In recent days, Apple is growing dwarfs, as the expression goes. Almost every day we have some news related to the guidelines that developers must adhere to if they want your applications are available in the App Store. Now that the European Union has gotten in, it doesn't look like it will end well for Apple.
The latest news is related to Facebook Gaming, Facebook's Twitch. As we can read in the New York Times, Apple has rejected Facebook Gaming application again, and there are five, an application that Facebook has been trying to launch on iOS since last February, when it landed on Android.
Facebook Gaming is a video game platform very similar to Twitch, but unlike it, also offers its own games within the application, this being in almost all probability, the reason why Apple refuses to give the approval to the application.
According to people familiar with the matter and who have spoken to the New York Times, Apple says it does not allow third-party applications distribute games as a standalone platform, as you don't want the App Store business to be affected and reduce your revenue.
Games are by far the most lucrative category in the mobile device ecosystem, category that generated more than 15.000 million dollars just last year. As I've discussed in other articles, Google's guidelines are different in some ways. Not only does it allow you to link directly to the service's website to be able to contract it directly without going through the Play Store, but it also allows the Facebook Gaming application to download games.
What is clear, especially now that the European Union has gotten in the way, is that sooner or later, Apple will be forced to change some of its guidelinesat least in Europe and you will probably have to make them more flexible.
