After acquiring its gaming app on Apple’s App Store with both Microsoft and Google, tech giant Facebook says it also had problems making its Facebook gaming app available to iOS users.
The Facebook gaming app is being launched on the App Store today, however, it had to remove some functionalities in order to be approved by Apple. As The Verge reported, Facebook Gaming had to go through its notoriously stringent and sometimes arbitrary review process to remove the appignance feature for the app.
“, Unfortunately, we had to get Apple’s approval on the standalone Facebook gaming app to completely remove the gameplay functionality – meaning iOS users have a inferior experience to those using Android,” Sheryl Sandberg , Facebook COO, said in a statement to . “We’re focused on building a community for the more than 380 million people who play the game on Facebook every month – whether Apple allows it in a standalone app or not.”
Vivek Sharma, vice president of Facebook Gaming, also expressed disappointment with Apple’s policies, saying in the statement, “Even on the main Facebook app and Messenger, we have been forced to bury instant games on iOS for years. This is a shared pain in the games industry, which ultimately hurts players and devs and severely hamstrings innovations on mobile for other types of formats such as cloud gaming. “
In a New York Times report, Facebook sources suggested that Apple was having an undue influence on its App Store and that it was not allowed that Apple was imposing its own business interests ahead of fair policies. Apple makes a considerable portion of its profits from the sale of individual games from the Apple Store, and some believe that Apple is intentionally blocking apps through which users without a portion of the profits going to Apple Can buy games on iOS.
At a recent congressional Big Tech antitrust hearing, he was accused of removing competitors from the App Store from his own app or removing them.
Recently Microsoft and Google have also spoken out against Apple’s App Store policies. Apple shared that it does not allow cloud gaming services on its App Store, so Microsoft’s Project xCloud and Google’s Stadia services are not made available to iPhone or iPad users. Apple stated that this is the policy because it is unable to review every single game available through these services.
Subsequently, Microsoft complained that Apple “treats gaming gaming differently” and reported that all games that offer it through Project xCloud have already been rated by bodies such as the Entertainment Software Rating Board.
Updated August 7: Added statements from Facebook.
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