EA Removes 'Bejeweled 2', 'Flight Control' and Other Classic Titles from App Store

[Smeaton1724]

I'm still annoyed they took Command and Conquer off the App Store!!

The only EA game I buy is Fifa on consoles and even that is because Konami spoiled PES Soccer.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

The oldest is probably snake.

Snake was created as an arcade game in 1976, but didn't get a mobile version until 1998.

Tetris was was released for the GameBoy in 1989, so has been on mobile longer, but its first version is more recent than Snake's, which was in 1984.

Mattel Auto Race was created in 1976, and it was mobile from the get-go. So there you go, that's probably the oldest mobile game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattel_Auto_Race

 

[/dev/toaster]

Stop buying games from EA, they don't support their games after release. They are seriously one of the worst gaming companies around. The games you are buying today, the same thing will happen in a few years.

 

[dearfriendx]

Once the app isn't updated anymore it's a matter of time until you can't run it anymore, again:

http://******.com/?q=ios+api+deprecation

Apple hates backwards compatibility with a passion.

Glassed Silver:mac

Sorta like any game system ever? The next gen consoles/handhelds rarely offer backwards compatibility. I haven't run into a problem where my phone didn't support a game anymore but I believe you that it's a problem for others.

 

[Icaras]

Replacing or adding an iOS device has nothing to do with your App Store purchase history, so just to reiterate what's already been stated in this thread, those who have purchased these games in the past will always have access to them regardless of what device they upgrade in the future.

Of course EA always has the power to remove these past purchases too, but realistically, I don't think they'll do that.

 

[JosephAW]

Didn't like the bejeweled updates anyway when they inserted all the ads. Reverted to older versions to play.
Too bad there's not a way to hide apps you don't want to update. I have a half of dozen apps that I reverted to older versions, the store always wants me to update them but I keep ignoring them.

 

[Nermal]

Sorta like any game system ever? The next gen consoles/handhelds rarely offer backwards compatibility.

There is a difference: On a console, installing X doesn't break Y. For example, my 360 has the latest system software and can still run every game in my library. Compare that with updating iOS, which has the potential to break apps (and I've seen that happen on my own devices).

Of course, on my 360 I can also pick up a second-hand copy of a discontinued game...

 

[Even Longer]

Thanks, EA, for your unflinching attitude to be a No.1 hated gaming company for years. Some things just never change...

 

[macduke]

I own at least half of the games on this list. There will never be another time quite as great as those first few years on the App Store. Especially for gaming. That was before all of the in-app purchasing crap ruined everything. It's amazing how a few of those games weren't even EA back then. I used to play mobile games all of the time and they took up a lot of space on my devices. Now I just keep a few on my iPhone and a few more on my iPad, but nothing like I used to. I haven't bought any games in a really long time. I used to read Touch Arcade all of the time. I didn't stop because of any fault in the site. The writers were always awesome and the community was great. I just became less and less interested in the new titles pushing IAPs all the time.

 

[keysofanxiety]

I own at least half of the games on this list. There will never be another time quite as great as those first few years on the App Store. Especially for gaming. That was before all of the in-app purchasing crap ruined everything. It's amazing how a few of those games weren't even EA back then. I used to play mobile games all of the time and they took up a lot of space on my devices. Now I just keep a few on my iPhone and a few more on my iPad, but nothing like I used to. I haven't bought any games in a really long time. I used to read Touch Arcade all of the time. I didn't stop because of any fault in the site. The writers were always awesome and the community was great. I just became less and less interested in the new titles pushing IAPs all the time.

You're so right, you really are. It's a bitter irony that we're at a stage where we've got console-grade graphic capabilities on an iPhone, and yet all the games seem to be freemium shovelware. Yet when the App Store first came out, developers seemingly didn't have the same mentality.

If only the iPhone 5S hardware was released (or possible) in 2008.

 

[burne]

If I buy a new iOS device, will these titles not be available for redownload at all? Or are these just being removed from sale. My wife and I love playing Flight Control multiplayer.

Save the file. There's a .ipa file in Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Media/Mobile\ Applications/. As long as you have that, you can reinstall the App.

 

[seamer]

All you people saying "uh talk to your wife" have no idea how rare it is that a hobby of gaming is both tolerated and shared. It's taken me years to get my wife hooked on phone games, and my son has convinced her games like Grim Fandango and Quacamelee are fun. She hated games when we first met. I don't think it's a gender issue, it's just two different people with similar and dissimilar interests.

 

[4jasontv]

Sorta like any game system ever? The next gen consoles/handhelds rarely offer backwards compatibility. I haven't run into a problem where my phone didn't support a game anymore but I believe you that it's a problem for others.

When they do support it people generally don't care. Sure it's nice to know my PS2 plays PS1 games, but once I got a few PS2 titles I never went back.

I do wonder though if retro gaming will die off when the people who were raised on mobile games begin to have disposable income, and yet their childhood favorites never ceased to be available.

 

[JosephAW]

Once the app isn't updated anymore it's a matter of time until you can't run it anymore, again:

http://******.com/?q=ios+api+deprecation

Apple hates backwards compatibility with a passion.

Glassed Silver:mac

What's funny is the first game app I downloaded on iOS 4 was fat-a-pult by no less than Pinger and it still works!
Also I had some video download apps that stopped working but under iOS 8.2 and higher they started working again.

 

[GabrielMoro]

Good old days. All new games are crap now.

 

[macduke]

You're so right, you really are. It's a bitter irony that we're at a stage where we've got console-grade graphic capabilities on an iPhone, and yet all the games seem to be freemium shovelware. Yet when the App Store first came out, developers seemingly didn't have the same mentality.

If only the iPhone 5S hardware was released (or possible) in 2008.

Yeah. The first game I installed on my iPhone in 2008 was Super Monkey Ball, which was a console title ported to the iPhone. And it was actually pretty decent for such an early iPhone game. I remember playing it while waiting in line for the iPhone 3G, haha. I think the other game was Trism.

Given that the iPhone 6 GPU is rated at 115Gflops and the 6S is rated at 90% faster than the 6, the new GPU should output around 220Gflops. It also has 2GB of RAM and fast flash storage. For comparison the Xbox 360 clocks in at 230Gflops with 512MB of RAM and a spinning drive. It's essentially like having an Xbox 360 with more RAM and faster load times right in your pocket. But most people will play Frogger, I mean Quacky Duck or whatever that crap was that Apple showed on stage.

 

[zorinlynx]

My question is why do they remove the apps when they can just sit quietly in the store making money?

Just because a game is older and not updated doesn't mean it's no longer good!

 

[Kobayagi]

Just like with everything, when it becomes too big, money hungry ***hole companies show up to ruin the day. Before youtube, twitch etc., gaming used to be a smaller ''hobby'', games were made with pride and developers really did their best to top their previous release. When gaming became a huge business, these ***hole companies exploited the **** out of it and ruined the fun. They started selling unfinished games and made you buy dlc's for stuff that should have been in the game from the start.

Same thing happened with iOS, when it was new, games were fun and enjoyable. But just look at todays offers and you'll see how times have changed. "Free" games everywhere and tons of ''upgrades'' for you to buy.

Sorry for the language, but it's a shame at what happened, because I used the love gaming and the best memories about it I have are with older games.

 

[BruiserB]

I'd be interested to know this too. I'll be getting on iPhone 6S Plus and it would be nice to be able to transfer Bejeweled to that phone!

You can sync your apps to iTunes and then reload the app from your computer.

 

[zorinlynx]

Same thing happened with iOS, when it was new, games were fun and enjoyable. But just look at todays offers and you'll see how times have changed. "Free" games everywhere and tons of ''upgrades'' for you to buy.

I think I'd have less of a problem with this if "free" games just had the first couple levels/puzzles/whatever, free, and you paid a FLAT FEE to unlock the rest of the game. Kind of like shareware in the old days.

The system of having to basically keep pumping quarters in to play a game on your own hardware is insane. If I'm going to pump quarters in, I'd rather do it in an arcade.

 

[Twimfy]

And to answer the questions: usually when a game is pulled, it's available to redownload.

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Glassed Silver:mac

You're lucky now with this particular set of games but this isn't guaranteed in the future. As developers we have the option to now choose whether or not a version will still be available after it's been pulled from the store. Naturally we can't stop physical .ipa's stored as a hard back up but I can imagine more and more developers will start using the perma-kill function for the cloud backups mainly to avoid future licensing issues (look at games like Crazy Taxi and Outrun 2 which are now edited to hell due to expired music and advertising licenses).

Long story short, if you love a game, back it up physically!! Although it wouldn't surprise me if Apple were to completely remove the non-iCloud backup option from iTunes sometime in the not to distant future.

 

[marty1980]

Dead Space still appears in my list of purchases. I guess I could still download the latest version if I want to. I assume this means the other games will also remain on purchase lists for everyone who bought any of the games prior to removal. If so, I am cautiously happy about the fact that my purchases haven't completely disappeared. There is a huge risk of moving to owning digital content and what happens to that content as technology moves on. I know it won't last forever, but this is a positive thing, if Apple and EA continue to keep these downloads available to those who purchased them prior to removal.

 

[5105973]

You'll have to just, erm, y'know, talk to each other now

Nooooooo! That's not how it works! Give me my Bejweled so I don't kill someone!

 

[Glassed Silver]

You're lucky now with this particular set of games but this isn't guaranteed in the future. As developers we have the option to now choose whether or not a version will still be available after it's been pulled from the store. Naturally we can't stop physical .ipa's stored as a hard back up but I can imagine more and more developers will start using the perma-kill function for the cloud backups mainly to avoid future licensing issues (look at games like Crazy Taxi and Outrun 2 which are now edited to hell due to expired music and advertising licenses).

Long story short, if you love a game, back it up physically!! Although it wouldn't surprise me if Apple were to completely remove the non-iCloud backup option from iTunes sometime in the not to distant future.

That's why I don't trust the cloud, that's why I prefer physical games and consider download-only games to be a plague, because beyond downloadability there's a lot of other issues involved.

And pulling the download option for an already paid-for item doesn't seem like complying with licenses.
In the case of GTA SA for example what they could have done was create a separate listing with the remade version and pulled the old listing, but keeping it downloadable for those who already bought it.
It's not redistribution, the moment a game's in my online library with a service like Steam it's mine, and even the "it's just renting without an expiration date set" kind of philosophy Steam and others want lawyers and judges to believe in wouldn't hold ground as by EU law (or was it German law specifically, I can't remember just now) games in my Steam library are properly mine. They are not rented indefinitely, that's an invalid clause/state/whatever you call it.

Now, that of course doesn't mean they can't pull downloadability, but what I do mean is that the update to existing copies removing content actively (GTA SA patch) was actually against the law, at least here.

However, of course I agree, the download-only games you do have, you should backup.
And also hope that they will stay compatible and that the various ways DRM can bite you won't bite you.

I stopped bothering with games on iOS to a great extend due to that.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[marty1980]

That's why I don't trust the cloud, that's why I prefer physical games and consider download-only games to be a plague, because beyond downloadability there's a lot of other issues involved.

It seems as though the games industry decided with the emergence of digital games that preservation of games is no longer an issue; that games are disposable bits of entertainment meant to go out as this year's trash. Thankfully there are activists working on games preservation, even for games that are difficult to preserve due to DRM, online requirements, and other forms of technology meant to prevent such preservation. However, they will always be year's behind current games for legal and technological reasons.

iOS provides one single way to ATTEMPT to preserve YOUR copies of apps and that is through iTunes computer backups. However, there are many reasons why this is not a fail-safe way to backup your files and only savvy computer users understand how it would even be possible to backup and restore those app files in order to transfer them to a device that could use them. I highly doubt Apple or any iOS game developers have the care to work on any way to preserve apps/games for iOS because, as I said above, it's a non-issue to them.