We are just a handful of days away from Microsoft officially launching their xCloud game streaming service, and as a long-time Apple fan and devout iOS and Mac user, it has been a bitter pill to swallow. You see I’m also a big Xbox fan and absolutely love the idea of xCloud. Being able to stream more than 100 full-blown console games to a variety of devices including smartphones and tablets feels like the future. But because of Apple’s arbitrary guidelines and how they relate to different types of media, iOS users won’t be allowed to partake in that future. That’s because Apple has thus far not allowed game streaming services like xCloud or Google’s Stadia onto the App Store, and one of the main reasons they’ve cited is because they require the ability to review and approve every game that’s included in those types of services.
To be fair, Apple has a point with these requirements. If a game doesn’t have an individual approval process or its own page in the App Store things like the app chart rankings, ratings, search metadata, and other aspects of how the App Store are run wouldn’t work right. I somewhat get where they’re coming from. But it’s also true that things like Netflix and Kindle exist. Apple does not require Netflix to individually submit for review each and every movie or TV show offered with their subscription service, nor do they individually review every book on the Kindle store. Apple has addressed this by stating that movies/TV/books are passive media that don’t need individual approval, but because games are interactive, they do need to be individually approved. Uh, ok? That’s a stupid as hell reason but you do you Apple.
Well anyway, today Apple has provided updated App Store guidelines that go from a blanket ban of all game streaming services to one that allows the services on the App Store… if you’re willing to jump through ridiculous hoops first. Here are the main relevant sections of the guidelines that deal with game streaming services.
So basically this is saying what Apple had already alluded to before, that in order for a game streaming service to be approved for the App Store, each individual game on that service has to be submitted for review separately and have their own individual App Store pages. Again, their reasons for wanting it this way make sense, i.e. appearing in charts and search, user ratings, functionality with other iOS services like Screen Time or Parental Controls. As I said before, I get it. But this is entirely discounting what a game streaming service even is, and by that count it’s providing an impossible set of requirements to allow those services to operate on the App Store the way they are intended to.
What this section is much more relevant to is a gaming subscription service (without the streaming part). Something like GameClub adheres to all these requirements, and it makes total sense. It would also make sense if all Microsoft was trying to do was have their Game Pass service available on iOS. But they aren’t doing that. They want xCloud, the streaming service portion of Game Pass, available on iOS just as it will be on Android when it launches next week. Just like Netflix, the content itself is being hosted elsewhere and is simply being streamed to your own individual device. To prove that Apple just straight up doesn’t understand what a game streaming service even is, consider this other change from today regarding Section 3 of the guidelines.
It is required that users DOWNLOAD the games from the App Store that they want to play from the STREAMING service. That is like requiring the water that a restaurant serves to its guests to be dry. I feel like commandeering some sort of gigantic government laser and burning the Jackie Chan WTF!? meme onto the face of the moon. I just can’t comprehend what Apple’s thinking is here, but whatever it may be this requirement effectively destroys the idea of a game streaming service right from the get-go.
It’s also not clear what the rest of that section means. I mean the duplicate payments thing I get, but what exactly does “Games…should not disadvantage non-subscriber customers" mean? I’ve heard some interperet that as meaning any games on a streaming service must be downloadable and playable in some form for everybody, even if they’re not a subscriber. This could simply mean offering a limited demo for these games. Which… I guess is fine? That still defeats the purpose of streaming the games, but ok.
But even if that is the case, why is this only a requirement of game streaming services? Why does Apple not have a similar requirement for their own Apple Arcade service? Sure, they offer a 30-day free trial, but if you’ve already used that trial previously but want to check out a game on Apple Arcade that just came out recently, you can’t do it without subscribing to the service. Why can’t that also be the same for a game streaming service? Apple continues to tout their “level playing field for all developers" but also plays by their own set of rules when it suits them.
This whole thing feels like Apple trying to give themselves some sort of out for any future antitrust litigation. It’s like putting a cupcake in the middle of a live bear trap, and then offering it to someone. “Oh, I guess you don’t WANT that cupcake then. Well, you can’t say we didn’t offer it to you!" Apple is presenting a set of guidelines that are impossible for a game streaming service to adhere to while still being able to call itself a game streaming service. It’s just asinine, and it’s hard to tell if it’s through sheer incompetence on Apple’s part, greed, vindictiveness, or a combination of all of those things.
Personally I’ve already gone out and picked up an Android device and will have a relatively cheap little xCloud portable gaming setup ready for next week’s launch, and I hope to have a little guide put together by then on my whole setup for anyone else interested in doing the same. But honestly, as a devout Apple fan for decades who has hand-waived and sometimes even come to the defense of many of their absurd decisions over the years, this latest debacle with game streaming services is just too much and has me seriously questioning if I’ll be picking up a new iPhone this year or if I’ll finally dive into one of the many excellent Android handsets out there.
Nothing prevents Microsoft bringing xCloud to browsers such as Safari.
HTML5 includes support for game controllers, so there is really no technical roadblocks to offer a good user experience for playing streamed games. Just like there really is no difference if you watch YouTube from browser or with YouTube-app.
However if Apple allows App-Store apps just to become hollow shells where the whole UI, content and data is streamed, it would open a massive can of worms. I want to be able to download a game/app for my kid and trust that there won’t be a sudden porn invasion or Nigerian prince asking my credit card info on the screen.
Sorry - are you suggesting that you don't think games and apps should be able to download content except through app store updates? Because that's already happening. All the time.
And streaming services already exist on the App Store.
It's only streaming game services that are the problem, and if you don't want to download any of those for your kids... don't?
The distinction between HTML5 and a native app is actually really simple. A native app runs faster. It gets to run directly on the hardware.
An HTML5 app has to be run single-threaded, because that's a JS limitation, and it has to be run by the browser, it can't be specifically written to run as fast as possible.
This is why they want to be able to make an app. It's a miracle we even pull off game streaming with low-latency, but trying to do that within a browser's limitations is even harder (especially because Safari for iOS is one of the least capable browsers currently being developed).
These limitations are also why you can technically run YouTube in a mobile browser, but the UI is faster and functions better in the native app, and videos load faster.
Try out Google Opinion Rewards. It gives you Play Store credit on Android for answering some random short surveys so you can slowly gain a collection of apps without spending too much money for apps you already have.
Let me get this straight. Apple has no problems with their platform hosting thousands of “free” games that have predatory micro transactions that prey on kids and those with gambling impulses, but because it makes them a sh*t ton of money they don’t care. But proper games somehow need to be screened individually because they think some might be harmful.....Apple can F off!
And don’t just say “ok” for their reasoning because Apple says Netflix movies don’t need to screened but game streaming tilted do simply because games are interactive. There already are rating boards that exist for this very reason. They only reason it isn’t getting approved is because they won’t get a cut of the subscription fee.
The lingo Apple it's issuing is correct and they need to do it that way to prevent any potential loopholes or grey areas. I agree with Apple here, they want to protect their ecosystem and they should bw able to. If companies want their apps on the service they just abide by the rules and pay the necessary fees. Bring on the appstore is a privilege not a right and companies are lucky to be there. Apple makes them a lot of money and they should be grateful while following the rules.
I shouldn't be surprised by the rabid apple defenders who favor prestige over consumers rights, but it is sad. They're like Trump supporters who refuse to believe anything negative in spite of all evidence.
Apple’s rules are not arbitrary. The purpose of the App Store is to provide native apps for users of iOS/iPadOS. When you stream a movie or song, you’re streaming a file, not an app. When you stream a game on xCloud, you’re streaming (here’s the clear distinction) a non-native app. If the goal is to provide native apps, then it’s obvious why this particular rule isn’t arbitrary. Other developers on iOS/iPadOS have taken the time and effort to submit native versions of apps that originally appeared on PC or consoles, so why should Apple allow MS or Google to compete against those developers with non-native apps?
Because Apple’s customers want that. And Apple should want to give their customers what they want. Happy customers buy more stuff from you. There’s only so long you can tell your customers “sorry, I know you want to play Halo on your iPad and you could be right now but trust us, it is better if you don’t because we say so.” before they decide to switch to a device that lets them do that. I’m already thinking of switching and I haven’t considered that since I got my first iPhone.
There’s no real reason for Apple to want everyone to make native apps other than it making them more money. Streamed games work nearly as well but allow hundreds of games to be played with minimal effort on the part of the developers. Apple only wants to prevent that for two reasons: they don’t get a 30% cut of those streamed games and those games are so good that people would stop buying 95% of the games on the App Store since they are now substandard, thus eliminating the 30% they get from those games as well. It makes mobile developers happy. It makes Apple happy but it doesn’t make their customers happy.
These aren’t “streaming you an app”, they are streaming you video and allowing you to make a choice and then streaming you a video of the result of your choices. Exactly what Netflix does with their choose your own adventure style videos which are allowed right now in the store. It is just that the choices are much more rapid (every time you press a button of any kind).
The "real reason" Apple wants native apps is because they custom design both the hardware and the software to work together. Native apps will provide better experiences for customers. I understand Microsoft wanting to market Xbox cloud gaming as being a "better experience", but the reality is that people who have played Halo or Gears or Forza on an MS console aren't really expecting it to be "better" than that. More like "close enough" relative to the convenience factor.
What you’re describing sounds like a very bad situation for iOS-focused developers and mobile gamers. So basically an argument that Apple’s new guidelines allowing game streaming, but requiring that the games show up in the AppStore (but can be linked by a catalogue app) is the right approach to keep iOS a viable platform.
If the xCloud-streamed version of the latest Call of Duty is available on iOS, it will obviously be a superior substitute for the native clones and reduce their sales. That’s true whether CoD shows up as a separate app or only hidden away inside the xCloud app. And it’s true whether a user pays for it through Microsoft or Apple.
But those aren’t the only kinds of games available on phones, many of which are tailored to mobile device strengths and weaknesses. xCloud streamed games aren’t going to provide a direct substitute for those.
Microsoft’s preferred approach would siphon off a chunk of the user eyeballs that the AppStore provides to iOS game developers. If people grow accustomed to going to xCloud to get games, then they won’t even see those native games at all, which reduces sales for developers who do put in effort and also reduces the breadth of different games available. That harms users.
With Apple’s approach, you still get to stream your prettier console game, but users also still get exposed to the other types of games that are available for purchase, and game developers are encouraged to build native experiences (rather than doing subpar ports).
I don’t think Apple’s got the details right yet, but the general shape of these guidelines makes sense.
It is a bad situation for developers and Apple. I specified that. But I disagree it is a bad situation for users. You are correct that a bunch of games won’t see sales. But I’d argue the sales they are seeing now are mostly artificial due to lack of competition.
When the iPhone came out, Gameloft tried to make the equivalent of AAA console titles on mobile but those failed mainly because the kind of people who were interested in those kind of games didn’t like the idea of playing with a touch screen and made fun of the poor graphics. So those games pretty much left the App Store and were replaced with endless Gatcha games and puzzle games.
But then controller support finally became a real thing only last year once you could use console controllers. But most mobile developers are still slow to embrace that and there’s still a stigma around mobile games. Microsoft and Stadia cups remove that stigma and encourage real gaming on mobile devices again.
That’s only good for players. If they want crappy mobile games, they can still go to the App Store and buy them. But my suspicion is that most people won’t actually do that. Reducing the breadth of games isn’t always a bad thing if those games are only kept alive due to lack of choice.
Apple’s approach is dumb. It literally says you need to download a copy of the game to your device in order to stream it. These games can’t be downloaded to your device since they aren’t programmed for iOS and are being streamed. They say that you need to issue patches through the App Store, which is impossible since they aren’t iOS apps. It is also onerous. It would be like asking Netflix to make a page in the iTunes store on iOS for every tv show and movie on the service so that it encouraged more people to look through the iTunes Store for Apple’s stuff.