gaming history is being erased and the industries handling of the issue is tragic. Imagine a world where you could purchase roms legally, where emulation was standard on all consoles to retain backwards compatibility. I love gaming, truly. All I am asking, and a lot of other gamers are asking, is for our rich gaming history be preserved and accessible to new generations. Because as it stands right now, the exact opposite is happening.

 

[atomicWAR]

It's always Nintendo. Good grief!

And that is why every Nintendo game I own is backed up and frequently played via emulation when possible (go TOTK, Zelda Links Awakening, Mario Kart 8 and Beach Buggy racing 1/2, etc). Partly out of my love for gaming, playing at higher resolutions and partly out of spite for how Nintendo is handling this situation. Though I am currently backing up my old MS console games after just finishing up my various Playstation platforms now that I upgraded my storage pool capacity to to the point I am able to hold all these titles. Gamers have to protect their purchases because these corporations sure won't do it for you.

 

[TerryLaze]

Microsoft has banned old-school gamers from running emulation applications on its Xbox consoles. Additionally, Microsoft has also implemented a 15-day suspension for anyone daring enough to work around the ban.

Microsoft Bans Gamers Using Retail Mode Emulators on Xbox : Read more

You had it right in the title, why do you screw it up in the post?
They still allow it in dev mode because that is completely cut off from the normal mode.
It's just way too high of a risk for them to allow it in retail mode because they have no idea if it is possible to launch some payload inside the emulators that could break their security.

 

[ezst036]

Gamers have to protect their purchases because these corporations sure won't do it for you.

Technically, they will, it's just in the most shady way possible. That Zelda you mentioned, you already own a copy. But what happens when your Switch breaks? Well, the game is now unusable because the game can't plug into nothing. Mind you, you already paid, you already own a copy. But Nintendo will happily sell you another copy when the Switch 3 comes out in whatever year they release it. They'll be happy to sell you a third copy for the switch 6, and a fourth copy for whatever Switch gets released in 2029. It's the same game! I don't mean these upgraded/remastered with new graphics etc. At least with a remaster, they kind of have an argument.

But when they sell you six copies of the exact same game - and these days it's nothing but a digital copy. There really aren't even cartridges much anymore(or CDs) as there used to be. So you're just paying and paying and they're raking it in.

It's borderline criminal.

The only way - the only way - I could say I would be willing to support Nintendo is if Nintendo themselves released an officially programmed emulator.

Why didn't Nintendo of America code Dolphin? Why did a bunch of fans have to do it? See if Nintendo sold the emulator that at least would be some justification. But at the end, it's nothing but bad customer service. That is all it is.

Nintendo should make an emulator. Sega should make an emulator. Sony should make an emulator. These should not be fan efforts. It is insanely frustrating.

Where they won't protect prior purchase are on lesser-known/lesser remembered games. There's just no money in it. Plenty of people enjoyed more games than just the top game of the year.

 

[atomicWAR]

You had it right in the title, why do you screw it up in the post?
They still allow it in dev mode because that is completely cut off from the normal mode.
It's just way too high of a risk for them to allow it in retail mode because they have no idea if it is possible to launch some payload inside the emulators that could break their security.

I mean that's not totally wrong and certainly something that has been done before but we are losing a lot of our gaming history to outdated hardware platforms and its sad the industry seems eager for it to happen. This is the biggest reason emulation exists in the first place to help save that bit of our gaming history/allow us to play our old games on newer platforms with increased graphical fidelity. All that said dev mode isn't exactly cost prohibitive at 20 bucks for the life of the console. So that seems fair mostly but I'd like to see the industry embrace emulation more to keep these old titles alive. Game Pass, PS Premium/Plus and Nintendo Online are making some headway in this but they are still sorely lacking in the amount of titles supported.

 

[atomicWAR]

Technically, they will, it's just in the most shady way possible. That Zelda you mentioned, you already own a copy. But what happens when your Switch breaks? Well, the game is now unusable because the game can't plug into nothing. Mind you, you already paid, you already own a copy. But Nintendo will happily sell you another copy when the Switch 3 comes out in whatever year they release it. They'll be happy to sell you a third copy for the switch 6, and a fourth copy for whatever Switch gets released in 2029. It's the same game! I don't mean these upgraded/remastered with new graphics etc. At least with a remaster, they kind of have an argument.

But when they sell you six copies of the exact same game - and these days it's nothing but a digital copy. There really aren't even cartridges much anymore(or CDs) as there used to be. So you're just paying and paying and they're raking it in.

It's borderline criminal.

The only way - the only way - I could say I would be willing to support Nintendo is if Nintendo themselves released an officially programmed emulator.

Why didn't Nintendo of America code Dolphin? Why did a bunch of fans have to do it? See if Nintendo sold the emulator that at least would be some justification. But at the end, it's nothing but bad customer service. That is all it is.

Nintendo should make an emulator. Sega should make an emulator. Sony should make an emulator. These should not be fan efforts. It is insanely frustrating.

Where they won't protect prior purchase are on lesser-known/lesser remembered games. There's just no money in it. Plenty of people enjoyed more games than just the top game of the year.

Yeah if they made in house emulators like nintendo use to. Say like when they coded emulators per game (Zelda 64 was amazing on GC to the point folks thought it was a remaster), not the generic ones like they do now that play many games on the same emulator. These corps/devs could easily sell you all those old titles and make old defunct ones that are mothballed worth something. Make roms/isos 1.99-9.99 depending on age/quality and I would gobble those up. I want to support the industry I really do but I want them to support me as a gamer as well. The move to digital is even worse as you don't even really own your games anymore you only lease them. Frankly its digusting. Until these console makers/devs embrace emulation or release new versions of their old hardware in perpetuity, I'll be at odds with the gaming industry as a whole on this issue. I am tired of losing titles to time...

 

[nrdwka]

That is one of many example, there you do not own the thing you bough and manufacturer decide what you can and cannot do with it.

Sadly, windows actively mowing in the same direction. Microsoft would be happy to limite intsalled apps to MS store only (as it can be activated on win 10/11 already)

 

[Evildead_666]

As far as I'm aware, Stuff purchased on Good Old Games, you actually own.
GOG.Com

 

[TerryLaze]

Make roms/isos 1.99-9.99 depending on age/quality and I would gobble those up.

That's what capcom arcade stadium does, does anybody have any numbers on how those sell?

As far as I'm aware, Stuff purchased on Good Old Games, you actually own.
GOG.Com

Even then you have to download them all and make sure to not lose those installers, otherwise if the site goes so do all of your games.
Also you still have all of the same problems with new versions of windows, if something breaks your game you don't have any support anymore if the site is gone.

 

[BrySkye]

According to the actual developers/hackers involved, the story by Alyanna McKenna was a complete fabrication and Nintendo have had nothing to do with it.
Which makes sense when you stop and think about it for a second. If Nintendo had such a direct problem with it all, why would they be satisfied with the removal of retail mode emulators whilst Dev Mode ones continue?

If Nintendo were the ones threatening legal consequences, it wouldn't make any difference from their point of view what mode the console is running in.

If you want a more likely reason why Microsoft suddenly went scorched earth, I'd look towards the recent launch of Antstream on Xbox, which they've been working towards for many months now.
Dev Mode or Anstream, either way Microsoft actually see some money from people, which they weren't from retail mode emulators.
And once those retail mode emulators, that anyone could download for free, were going to be in direct competition with the Antstream subscription service...

 

[TerryLaze]

And once those retail mode emulators, that anyone could download for free, were going to be in direct competition with the Antstream subscription service...

I don't think those two crowds are anywhere near to close to being the same.
Antstream is the exact opposite to what you heard even in this thread from people that use emulation, having to pay for every time you play a game you already own is exactly what nobody will do, it's only good for streamers/creators.

 

[Deleted member 431422]

That's what capcom arcade stadium does, does anybody have any numbers on how those sell?


Even then you have to download them all and make sure to not lose those installers, otherwise if the site goes so do all of your games.
Also you still have all of the same problems with new versions of windows, if something breaks your game you don't have any support anymore if the site is gone.

It's the same when you own a phisical copy. I have a game from the 90's called Septerra Core on DVD, but due to it's age I can't play it on Win10. In ten years the PC industry may change so much you won't be able to play any of the old games. It's just how it is. GOG is preserving some of those games and doing a good job at it.

 

[BrySkye]

I don't think those two crowds are anywhere near to close to being the same.
Antstream is the exact opposite to what you heard even in this thread from people that use emulation, having to pay for every time you play a game you already own is exactly what nobody will do, it's only good for streamers/creators.

I don't think it really matters if the two crowds are close to being the same.
We're talking about from Microsofts, and somewhat by extension Antstream's, point of view, since Phil Spencer was apparently very invested in getting the service on the platform, so there were probably negotiations involved.
The most dedicated people will now stick to dev mode.
Personally, I've just given up on emulating via Xbox, since whilst I paid for dev mode over a year ago and the option is still there for me, its just not convenient enough for me to bother with going that route vs PC.
Retail mode emulation had the convenience factor.
I'm also not interested in the concept of paying to stream old games, with all the unnecessary resources being used up there, streaming vast quantities of video data to play games that are a couple of MB in size.

Maybe that timing is coincidence, but the point is that the spiel about Nintendo being responsible for this is apparently false according to the people that were actually working on the retail mode emulation side of things, and they don't exactly have a reason to be defending Nintendo.
That's worth bringing up.

I can't say Antstream *is* the reason, but its none the less still a plausible one.
Microsoft always removed the apps from the store as they were found, the escalation came when they remotely blocked the apps from running at all on peoples consoles around April.
The account suspensions for users and console bans for uploaders, ie a completely scorched earth policy, have started 1 week after the launch of Antstream.
If nothing else, that's very coincidental.

 

[ezst036]

According to the actual developers/hackers involved, the story by Alyanna McKenna was a complete fabrication and Nintendo have had nothing to do with it.
Which makes sense when you stop and think about it for a second.

It does? Is it also a fabrication that Nintendo got Valve to remove(/prevent) Dolphin off of Steam? Maybe Valve's developers dreamed that one up too?

When I stop and think about it it makes perfect sense given Nintendo's very long track record of always standing in the way of their fans trying to enjoy the games that they grew up playing and still own.

It's always Nintendo.

 

[atomicWAR]

That's what capcom arcade stadium does, does anybody have any numbers on how those sell?

I buy em. I make a point of it if they have games I play or use to. Look at mp3s in the late 90s. Most were burned cds (legal) and shared online (very not legal). Mp3s became shady at best and illegal at the worst. Its much like roms are now. A lot of the same behavior we saw with mp3s is the same with roms. Once given legal avenues listeners used them for mp3s. I suspect gamers would do the same in the long run.

Regardless giving gamers a legal way to buy or play old games you own is a win for both sides. For these corperations its good PR for their consoles/eco system and hopefully allows them to make some cash as well on old titles. Gamers can continue to play games they own and find new 'old' games to play/purchase. All while preserving our gaming history for future generations. It really shouldn't be this hard or in a questionable legal gray area. But here we are all the same.

 

[BrySkye]

It does in the context of dev mode not being affected, which you were nice enough to specifically unquote. =p

Is it also a fabrication that Nintendo got Valve to remove(/prevent) Dolphin off of Steam?

Given the scenarios being compared, if the Dolphin developers came out and said it was a fabrication, why would I say they were lying?

This is from the Xbox Emulation Hub Discord, where the announcement was made by staff back in April.
It's not new information. https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1097957035733172244/1134876230815055913/image.png

(Also, under that specific wording, the Dolphin on Steam situation isn't entirely accurate either, saying as Valve were the ones that contacted Nintendo, not the other way around. Of course they weren't going to endorse it. Just like Microsoft wouldn't endorse a Xenia release, or Sony a PPSSPP or PCSX2 release if they were directly asked. Nintendo didn't "get" them to do anything, saying as no legal action ever happened)

What Happened to Dolphin on Steam?

Well that blew up, huh? If you follow emulation or just gaming on the whole, you've probably heard about the controversy around the Dolphin Steam release and the Wii Common Key. There's been a lot of conclusions made, and while we've wanted to defend ourselves, we thought it would be prudent to...

dolphin-emu.org

Dolphin is technically still on Steam, as it has been for years. You just go via Retroarch.
The fact that Retroarch has been on Steam for years is still noteworthy.

Nintendo always makes the easiest scapegoat that gets the most clicks, but don't believe for a second that, say, Sony would be any more chill. Sony is the one that's actually killed perfectly legal emulator projects in the past after all, which Nintendo actually haven't.

 

[Sluggotg]

Even then you have to download them all and make sure to not lose those installers, otherwise if the site goes so do all of your games.

On GOG Games, you can install from the site and/or you can download all the files, (including extras, the PC version, the Mac Version and the Linux Version, (as applicable). You can back these up to a bunch of your Hard Drives and they can be installed regardless of the site. Yes, they may not work with future versions of Windows, but they might. Most Windows versions have some backward compatibility modes.
It is a toss of the dice, but as always, GOG.com does not use DRM.

 

[TheOtherOne]

I will pretend to be the devil's advocate I guess when it comes to older games working/not working in this day and age...

1- When we used to buy physical copies of games in 90s or earlier, even back then it ALWAYS came with "Supported Hardware AND Software" requirements. Of course, nothing is stopping you to fire up that two and half decades old PC with Win 98 SE and insert your favorite old game CD to play.

2- Releasing Emulators for hundreds of older games or keep them remastering officially (other than very few hugely popular ones) is simply not feasible for a big game developer company. It all comes down to then thousands of consumers asking and demanding official support since they bought it from the developers and expect to get proper support and that requires lots and lots of employees work time to deal with.

It's easy to say, why don't THEY release Emulators without thinking how consumers market works. It's also easy to think, well I PAID for that one game 25 years ago, WHY is it not running on current systems without realizing we paid for it to run on systems of that era.

We either live in the past or keep moving forward, we can also choose to live in both times but shouldn't expect everyone else to follow us the same path with same mindset.

 

[atomicWAR]

I will pretend to be the devil's advocate I guess when it comes to older games working/not working in this day and age...

1- When we used to buy physical copies of games in 90s or earlier, even back then it ALWAYS came with "Supported Hardware AND Software" requirements. Of course, nothing is stopping you to fire up that two and half decades old PC with Win 98 SE and insert your favorite old game CD to play.

2- Releasing Emulators for hundreds of older games or keep them remastering officially (other than very few hugely popular ones) is simply not feasible for a big game developer company. It all comes down to then thousands of consumers asking and demanding official support since they bought it from the developers and expect to get proper support and that requires lots and lots of employees work time to deal with.

It's easy to say, why don't THEY release Emulators without thinking how consumers market works. It's also easy to think, well I PAID for that one game 25 years ago, WHY is it not running on current systems without realizing we paid for it to run on systems of that era.

We either live in the past or keep moving forward, we can also choose to live in both times but shouldn't expect everyone else to follow us the same path with same mindset.

Where to even start...I get your pretending but let me dissect this all the same.

Yes point 1 in this argument can be made to an extent BUT when you get large scale enterprise users doing everything they can to ensure back compat for all of their proprietary or purchased software (really ancient stuff in some cases but life time licensing were more of a thing way back when), basically demanding it work on new platforms or conversely using emulation when no other options are on the table all without running foul of the law. I don't see why we consumers can't demand for the same treatment in our gaming software (or any other for that matter). Point being both our arguments have some merit but in reality they are both stretch to defend. Consumers don't spend as much as these corporations so I get not spending the same level of resources but actively preventing it isn't exactly a good look. It be a much better look to support it...

Argument 2 crumbles itself on the other hand. It is not feasible to remaster every game you are on point. While Nintendo did use to make per game emulators, most aim for broad game support so there is no reason they can't do the same save a handful a cases maybe. So they would only need to release one to maybe a few per system (approx save some that had back compat from the word go) to cover the vast majority of their games. Possibly all with just one, just look at what Dolphin did with GC covering its whole library (rare).

Finally on your synopsis, there is some truth in what your saying but we are losing our gaming history at a disgustingly fast pace. That simply answer is this should not happen. Can you imagine if prior generations had treated art from Van Gogh or plays by Shakespeare as disposable? What a bland world we would live in. Yes some of us live with a foot in past and a foot in the future and no we can't expect everyone to...but there are enough people like me both young and old who do exactly that be it in games, writing, art, old hardware and a billion other 'hobbies/passions'. More than enough to justify most of my requests. My 20 something nephew is consistently playing emulation from the 90's onward when not playing the latest and greatest while old gamers like me nearly twice his age love games going even further back to present day. In fact I even hooked some younger cousins on old 80s games like Rampage, Gauntlet and Double Dragon to name a few that were much older than they were. It even influenced one to get a job as a game dev some 14 years later.

Our gaming history is far to precious to let it be erased by questionable hardware and software requirements clauses. Games are art, even the old pixel and vector graphics from the earliest systems. They deserve nothing less than preservation like all our great works.

 

[TerryLaze]

Finally on your synopsis, there is some truth in what your saying but we are losing our gaming history at a disgustingly fast pace.

No, we definitely are not, if anything in the last years we found more thought-to-be-lost games than ever before and gotten them backed up and uploaded.
Everything is backed up on the net and there are ways to play everything in emulators with extremely few things not quite there yet.
The next generation of customer level FPGAs (MiSTer) will very possibly be enough to recreate win XP systems and at that point even that will be easy enough to do without having actual ancient hardware.

What we lose is an super easy way to just pay a company and have it run right away. It would be great if every company would provide every game they ever made on a website ready to run but that is pretty difficult to ever happen.
Just the amount of lawyer hours they would need to clear the games to make sure they own all the IP and that all the licences are still valid and so on would be prohibiting.

 

[TheOtherOne]

Where to even start...I get your pretending but let me dissect this all the same.

Yes point 1 in this argument can be made to an extent BUT when you get large scale enterprise users doing everything they can to ensure back compat for all of their proprietary or purchased software (really ancient stuff in some cases but life time licensing were more of a thing way back when), basically demanding it work on new platforms or conversely using emulation when no other options are on the table all without running foul of the law. I don't see why we consumers can't demand for the same treatment in our gaming software (or any other for that matter). Point being both our arguments have some merit but in reality they are both stretch to defend. Consumers don't spend as much as these corporations so I get not spending the same level of resources but actively preventing it isn't exactly a good look. It be a much better look to support it...

Argument 2 crumbles itself on the other hand. It is not feasible to remaster every game you are on point. While Nintendo did use to make per game emulators, most aim for broad game support so there is no reason they can't do the same save a handful a cases maybe. So they would only need to release one to maybe a few per system (approx save some that had back compat from the word go) to cover the vast majority of their games. Possibly all with just one, just look at what Dolphin did with GC covering its whole library (rare).

Finally on your synopsis, there is some truth in what your saying but we are losing our gaming history at a disgustingly fast pace. That simply answer is this should not happen. Can you imagine if prior generations had treated art from Van Gogh or plays by Shakespeare as disposable? What a bland world we would live in. Yes some of us live with a foot in past and a foot in the future and no we can't expect everyone to...but there are enough people like me both young and old who do exactly that be it in games, writing, art, old hardware and a billion other 'hobbies/passions'. More than enough to justify most of my requests. My 20 something nephew is consistently playing emulation from the 90's onward when not playing the latest and greatest while old gamers like me nearly twice his age love games going even further back to present day. In fact I even hooked some younger cousins on old 80s games like Rampage, Gauntlet and Double Dragon to name a few that were much older than they were. It even influenced one to get a job as a game dev some 14 years later.

Our gaming history is far to precious to let it be erased by questionable hardware and software requirements clauses. Games are art, even the old pixel and vector graphics from the earliest systems. They deserve nothing less than preservation like all our great works.

1- When we buy any game, it ALWAYS comes with conditions, limitations and requirements. We still have the option to keep the game on physical media or save in HDD/Cloud and as I said, fire up the same old Hardware (PC/Console etc..) that the game was designed and sold for, and play as we wish. Nothing really is "lost" in this case, you can preserve it for centuries on many backup media available.

2- When it comes to big corps "fighting" to get rid of Emulators that people develop to run THEIR intellectual property (regardless of if it's digital or analog and however old) it's still their right to do so. It's a LOT easier to simply bash others trying to protect their property doesn't matter how old it is, rather than developing one yourself with hard work and hours of time spent and then try to have the same mindset of "let others do whatever they want".

3- It's the property of game developers and they sell everything with certain conditions and limitations attached to it, and I am talking about limited time support too not just Hardware/Software, so yeah if we are spending our hard earned money to "buy" something, it STILL has all those restrictions and conditions attached to it. We can simply choose to ignore and say we PAID for it but doesn't change the fact we can't go back to them after 20 years and ask for support as a paying customer when they sold the product on the condition it's supported only for five years.

In short, we still have the option to "save" gaming history as a backup for centuries, we can still play old games on same old hardware and software it was designed for and big corps have the right to protect their property as they please regardless of how old it is, as long as they own the copyrights and license.

And when it comes to copyrights and licensing being full of BS for decades and should've changed years ago, it's a whole different topic of discussion.

 

[atomicWAR]

1- When we buy any game, it ALWAYS comes with conditions, limitations and requirements. We still have the option to keep the game on physical media or save in HDD/Cloud and as I said, fire up the same old Hardware (PC/Console etc..) that the game was designed and sold for, and play as we wish. Nothing really is "lost" in this case, you can preserve it for centuries on many backup media available.

2- When it comes to big corps "fighting" to get rid of Emulators that people develop to run THEIR intellectual property (regardless of if it's digital or analog and however old) it's still their right to do so. It's a LOT easier to simply bash others trying to protect their property doesn't matter how old it is, rather than developing one yourself with hard work and hours of time spent and then try to have the same mindset of "let others do whatever they want".

3- It's the property of game developers and they sell everything with certain conditions and limitations attached to it, and I am talking about limited time support too not just Hardware/Software, so yeah if we are spending our hard earned money to "buy" something, it STILL has all those restrictions and conditions attached to it. We can simply choose to ignore and say we PAID for it but doesn't change the fact we can't go back to them after 20 years and ask for support as a paying customer when they sold the product on the condition it's supported only for five years.

In short, we still have the option to "save" gaming history as a backup for centuries, we can still play old games on same old hardware and software it was designed for and big corps have the right to protect their property as they please regardless of how old it is, as long as they own the copyrights and license.

And when it comes to copyrights and licensing being full of BS for decades and should've changed years ago, it's a whole different topic of discussion.

Where is that hardware again? Oh yeah eol...and even if you can gets your hands on a used piece. They all burn up and die eventually. So yeah no not buying that bit of your piece. The hardware is finite for old systems. Again I've said if they produce the hardware in perpetuity, and I am satisfied but they don't so I am not. Though I do have a lot collected in my personal collection for that exact reason...

There might be something to cloned hardware (ie not emulation based) but even many of those vendors have gone the emulation route on their newer machines or like in my phone case I got on amazon. Its using cloned NES hardware on a chip but roms of questionable origin. All I am asking is for a legal way.

And yes corps fighting to get rid of emulators is their right but they aren't releasing their own in-house versions that play large amounts of games like homegrown versions do (PS premuim, game pass, Nintendo online are barely a start but something). Nor anyway to play those most of those old games, save the handful of retro game collections that barely scratch the surface.

So again while it may be their intellectual property and be their right to snuff it out. Is that really the right thing to do? Destroy our rich gaming history, their rich gaming history. It seems overly destructive, short sighted, unfair to they're consumer base and unnecessary. Asking for a legal way to continue to play your old games or to allow users to get interested in retro for the first time, in a legal way to do so, shouldn't be this big questionable grey area. Its better PR to support their old stuff and its beneficial to the consumers. I am not saying ther legalities of your arument are wrong, quit the opposite. But in this case it doesn't make it the right thing, ethically speaking.

 

[atomicWAR]

No, we definitely are not, if anything in the last years we found more thought-to-be-lost games than ever before and gotten them backed up and uploaded.
Everything is backed up on the net and there are ways to play everything in emulators with extremely few things not quite there yet.
The next generation of customer level FPGAs (MiSTer) will very possibly be enough to recreate win XP systems and at that point even that will be easy enough to do without having actual ancient hardware.

What we lose is an super easy way to just pay a company and have it run right away. It would be great if every company would provide every game they ever made on a website ready to run but that is pretty difficult to ever happen.
Just the amount of lawyer hours they would need to clear the games to make sure they own all the IP and that all the licences are still valid and so on would be prohibiting.

While delighted to see new finds and loving new cloned hardware when you can find it. Sadly many of those vendors have started to lean on emulation so even that native hardware has been slipping ( quick devils advocate: emulation is getting good enough most titles work... back to complaining: but not all). Regardless and yes if your talking the questionably legal online emulation community, SO MUCH is being done to preserve our history BUT those big corps are fighting back tooth and nail, nintendo in particular vs rom/iso sites, which fair but then sell your own roms/iso please Nintendo (and the rest of the console/PC crew)? I'd be fine if they had in-house emulators or hardware/software sold in perpetuity but they don't. So I don't agree with your stance that we aren't losing our gaming history at least from a legal stand point. You want to go full digital cowboy, that's another story and can't argue.