Facebook Gaming Hops on to Apple’s App Store

Summary

• Facebook became one of the newest members to cash in on the gaming boom after it launched Facebook Gaming, for iOS devices on 7 August 2020, marking the end of six-month long submissions and rejection saga.
• Facebook Gaming app, which social media giant was trying to shove through the Apple App Store for months to no avail was launched after the stripping of gameplay functionality primarily due to Apple’s stringent App Store guidelines.
• It looks like gaming apps would be acting Apple’s next App Store Battlefield as other tech titans such as Microsoft is also lashing out at Apple because of its longstanding restriction in place for cloud-based streaming game services.

In the contemporary world, presence of numerous applications on mobile/laptop are serving as a topping on cake, being relished by individuals.

App stores blooming into an eye-popping and vivacious ecosystem

Numerous mobile app stores such as iOS, windows and android have emerged as one of the biggest opportunities for both developers, as well as users in the business world.

The app development industry is booming with the emergence of advanced developers, and app development companies that are dedicated to fulfilling the requisites of app users.

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Anybody who has been religiously following Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) from past few years would not be astonished by the fact that the tech titan is a stringent service provider, having one of the most limiting policies of any global software marketplace.

Apple makes sure that whatever is available on Apple App Store, it should successfully sail through its App Review process and is consistent with its pre-defined guidelines.

As per the latest media report, Apple has given its nod to a gaming app of Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) called Facebook Gaming. The app was launched on iOS on 7 August 2020, while it had forgone its mini-game feature (ability to play games instantly) in the app primarily due to the restrictions of Apple’s App Store guidelines.

In last few months, Apple, and the launched Facebook’s gaming app, Facebook Gaming were in battleground over the issue of guidelines of Apple’s App Store policies.

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Gaming apps would be Apple’s next App Store Battlefield

Three of the large tech companies: Microsoft, Facebook, and Google have faced denials from Apple for publishing the trios major gaming apps on iOS.

Google's Stadia, Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass, and Facebook’s Gaming app all faced numerous roadblocks to publishing on the Apple App Store.

But the question is why these tech titans had to face the hiccups for getting their apps published?

Apple’s major concern with regards to tech titans cloud-based game streaming services was difficulty for games to be reviewed separately by Apple’s App Store team. As per Apple, this implies that the Company could fail the capability for the App Store being a reliable place for its consumers, possibly paving the way for apps to breach Apple’s policies and might be sneaked in under Apple’s radar.

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Let us deep dive further and understand what the battle was all about between Facebook and Apple.

Numerous tweets by Facebook explained the delay of the launch, mentioning that Apple rejected the app based on the App Store guidelines 4.7, under the assumption that the primary focus of the app is to play games.

Furthermore, Facebook believed that claim made by Apple was false, and the social media giant further added that the Apple team have ‘ghosted’ them for months even after submission of clarifications to Apple’s queries.

Interestingly, Facebook Gaming has already been made available to the android users since April 2020, stating that people could actually utilise it to watch live streaming of video games, as well as play simple games such as Thug Life and Words With Friends.

Notably, Facebook Games iOS users would have a marginally shorter experience than their Android peers.

Facebook’s outrage towards Apple is echoed in a statement said by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer (COO).

Sheryl Sandberg said, “Unfortunately, we had to remove gameplay functionality entirely in order to get Apple’s approval on the stand-alone Facebook Gaming app.” She also added that Facebook would continue striving to set up communities for more than 380 million individuals who played games on Facebook, “whether Apple allows it in a stand-alone app or not.”

This came a couple of days after Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) voiced its opinion against Apple's App Store policies that are more stringent for gaming apps as compared to non-gaming ones, which even included interactive content.

In early August, Microsoft had said that it would be launching its xCloud gaming service as part of a subscription service called Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on 15 September 2020. However, the Company further added that it would only be available on Android-based mobile operating system.

Moreover, Apple’s iOS users would not experience Microsoft’s cloud gaming services as Microsoft said that, “Apple stands alone as the only general-purpose platform to deny consumers from cloud gaming and game subscription services like Xbox Game Pass.”
Other than Facebook and Microsoft, Google’s Stadia and Nvidia’s GeForce have also faced roadblocks while unveiling their apps iOS versions because of Apple’s strict App Store guidelines.

Despite the fact that Facebook runs the world’s largest social media network with its family of popular apps such as WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, Apple controls its distribution via its App Store, reminding where power lies in the tech valley.