Facebook Gaming has expressed its frustration at having to whittle its game streaming app before Apple will allow it on its App Store. It is not the first to complain about this stifling policies and likely will not be the last.
In recent months, more developers have openly called out Apple over the lack of freedom in its application store. Clearly, to get your apps to work on iOS, you would need to play by the company’s rule book.
The rules are, however, stricter than those on the Google Play Store. This is obvious as Apple has been receiving backlash over it frequently. The antitrust committee had also mentioned it to Tim Cook, the company’s CEO, during a hearing in July.
Facebook Gaming just successfully launched a streaming app for iOS after months of rejections. The launch also came at a price as the social media giant says it had to remove some of the app’s mini-game features.
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Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told The Verge, “Unfortunately, we had to remove gameplay functionality entirely in order to get Apple’s approval on the standalone Facebook Gaming app — meaning iOS users have an inferior experience to those using Android.
“We’re staying focused on building communities for the more than 380 million people who play games on Facebook every month — whether Apple allows it in a standalone app or not.”
The main issue between Facebook Gaming app and the App Store had been this; Apple says that the app is mainly for playing games while Facebook insists that it is mainly for streaming. In the end, despite showing that 95% of users use it for streaming, Facebook Gaming app had to drop its ‘instant games’ feature.
Microsoft has also run into the same problem with Apple over its App Store. This is why it will not be launching its xCloud gaming platform for iOS users when the Android version launches. It also openly condemned the iPhone maker, saying it is denying its customers access to Xbox Game Pass.
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