DraStic’s developer announced plans to remove it last year.
DraStic’s developer announced plans to remove it last year.
Feb 15, 2025, 7:05 PM UTC
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The popular Nintendo DS emulator Drastic has disappeared from the Google Play store, reports Android Authority. It’s not clear at the moment why the app is now gone, but it seems likely that it was the developer, not Nintendo, that prompted its removal.
Developer Exophase made Drastic free-to-download last year and indicated that it planned to remove the app from Google Play and open-source its code, though that doesn’t seem to have ever happened. The announcement came after a Nintendo settlement took down Switch emulator Yuzu and Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra, something the developer said wasn’t reponsible for its decision, but did accelerate the timeline.
Exophase did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
The loss of Drastic is a hit to the broader emulator scene, which was rocked by Nintendo’s legal moves against Yuzu last year. But despite that, there is now a flourishing iOS emulator marketplace, thanks to a surprise change to Apple’s App Store guidelines last year.
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