RetroArch in retail mode

But will downloading the retroarch download put my xbox live at risk

Thank you for contact us! I'm Anderson, an Independent Consultant and a Microsoft user like you.

Good afternoon

If it is proven that you misuse roms or games that you don't have, it can still cause you problems.

Microsoft is likely to remove it from the store when it notices

Hi,

Apps that are not 'Retail' (i.e. not digitally signed by Microsoft) can only be run via the Xbox Dev Mode. I'm going to assume here you're referring to the popular emulator front end known as 'RetroArch'? As to if it's safe or not, I can't say. I've only used RetroArch on a PC.

What I can tell is that running any apps (self made or not) is not against any rules or anything like that. Indeed, dev mode was designed to test developed software on the Xbox in what is essentially a sandbox. When in Dev Mode you can only run apps designed for this mode. You'll need to go back to Retail mode to access everything else.

Emulation isn't illegal, but downloading ROMs of old games is a legal grey area. Discussions of such things (such as where to download ROMs) on the Xbox Live network could lead to an account suspension.

Hi,

When in Developer Mode the console is no longer connected to Xbox Live and no official standard Xbox Live apps or games will function on the console while in this mode. Because of this limited functionality, there are no real limits on what can be run and therefor running RetroArch in dev mode would not be against the ToS.

The idea of the Dev Mode is to run specially created software designed by yourself or third parties, applications like RetroArch would be no different here. You won't be banned.

Running ROM's and game images via RetroArch is a legal grey area depending on how you obtain such content, but RetroArch itself is not illegal.