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Retailer GAME has chosen to highlight Ouya’s emulation functionality as part of its promotion for the console.
GAME’s Ouya splash page features, amongst other things, the logo for popular SNES emulator Super GNES. The free software allows users to run any game for which they have downloaded a ROM (a digital copy of a game).
The legality of emulation has always been an area of debate, although most would accept that whilst the development and ownership of emulator software itself is legal, providing and obtaining game ROMs is certainly not.
Why should it matter that Ouya potentially allows players free access to twenty year old games? Because Nintendo is still in the business of selling that software via the Virtual Console.
In fact, no-one is as accomplished the art of re-selling its software to the same users multiple times.
At a time when GAME is significantly reducing its Wii U and Wii shelf space across its UK stores, this move is unlikely to improve relations between the pair.
UPDATE: The Ouya page on GAME’s website no longer carries the Super GNES branding.
