Facebook blames Apple for not allowing games in Facebook Gaming app
The social media giant says that it has been forced to release an "inferior" version of its Facebook Gaming app in order for Apple to accept it onto the App Store.
The App Store and Facebook
Following Microsoft's similar criticism, Facebook says that Apple has forced it to launch a new games app -- without any games. The Facebook Gaming app is currently being rolled out on the App Store after around six months of the social media company trying to persuade Apple to allow the same features found on the Android version.
"Unfortunately, we had to remove gameplay functionality entirely in order to get Apple's approval on the standalone Facebook Gaming app," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a statement to The Verge, "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," she continued. "whether Apple allows it in a standalone app or not."
Apple's position, according to Facebook, is that it will not allow apps whose primary function is to distribute other software, including games. Apps must go through the App Store, they can't be loaded through a route where Apple can't curate or vet them.
Facebook says this isn't fair because Facebook Gaming is not centered on playing games. The company showed Apple data from its Android app's usage that showed 95% of activity is from users watching video streams instead.
According to the New York Times, Apple rejected the Facebook Gaming app at least five times since its original submission in February 2020. Each time it was for the same issue over the main function of the app being to deliver games.
"We even appealed the guideline under the new app review process announced at WWDC," said a Facebook spokesperson, referring to Apple's revised App Store procedures. "We did not receive a response."
Apple has been under increasing criticism for its App Store polices, and its fees. The company has sponsored research saying its procedures and prices are comparable to other digital market places, and Tim Cook has defended the App Store to the US House of Judiciary.
The App Store and Facebook
Following Microsoft's similar criticism, Facebook says that Apple has forced it to launch a new games app -- without any games. The Facebook Gaming app is currently being rolled out on the App Store after around six months of the social media company trying to persuade Apple to allow the same features found on the Android version.
"Unfortunately, we had to remove gameplay functionality entirely in order to get Apple's approval on the standalone Facebook Gaming app," Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in a statement to The Verge, "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," she continued. "whether Apple allows it in a standalone app or not."
Apple's position, according to Facebook, is that it will not allow apps whose primary function is to distribute other software, including games. Apps must go through the App Store, they can't be loaded through a route where Apple can't curate or vet them.
Facebook says this isn't fair because Facebook Gaming is not centered on playing games. The company showed Apple data from its Android app's usage that showed 95% of activity is from users watching video streams instead.
According to the New York Times, Apple rejected the Facebook Gaming app at least five times since its original submission in February 2020. Each time it was for the same issue over the main function of the app being to deliver games.
"We even appealed the guideline under the new app review process announced at WWDC," said a Facebook spokesperson, referring to Apple's revised App Store procedures. "We did not receive a response."
Apple has been under increasing criticism for its App Store polices, and its fees. The company has sponsored research saying its procedures and prices are comparable to other digital market places, and Tim Cook has defended the App Store to the US House of Judiciary.
Comments
Apple allows video streaming services to moderate their own content. They can do the same for video game streaming.
I mention this in the xCloud post, but Apple should focus on AR and mobile gaming where they have a real competitive advantage vs incumbents and otherwise be happy that traditional gamers might still want to be on their platform if not for these rules. Apple is probably going to release a gaming focused headset in the next year or two with Oculus being their only real competition. Upsetting gamers isn’t a great way to be successful with that.
Hey Facebook, how about creating a media streaming app instead of a gaming app, leave out the gaming, call it a streaming media app, and resubmit to the app store.
Apple has stated explicitly, that they do not allow game streaming services, so why the fuck would Apple need to provide a "TV.app style listing service in the App Store to help find the contained game streaming service"? That list would be a null set!
Facebook wants social gaming experiences. Ideally, Apple would create an extension that allows multiplayer games (social experiences) to be easily run in another app similar to what Apple Messages can do with in-app games. This is an engineering decision, so I don't expect that Apple should be forced to do this. Ideally any social app would be able to take advantage of this (Messages, House party, Zoom, etc.). In fact a social experience app extension could extend beyond games to allow other things. I think this would be very cool and appropriate for our current age of social distancing. I have struggled coming up with fun things to do in our Zoom happy hours.
If Apple wanted to do this, I'm sure they could get an SDK out within a few months since they already have something similar for Messages. I think the App Store rules committee should look at feedback they can provide engineering to help allow apps that they currently need to deny. By no means should Apple be forced to do this, but sometimes the best solution to a rules issue requires an OS feature. In fact it would be great if they could give an NDA and allow the app involved to get early access if engineering decides they want to do something. If Apple wants a single store, I think it is in users and developers interests to attempt to look for constructive solutions to problems when possible if the rules can't be changed.
I think that XCloud may have the opposite effect though. Rather than giving Microsoft power, it attracts gamers to Apple platforms. Get gamers on your platform then sell them gaming services in other gaming niches that XCloud can't support: native local games and AR games. Most of the games in XCloud will never run on Apple devices or if they do it will be at higher latency and lower frame rate. Technically everyone wins and Apple could still create their own streaming competitor in the future if it makes sense.
In the case of XCloud I think Apple could cordon this off to allow mainstream AAA game streaming without allowing other types of interactive streaming. I think some other types of streaming should be allowed too, but that is a topic for another discussion. I'm sure this can be done without falling to the "embrace, extend, extinguish" play. Apple has a lot of power on the App Store to prevent that. The drawbacks of streaming will also help prevent that since we are not saying allow a store of native apps on the device.
I agree with you that Apple is in the right to prevent situations that could create a separate native app market place, but I think all of these cases can be taken care of with targeted rules. There are some very legitimate uses for app-in-an-app that I don't think should be against Apple's philosophy for the store with game streaming and social experience app extensions (a la FaceBook) just being the tip of the iceberg.
I don't have an extreme opinion on all this. But I'm leaning towards Appel finding a solution to let this stuff happen. I personally don't see myself playing a game this way...if I have an xbox why would I ever want to lay it on a tiny phone? And is bandwidth available (if you are traveling and want to game which this seems to be the point of) where you want to use it? I feel like there would be a lot of really poor experiences using a streaming game service...But I can't see a strong logical argument to stop it.