Advertisement
Supported by
Saying that Apple forced months of rejection adjustments, the social network today publishes an edition for iPhone and iPad users.
By Seth Schiesel
For six months, Facebook tried to convince Apple to approve its new Facebook Gaming app to be available on Apple’s App Store, but at one point Apple said no.
This week, Facebook said it had complied with Apple’s requests to modify its Gaming app so that it can be distributed to iPhone and iPad users starting Friday. To comply with Apple’s rules, which prohibit applications if their “main objective” is to distribute software such as games, the social network said it had completely got rid of playable games from its new application.
Facebook said Apple had necessarily used its strength in the App Store to force its hand, making the Gaming app a lower delight for iPhone and iPad owners.In addition to playable games, the original edition of the app allows users to watch and create live game streams and participate in gaming communities, features that will still be present in the Apple edition.
Frustration with Apple extends to the steps of Facebook.In a statement, Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s leading executive, said, “Unfortunately, we had to completely remove the game feature to get Apple’s approval in the standalone Facebook gaming app.”He added that Facebook would continue to create communities for those who played on Facebook, “whether Apple allows it in a standalone app or not.”
Games are Apple’s biggest source of profit in the App Store, and many generational executives have concluded that Apple is blocking games that can compete with its own products and sales.
Apple, without going directly to Facebook Gaming, said its App Store policies were designed for consumers and added that it had other legal apps that included games in the App Store.
Combat is a reminder of where the force is in Silicon Valley.While Facebook operates the world’s largest social network and has many popular apps like Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp, Apple controls its distribution through its App Store.This causes Facebook to rely on Apple to succeed in many of its users.
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg expressed dismay by Apple’s strength, albeit indirectly.In a testimony to Congress last week about Facebook’s rivals, he said, “Some are upstarts, but others are guardians with the strength of whether we can even publish our apps on their app.outlets to compete with them.”
In June, the European Commission, the European Union agency, said it had opened an official antitrust investigation into the terms of Apple’s App Store, following a complaint from Spotify, the music streaming service.Other application developers, such as Basecamp, have also argued.Apple about App Store rules.
Some game apps avoid Apple’s App Store, saying privately that Apple might not approve their apps because they compete.On Wednesday, for example, Microsoft completed a limited review of its xCloud game streaming app for Apple devices, offering cloud games on Android devices starting next month.
“Unfortunately, we have no way to bring our vision of cloud gaming with Xbox Game Ultimate to iOS players through the Apple App Store,” a Microsoft spokesperson said Thursday.”Apple is the only multipurpose platform that denies consumers access to cloud gaming and subscription to games like Xbox Game Pass.And it systematically treats game programs differently, applying more lenient regulations to gameless apps, even when they come with interactive content.”
Facebook announced its Gaming app in April, saying that other people can use it to watch live games and play undeniable games like Words With Friends and Thug Life. The Google Play Store for Android devices approved it that month.
But Apple has rejected at least five versions of Facebook Gaming this year.In its denials, Apple cited regulations prohibiting apps whose “primary purpose” is to distribute games and apps that deliver games to a “store or store interface.”
Facebook kept trying. He said he had told Apple that more than 95% of the activity in the Android edition was watching game streams, which gambling directly.
To please Apple, Facebook has made games less visual by first removing icons from a playlist of playable games and then completely deleting the game catalog.playable games scattered in your news and activity.
In June, Apple announced a new appeal procedure for App Store offerings, adding the ability to challenge its guidelines.A Facebook spokesman said the social network had asked for such a call for Facebook Gaming but had never won an answer.
“Apple has ghosts for us,” he says. Apple approved Facebook Gaming after Facebook presented an edition with absolutely deleted games, the spokesman said.
On Friday, when Facebook is the app for iPhone and iPad users, it also intends to display a cheeky symbol of the “Play” facet of the app with red bars, with an asterisk indicating “Edited on iPhone”.
Apple’s movements have created “a shared pain in the gaming industry, which in the end harms gamers and developers and seriously curbs cellular innovation for other types of formats such as cloud gaming,” said Vivek Sharma, Facebook’s vice president of gaming.
Advertisement