Facebook Criticizes Apple's App Store Policies, Launches Gaming App on iOS Without Games

[smetvid]

Their store, their rules.

Facebook is not stupid and they know what the rules are. They were hoping their name and power would allow them to bend the rules.

I find it interesting that Facebook wants to claim 95% of Android users don’t play the games and then say that iOS will provide an inferior experience without the games. If only 5% actually bother to play the games then it isn’t inferior at all to the other 95%. If it isn’t that important then why make a big deal about it?

 

[mrcloaked]

I feel tired.

 

[Glideslope]

I don't agree with Apple on their restrictions, but I will give them a pass on keeping anything related to FaceBook away from users.

Could not agree more.

 

[derekamoss]

My understanding is Facebook Games has locally-playing games, whereas Steam Link streams remotely-running ones.

Which is exactly what Microsoft's xCloud does but yet it is banned unlike steam.

 

[TantalizedMind]

All against Apple lately. So much envy! All late to the mobile game and now they want they piece of the un-earned cake. All of them abused of they market position for years, making users pay tons of money for crappy software and services. Imposing they own products (I’m looking at you Edge), but now crying about a store that don’t sell they crap. Not sorry for them really, Apple can be (as any other company) really awful, but I stand 100% on this. Is the equivalent that someone complains if Amazon don’t let him sell his products for free.

You can stand 100% on this but that makes you a jerk who is happy that millions of iPhone users won’t be able to play Xbox games on their mobile phone.

I’ve been using iPhones exclusively since iPhone 4 and for the first time ever, I’m thinking about switching to stinky Android.
I REALLY don’t want to switch. I don’t. I’m getting anxious just thinking about it.

I am comfortable on iOS and from what I’ve seen, I’m not a fan of android. But I’ve ALWAYS wanted to play Xbox games while on the go.

Apple is a company and all they care about is making money. But how are they going to make money when their users start jumping ship?

 

[steinegal]

As a Xbox owner and user of Gamepass I am now thinking that I will sell my 11 Pro and get an Android phone for the first time in 9 years. Love the iPhone, but Apple needs to be stopped and hopefully EU can enforce something like they did with Microsoft and Internet Explorer in its time.

 

[Ma2k5]

Do you know how much crap comprises the toxic waste that is Facebook? Apple's laughing at them like the little Dr. Evil in a cartoon show like they *DESERVE* dude. Period. Facebook of course will BE on their platform, but not the way they want or are trying to slimily push for - which is the whole point.

You need help if you believe that in any capacity. With WhatsApp, FaceBook and instagram as well as TikTok on the platform, Apple isn’t laughing at anyone.

 

[Osamede]

Facebook today joined Microsoft in condemning Apple's App Store policies, after the company was forced to remove the games feature from its Facebook Gaming app, which launches today on iOS.

Facebook Gaming app on Google Play Store​

In a statement given to The Verge, Facebook said it has had its Gaming app rejected multiple times by Apple in recent months, but Apple cited its App Store guidelines to justify the rejections, claiming the primary purpose of the Facebook Gaming app is to play games.

Facebook says it shared usage data with Apple from its Android Facebook Gaming app that showed 95 percent of activity involves watching streams, but it was unable to change Apple's stance on the matter.

Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg said it chose to go ahead with the launch of its app in the App Store, but users faced an "inferior" experience compared to Android users.
A Facebook spokesperson added that it even appealed the guideline under the new app review process that Apple announced at WWDC, but it did not receive a response.

Apple has come in for heavy criticism from rivals and the gaming industry to loosen its App Store restrictions. Just yesterday, Microsoft said its "Project xCloud" streaming game service that pairs with its Xbox Game Pass won't be available on iPhone and iPad when it launches this September.

The company complained that it no longer had a path to bring its vision of cloud gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to gamers on iOS because Apple "consistently treats gaming apps differently, applying more lenient rules to non-gaming apps even when they include interactive content."

Article Link: Facebook Criticizes Apple's App Store Policies, Launches Gaming App on iOS Without Games

Facebook should consider itself fortunate to be allowed into any App Store at all. They are a malicious actor with a horrific history of abusing consumers as a business model.

If they were an Eastern European or Russian or Chinese company they would be facing bans. What a bunch of zeros...

 

[I7guy]

As a Xbox owner and user of Gamepass I am now thinking that I will sell my 11 Pro and get an Android phone for the first time in 9 years. Love the iPhone, but Apple needs to be stopped and hopefully EU can enforce something like they did with Microsoft and Internet Explorer in its time.

Maybe Android is the gaming platform for Xbox owners and Apple just doesn’t care about that market.

 

[mrcloaked]

They could try elsewhere.

 

[Ethosik]

That vertical integration creating barriers to entry is the exact reason anti-trust law became a thing in the first place. Are you saying if someone wants to create an app that Apple doesn’t like they should have to start a hardware business, a series of new software businesses (to develop operating systems and app stores) all to deliver the app? Nah... I’ll take a bit of government intervention (either by the US or EU) here and there instead. Doing so leads to more production/progress and creativity, not less, which is the whole goal of anti-trust legislation.

How is this different than me wanting to sell guns at Target? Or some adult content? Target doesn't allow those, so I should create my own gun store or adult store instead.

People just need to let capitalism work. If enough people switch to Android because it can play xCloud and Facebook, Apple will change their ways. Or they can let the iPhone die, its their choice.

Sometimes, I think the whole anti-competitive argument goes a bit too far. What if I try to create an "adult" game or service app and Apple rejects it. Should I complain about their rules then and everyone will be on my side?

 

[tranceme]

I don’t think this will make a difference - there’s been plenty of developers who have protested over the past decade and nothing has ever changed because of it.

Either some branch of government needs to force Apple to change what they’re doing, or somebody needs to organize an effective boycott against Apple.

I haven’t bought a new Apple product since 2014, protesting their App Store monopoly, crap software, and absurd pricing, but my wife gifted me both an Apple Watch and AirPods during that time, plus bought herself an iPhone 8+ and an Apple TV for our house. If I weren’t boycotting Apple we’d probably have more/newer iPhones, iPads, and Macs, but my protest feels fake when I can’t stop my wife from gifting their products to me.

And, yet you are on an Apple centric website. LOL. Not only that, you are commenting. So, your wife tells you what stuff you should have or can use? She gifted you and you have no say? Couldn't find the gift receipt? Please. You wanted them. Or you need to go to counseling and figure out why you have no say in your relationship...sorry...Couldn't resist.

 

[tranceme]

I know! Why doesn't Microsoft do all the hard work and make their own phone platform and put it on there! Wait

They tried and failed. So, as most people do, they complain about it.

 

[tranceme]

There’s no tablet market. Only an iPad market.

Is Surface dead?

 

[Tucom]

You need help if you believe that in any capacity. With WhatsApp, FaceBook and instagram as well as TikTok on the platform, Apple isn’t laughing at anyone.

Oh, likewise pal. Come step off your soap box now. One step at a time now, there you go.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Opinions of Facebook can be withheld maybe just for a moment, yeah? We'll get right back to that in short time. Right now we're trying to shine a massive spotlight on Apple's anti-competitive racket.

anti competitive? How many apps and users and devices in the other platforms? I’m curious if they restrict Apple with their apps at all?

 

[leicaman]

If Facebook doesn't like it then neither does Putin.

 

[Abazigal]

Opinions of Facebook can be withheld maybe just for a moment, yeah? We'll get right back to that in short time. Right now we're trying to shine a massive spotlight on Apple's anti-competitive racket.

Anti-competitive compared to what? It’s not like Apple is allowing certain brands of game-streaming apps while blocking others, or favouring their own (they don’t even have one).

Competition has nothing to do with it. Apple has built up a formidable ecosystem thanks to its control over hardware, software and services, and it (rightfully) calls the shots over its domain. Other companies are jealous of the control that Apple wields and are trying to decouple Apple from its ecosystem for their own benefit.

That’s all there is to it.

 

[Smearbrick]

I wouldn’t let Facebook‘s festering pile of crap anywhere near IOS they can not be trusted. Good on Apple for protecting it’s users.

Apple doesn’t give a crap about its users. They exist for one purpose - make shareholders happy. Anything else is just marketing and a smokescreen.

 

[mrcloaked]

You got it.

 

[Abazigal]

Yup, you got it, you understand when an economy (with real livelihoods at play) becomes so big on a device essential for daily life for billions, why and when the need for antitrust laws come into play. There is a staggering difference between the iPod Games Store and the iOS App Store.

The point I have been trying to make (can’t remember if it was here or another thread) is that existing antitrust laws are simply too outdated to address the sort of “monopoly” that you are all accusing Apple of, for the simple reason that US antitrust laws tend to focus on whether harm has been done to the consumers, and developers are not Apple’s customers, however aggrieved they make themselves out to be.

That’s also the chief reason why Apple probably got all fairly lightly in the recent antitrust hearings. It’s clear they are there only so congress could make it seem like they wanted to attack the big 4 simultaneously, but the heat was really on facebook and google because of the influence they wield over the flow of information. Lawmakers either don’t understand how the App Store works, or simply don’t care.

Rather, what is happening now is that thanks to the iphone, Apple has aggregated the best customers (defined as those with more disposable income and a higher propensity to spend), which it then uses as bait to lure developers to their platform. And developers know they have no choice but to support the iOS platform and subject themselves to whatever T&Cs Apple sets in place because that’s where the money is.

If anything, a strong argument can be made that the consumers have benefited immensely from Apple’s tight grip on their ecosystem. The iOS App Store makes it extremely safe and easy to purchase and download apps, precisely because of the stringent safeguards that Apple subjects its developers to.

And if it means not being to access certain apps like porn or torrent clients or even a game-streaming service, one might say that these are all acceptable tradeoffs in the greater scheme of things.

We might see more headway in the EU, where the laws focus on businesses, but I have no doubt Apple knows this as well and know how to calibrate their responses accordingly.

But either way, my point is still the same - Apple’s platform, Apple’s rules.

 

[Ethosik]

The point I have been trying to make (can’t remember if it was here or another thread) is that existing antitrust laws are simply too outdated to address the sort of “monopoly” that you are all accusing Apple of, for the simple reason that US antitrust laws tend to focus on whether harm has been done to the consumers, and developers are not Apple’s customers, however aggrieved they make themselves out to be.

That’s also the chief reason why Apple probably got all fairly lightly in the recent antitrust hearings. It’s clear they are there only so congress could make it seem like they wanted to attack the big 4 simultaneously, but the heat was really on facebook and google because of the influence they wield over the flow of information. Lawmakers either don’t understand how the App Store works, or simply don’t care.

Rather, what is happening now is that thanks to the iphone, Apple has aggregated the best customers (defined as those with more disposable income and a higher propensity to spend), which it then uses as bait to lure developers to their platform. And developers know they have no choice but to support the iOS platform and subject themselves to whatever T&Cs Apple sets in place because that’s where the money is.

If anything, a strong argument can be made that the consumers have benefited immensely from Apple’s tight grip on their ecosystem. The iOS App Store makes it extremely safe and easy to purchase and download apps, precisely because of the stringent safeguards that Apple subjects its developers to.

And if it means not being to access certain apps like porn or torrent clients or even a game-streaming service, one might say that these are all acceptable tradeoffs in the greater scheme of things.

We might see more headway in the EU, where the laws focus on businesses, but I have no doubt Apple knows this as well and know how to calibrate their responses accordingly.

But either way, my point is still the same - Apple’s platform, Apple’s rules.

I foresee Apple needing to create an iOS N like there is a Windows N. But you would need to be in the EU to get it.

 

[cmaier]

Has Facebook ever done anything ethical?

 

[Mohammad Fitri Amran]

I see some here claiming that they are willing to jump ship because Apple’s decision not to play ball with Facebook.

I thought that was the reason why Android is around. Don’t like Apple’s policy, go Android. Nothing stopping you from concentrating your effort there so why all the push to get Apple to open up?

Because, like it or not, developers follow the money. And whatever metric you look at it, the Apple ecosystem, locked down as it is, is lucrative.

And things aren’t very rosy with Android these days.

 

[Ethosik]

I see some here claiming that they are willing to jump ship because Apple’s decision not to play ball with Facebook.

I thought that was the reason why Android is around. Don’t like Apple’s policy, go Android. Nothing stopping you from concentrating your effort there so why all the push to get Apple to open up?

Because, like it or not, developers follow the money. And whatever metric you look at it, the Apple ecosystem, locked down as it is, is lucrative.

And things aren’t very rosy with Android these days.

Yes, what ever happened to change? I agree with you. I do not like Windows 10 as much as I liked Windows 7 so I moved more of my stuff to macOS. I still game and use Visual Studio on Windows, but that is it.