The credits for WayForward Games' digital release of Sigma Star Saga DX have been updated after it came to light that the game had violated the license of the GBA emulator, mGBA.
mGBA is available under an MPL 2.0 license, meaning anyone who wants to use an unmodified version of the emulator can do so; all they need to do is credit it and provide a link to the source. But after Sigma Star Saga DX was published earlier this month (April 7th, 2026), it quickly came to light on the mGBA Discord that the emulator was being used without any disclosure in the game's credits.
In response, endrift, the developer of mGBA, took to social media to write to Limited Run Games, the physical publisher of Sigma Star Saga DX and the creator of the Carbon Engine, commenting, "Hello @limitedrungames.com, it has come to my attention that you've used mGBA in the release of Sigma Star Saga DX in an unlicensed capacity. Please rectify this immediately."
In the thread that followed, endrift went on to make some important clarifications to their original statement, stating that WayForward Games was the publisher of the digital release, not Limited Run Games, and that a third company, Mighty Rabbit, was also involved in developing the game. This led endrift to concede, "I'm not really sure who did what at this point," before speculating, "It's possible that [Limited Run Games] didn't disclose that it uses mGBA when licensing it (which violates mGBA's license), or someone at either MRG or WF dropped the ball. Given LRG's track record, it was probably them. But idk."
We reached out to Limited Run Games (via the PR listed on its website) for comment and didn't receive a response. WayForward also failed to respond to our request for more information.
Inevitably, in the aftermath of these comments, there was a lot of online criticism directed at WayForward and Limited Run Games, as well as an outpouring of support for Endrift. The Video Game History Foundation's Frank Cifaldi, for instance, stated, "Violating an emulator's terms of use for your commercial product is really, really gross. That it's happened to endrift at least twice now is awful."
This other occasion Cifaldi is referring to here is an incident that came to light in 2021, in which a 2020 release from another company, Imagineer, entitled Medarots Classics Plus, was found to use mGBA's code without any acknowledgment or credit. This is believed to have resulted from a subcontractor and was later resolved when it was brought to Imagineer's attention, with one of endrift's friends subsequently making the mGBA developer a joke trophy in the aftermath, reading "My emulator was stolen for a commercial game, and all I got was this lousy trophy."
Speaking to endrift on Discord on Wednesday, April 8th, they told us, "I don't want to point fingers too hard. It's clear that Sigma Star Saga DX is violating the MPL, but I don't know who failed due diligence here. I'm still in the process of trying to figure out who to talk to, but I have some leads." They then updated us the next day, stating Limited Run Games had emailed them, "so more details are undoubtedly forthcoming."
On Friday, April 10th, WayForward then pushed an update for the game on Steam, addressing the issue, leading to endrift to share an update, "It seems like Sigma Star Saga DX has added the required disclosure and LRG has also reached out to me about what to do going forward. Looks like this is going to be resolved."
This isn't the first time a Limited Run Games-related release has come under fire for using an emulator, while potentially being in violation of its license agreement. In January 2025, for example, it was brought to light on GitHub that Tomba! Special Edition had used PCSX-Rearmed without adhering to the conditions of its GPL license, failing to release the modified portions of the PCSX-Rearmed emulator, which form part of the company's Carbon Engine.
This was later resolved in April 2025, when it was brought to Limited Run Games' attention, with the then CEO Josh Fairhurst telling Time Extension at the time that it was always the intention to establish a GitHub repository, but there was a delay when it was discovered that a Limited Run Games GitHub already existed, and it took "longer than expected to gain access to it."