Reports indicate Apple may be planning to remove lots of games from the App Store in China. Some of those titles, like Grand Theft Auto are big names.
China has strict rules about the content game developers can put in products. Games that have enjoyed massive success in other territories are routinely altered for the Chinese market. The requirements for violent content are more strict than they are in the west, but the country also has rules about how certain aspects of Chinese history can be depicted in a game, and what a game can say about the country's leadership. Often times, it's less about the Chinese government pressuring studios directly and more about developers knowing they need the revenue from the Chinese market, and therefore electing to take the path of least resistance. In this case, though, Apple owns the storefront rather than the actual games sold there. China's rules say the store owners are responsible for vetting the games and apps they sell.
The issue here is the approval process can take an exceedingly long time. To get around that, Apple was allowing publishers to post apps in the store as they awaited approval, with the assumption being that the titles would ultimately get the green light anyway. According to Engadget, that's about to change. Apple stated that all unapproved iOS games on the Chinese App Store will be banned starting June 30. It's unclear why the company has decided to take action at this specific time.
Per the article, there are roughly 20,000 games on the App Store in China that have yet to be approved. The odds that a large portion of those will suddenly be pushed through the approval process over the next few days are very low. Therefore, the store is likely poised to lose thousands of titles. It's possible that even major franchises, including Grand Theft Auto, could be affected. China is reportedly Apple's second-largest App Store revenue source, so correcting this issue of hosting unapproved titles is going to be important for the California-based company, but it will likely prove to be an impossible task without suffering a loss of some kind.
There are app storefronts in China for Android devices, of course, but those stores aren't run by American companies. Google doesn't have a version of the Google Play Store in China, so titles that would show up in that store in the west are in stores run by companies like Huawei and Tencent. Android app stores in China have conformed to China's rules about approval since those regulations were initially implemented.
Source: Engadget (via Bloomberg)
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