I want to replay this game (Darkin) but its unavailable in the canadian store. Why did it get pulled back?
Nobody knows. These guys disappeared last year. There is no Facebook/Twitter activity anymore, the website shut down and no more Darkin on the App Store. It's strange how it goes sometimes, devs & games going under the radar. Because this is a game a lot of people would like to play. Including me, learned about the game too late but it was already gone.
Even if they closed up shop they shouldn't have done that. I was surprised that there was not even a tiny mention like hey thanks everyone but we can't stay in business or something like that. After so much clone drama in the App Store I wish someone talented would clone this or Dungeon Raid as they are so great.
the only way i know is using the same Apple ID on your device, but since this is a pulled game, you should sync the Darkin ipa (if your friend still has it), and everything that he has on his device through iTunes on his Mac/Pc... UNTHINKABLE!!!
So let me get this straight, you think a small developer that lost so much money on the game they ceased support for it more than a year, lost so much money they never developed another game for iOS again, should have renewed their developer's license just so you can redownload a game people purchased for a couple of dollars nearly 18 months ago? This is a perfect example of the completely irrational sense of entitlement that keeps the App Store such a mess.
I might be lacking total knowledge of how things work fronts developer perspective, but I guess I meant that even if this happens the App Store should still allow you to keep a copy or backup of a game you purchased. Even if it was not in the marketplace anymore, it should remain in a purchase history or at the very least an iCloud backup.
It should be apples responsibility to keep the game on the server. There is not any irrational sense of entitlement in this. This is such a perfect example of how messed up the App Store is, I smell a class action lawsuit coming...
As I understand it, it's pretty simple. You need to pay Apple some sort of developer fee of some $100 a year (not too sure on this maybe it has gone up or down from this as that is what I heard the fee was many years ago). While that fee lets you publish as many apps as you want (and, believe you me, some shovelware devs appear to push this generosity to the limit), come time to renew, if you don't pay your apps are pulled down from the AppStore.
When I say server I mean keeping it in the purchase history. If you buy a game that game should always be in your purchase history no matter what. It's not fair at all for the consumer.
No offense, but that's ridiculous. It's the developer/publishers responsibility to keep the game available to its customers. If they can't be bothered to pay $99 a year, why should Apple pay for the server space and bandwidth to let you download it at your leisure? Keep in mind: you could have downloaded the game to your computer and stored it at any time. Cloud access is a convenience, but in no way a requirement for proper customer service. You wouldn't expect GameStop to have a replacement disk available for you in case you lose the original one, right?
I actually don't have a computer new enough to backup on. I also pay extra for iCloud space. Even though it's only a dollar, I bought the game, and if I am going to be almost forced to upgrade devices due to iOS and app compatibility on a consistent basis, it would just be nice to be able to somehow separate their marketplace from what is in someone's cloud. I'm sure Apple could do that.
It's apples platform, apples responsibility. If you pay for something it should always be available for download. For all the apps I have I would need at least a 4 TB hard drive. You think it would hurt Apple in any way to keep it on their servers? Why should the consumer be screwed because the game didn't do well. That's completely ridiculous. Your GameStop analogy is also ridiculous. Having thousands and thousands of backup disks are crazy. Having a file on a server costs almost nothing. Plus it would build consumer confidence. What would happen if half of the devs decided to move away from Apple? Hundreds and hundreds of my dollars down the drain. The success of a game or the personal life of a dev should not at all affect having a game available for download under your purchase list. I'm not renting these games. Plus we are in a "post PC world" so I shouldn't need to use a computer at all to back up my thousands of apps. I'm not trying to offend you but I'm starting to get really pissed on this blame the consumer mentality.
Both you and vectorarchitekt seem to be arguing that it would be nice for Apple to make any software ever made for its platform available to their customers to re-download in perpetuity. I don't disagree. My point is that it's ridiculous to think that it's Apple's responsibility to do so. Nothing either of you wrote contradicts that.
Well I respectfully disagree. If Apple can make space on their servers dedicated to paid iCloud accounts, and it promises to back up your phone, it should backup whatever is on it. Whether the developer pays their fee or not. Also, with the endless stream of shovel ware and bullshit apps that never sell on the App Store, what's one more that is only stored for those who did buy it?
This reminds me of my call to Apple Care because I wanted to re-play Sacred Odyssey and it had been pulled from the App Store. I had bought the IAP version before they added a separate premium one. But the IAP one wouldn't let me play -- acted as though I never paid. Neither Apple nor Gameloft had any way of helping (or really cared at all). It made me hesitant to spend money on IAPs to unlock content (something I used to have no issue with). More crap like this will just lose more players' trust, make people hesitant to buy games from developers they don't already trust not to remove their apps from the store.
Disk space costs almost nothing but their infrastructure and bandwidth costs must be astronomical! I'm not disagreeing with the fact this sort of shenanigans is frustrating though.
What damage could you possibly show? You paid for the game as-is with no guarantee of jack except that it would download and run on the devices listed at the time of first sale. If Apple's service allowed that much they (and the developer for that matter) have fulfilled their sole obligation to you AND you explicitly agreed to that limited obligation. You had your money's worth right then and there, so you cannot possibly make any legally valid claim of damage or violation of your agreement with Apple. You are allowed to re-download previously purchased apps as a convenience so long as the developer pays their developer license fee AND does not do anything with the app that violates the developer's TOS with Apple. So, yes, this is a literal sense of entitlement from people who are, ahem, entitled to no such thing in letter or spirit. Store it yourself or keep quiet that you purposely chose to take the easiest path knowing the non-permanent nature of App Store cloud storage.
So I should never buy a game from an indie developer because they might not be able to afford the dev fee because their games bombed? That's sounds like a great idea. Also I should never buy any IAP because they will become inactive once they stop paying these fees. Fantastic! The consumer and the indie developer will always lose in the end. How did keeping what you paid for become an entitlement? You think Joe Shmo knows that their games will dissapear from their purchased list? It's called a purchased list. So it should have everything you purchased. It's not called a "place that Apple graciously allows you to temporary redownload your purchased apps for your convenience list" Can a mod please move this entire discussion to its own thread because it doesn't have to do with darkin. I think this is an important discussion.
