What about emulators?

[Willian]

I've been playing SGM via Bluestacks for a long time since my cellphone started to lag a lot, with no clue if it is allowed or not.
and how I've always been helping new players find themselves in the game, understand how it works and how to evolve quickly, I decided that i want to share my knowledge in a better way, so i decided to start a channel on youtube, teaching them how to evolve in the game easily, character gamestyle & variants priorities, overall mechanics, challenges strategies (i already did all the accolades), and also my own stuff: 100+ prize fights, 100m events and high ladder rifts, etc... so the question is: Emulators are allowed or not? am i breaking some rule? i need to be a 100% sure that i'm not making any mistake, so i can freely post my content on youtube with no risks of getting banned and lose my 2 years old account that i grew up like a little son!

 

[Indrew]

People have had varying experiences regarding emulations and bans, but in any case, there are official statements (Cellsai) that it is against TOS, even if there's no hacking going on. Playing on anything other than supported platforms can leave you subject to being banned. Plenty of people have gotten away with it thus far, but playing with emulation has risks regardless. And also the devs can't help you with bugs or recover your account if you were using emulators afaik.

In Cellsai's words: ". . . I've said multiple times in [SG Discord] and basically anywhere I'm asked that running the game in an emulator can result in your account getting banned."

For your peace of mind, I'd stop using emulators if you don't want to run the risk of your account getting wiped. I'm not sure what the policy is with switching from emulators to supported platforms, but it's probably your best shot at keeping your account around in the future.

 

[Willian]

I can't see a reason for it to be wrong, don't matter where someone plays, it's the same game (.exe) downloaded from the google play store, as everyone does.

Since we can use a cellphone/tablet, why can't we use a notebook, chromebook or desktop in order to run it?
emulator's only job is to separate part of your system (hd, ram, cpu & gpu) and use it as it is a cellphone (android/IOS), so its basically a cellphone playing the game from playstore, which is fine!

For now i'm going to stop playing with bluestacks, but i'm very sad about it, as i already said, my cell burns when playing SGM (since a couple of patches and i don't know what exactly made it).

Here are some photos confirming the game is the same that everyone else play (via playstore, supported platform).

I hope people don't let this thread dies, i know a lot of players who also plays sgm with an emulator, some of them are in love with this game but doesn't even have a phone, and nobody talks about emulators because they fear the myth of getting banned.

I wish a have staff opinion about this topic, lets make it clear for the community if it's allowed or not, and why.

Ty in advance!

 

[Indrew]

I can't see a reason for it to be wrong, don't matter where someone plays, it's the same game (.exe) downloaded from the google play store, as everyone does.

Since we can use a cellphone/tablet, why can't we use a notebook, chromebook or desktop in order to run it?
emulator's only job is to separate part of your system (hd, ram, cpu & gpu) and use it as it is a cellphone (android/IOS), so its basically a cellphone playing the game from playstore, which is fine!

For now i'm going to stop playing with bluestacks, but i'm very sad about it, as i already said, my cell burns when playing SGM (since a couple of patches and i don't know what exactly made it).

Here are some photos confirming the game is the same that everyone else play (via playstore, supported platform).

I hope people don't let this thread dies, i know a lot of players who also plays sgm with an emulator, some of them are in love with this game but doesn't even have a phone, and nobody talks about emulators because they fear the myth of getting banned.

I wish a have staff opinion about this topic, lets make it clear for the community if it's allowed or not, and why.

Ty in advance!

Unfortunately, the reality is that even running the game on an emulator when it was downloaded from the official play store can get you banned. That's what reportedly happened to a friend of Keith despite playing completely legitimately, and that's the situation in which the statement from Cellsai I provided in my first reply originated.

I wish there was some more nuanced answer to this as well, but after dozens of questions about the subject over the years, it's never 'yes' or 'no', just the same "emulators are not supported by HVS". Bluestacks may have an official play store, but it's still unauthorized third-party software as far as HVS is concerned.

There are speculations as to why they don't allow emulation, even with official game files. The most credible in my eyes is that it's difficult on HVS's end to tell legitimate APKs vs modified ones, so whatever system they use may flag emulation as hacking. This is somewhat corroborated by another statement of Cellsai's in which he said, "We also can't be responsible if whatever emulator or APK you're using gets flagged for banning." I suppose emulation could also open the door to modifying game files, but I don't see how it differs from doing so on a so-called authorized device.

I honestly wish I could be optimistic about this whole thing, but I don't really think any other answer is going to be provided for whatever reason it hasn't in the past. You could try sending in a support ticket, but I doubt there's going to be any substantial statement on the matter other than what's well-known at this point.