This story isn’t exactly new, as it has very likely happened to developers out there who ceased making apps or games on the XBOX One and XBOX Series consoles. The rest of you, who have been using the Dev Mode for ways to emulate your legitimate backups, your time has come.
Wait, what?
As you’re reading this, you’re likely wondering what I’m going on about. Well, it’s been reported this week by several gaming outlets (and confirmed by users) that most people using Dev Mode for running apps without releasing anything will have their account revoked. This is due to a point in the agreement with Microsoft that you signed off on when paying your $25, that they can revoke an account with no published apps. This means that if you don’t use Dev Mode to develop apps or games and keep patching those apps/games or continue to release new ones, your account can be revoked. So, the powers that be are now getting into the habit of revoking those Dev accounts in the masses.
So what can you do now?
Well, as of this point you only have a few options. The first four options are very likely out of the question for most of you. The following two options is likely what most of you will do if your XBOX One or Series is the only piece of tech you own. The last of them are stating the obvious.
- Wait for an XBOX hack that allows for CFW or a tethered jailbreak.
- Dispute the revocation of your account. Maybe you are truly working on an app or game and you simply haven’t published it yet. Feel free to dispute the revocation and be prepared to have proof.
- Learn how to code a basic app, like a calculator and every 90 days just push an update/patch for it. Just changing one bit of code every 3 months seems easy enough. You could just make it free, then keep using your Dev Mode for emulators and such.
- Create new accounts every 90 days, after an account gets revoked. At this time, it doesn’t’ appear that it’s an IP ban or a console ban, just an account ban. So feel free to pay $100 a year to keep doing whatever you want on Dev Mode. Just make sure you create a new email address each and every time.
- Take a hit to the quality of emulation and use the retail version of Retroarch and PPSSPP (if they exist at the time you read this).
- Use the java based emulators on the Edge web browser. You can find a comprehensive list of those here.
- Purchase and plug in an emulation box into your TV.
- Mod any number of other consoles to run emulators. The OG XBOX is a great contender for that.
- Run emulators on your PC.
