Sophie Blake
On Thursday, Microsoft accused Apple of treating gaming apps differently because its xCloud project is rejected by the company. And now, Facebook slams Apple for not allowing it to launch instant games which are part of the Facebook Gaming app.
After repeated rejections by Apple since April, Facebook finally tweeted on Friday that they have launched the Facebook Gaming app on iOS. However, the standalone app have launched without instant game because of citing App Store guideline 4.7, stating that HTML5 apps are allowed as long as “code distribution isn’t the main purpose of the app”.
2/ But for FB game developers and players…we have some bad news. After months of submissions and repeated rejections by Apple, we’ve had to remove instant games entirely from the standalone app. pic.twitter.com/aydUh0EgSM
— Facebook Gaming (@FacebookGaming) August 7, 2020
Instant Play feature of Facebook Gaming app lets people play with each other instantly and it is available for Android users.
Apple didn’t permit instant gaming claiming the primary purpose of the app is to play games. Facebook insists that nearly 95% of in-app activity on Android is from watching livestreams, not playing games buy they said they couldn’t get a response from Apple although they share this stat with them.
“Gaming brings people together. And that’s even more important today amidst the pandemic. 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,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
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