Apple will start removing thousands of mobile games lacking approval of the Communist Party of China from the company’s China App Store in July. The decision ends the unofficial practice of allowing games to be published while awaiting authorization from slow-moving CCP regulators.
Zheping Huang for Bloomberg News:
Developers and publishers in China have been told that their iOS games will need licenses to continue operating from July, according to people familiar with the matter.
This has until now allowed games such as Grand Theft Auto, whose gory depictions of violence are unlikely to ever pass muster with Chinese censors, to be available within the country’s borders. China’s regulators require all games that are either paid or offer in-app purchases to submit for review and obtain a license before publication, and major Android app stores have enforced such rules since 2016. But unapproved games have flourished on Apple’s iPhone platform.
Back in February, Apple reminded iOS developers in the country to obtain licenses for their titles by June 30. But it was only after prolonged uncertainty about enforcement that the iPhone maker explicitly told publishers that any unlicensed games after the deadline will be banned and removed from the local App Store, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is not public.
There are roughly 60,000 games on China’s iOS App Store that are either paid or contain in-app purchases, and at least a third of them don’t have a license, according to an estimate by AppInChina, which helps companies localize and publish their apps in the country.
MacDailyNews Take: Obviously, the Communist Party of China is tightening their grip and Apple, if they wish to continue doing business in the authoritarian surveillance state, must comply with the CCP’s dictates.
Yank the manufacturing…or take a knee in defeat.
Yanking the manufacturing without a ready alternative would shut down the company at least for a couple of years and probably for good. Cook had no more notion than anybody else that China was going to reverse its progress towards greater freedom and open markets. Moving production is not as easy as some would make out.
Who says the richest company in history cannot establish an escape route from the China Communist dictators APPLE APOLOGIST?…
That would be anybody who keeps up with the Apple news on this site. Specifically, that after thirty years trying, it is still impossible to fully automate final assembly of complex consumer electronics, and that the four Foxconn factories in China each need from 100,000 to 400,000 employees. There are few cities outside China and none in the US that can provide or accommodate that many workers.
TSMC. Taiwan; smokes anything made in China, and there are lots of over places in the world Apple can spend its money to manufacture its products. Heck the overall production cost in China is rather high when you consider the incalculable loss of Intellectual property alone. So maybe Apple has to drop to 30 percent profit from 35 percent profit by moving production out of CCP China. But at least Tim and company can live up to the basic standards of human rights they claim they support.
Come on Apple you can do so much better then this. Apple needs to stop enabling and normalizing CCP crimes against humanity in the name of short term profit. Apple needs to protect/invest in its future and the future of the free world. How dose Apple’s “Privacy is a human right” square? Is Apple social front really just marketing hype. Let’s hope Apple moves/protects the new silicon production from technology transfers.
Well said!
You articulated perfectly the CORE hypocrisy of SJW Cook kowtowing to censor Communists in the name of profits.
Thank you Bill Clinton for NAFTA and exporting millions of jobs outside of the USA in the holy name of profits that Cook’s claim to Apple fame took FULL advantage of…
Tim Cook is only an SJW when it is convenient.
Tim Cooks respects the Chinese communist tyrants more than our Founding Father’s, who he doesn’t respect one bit.
Says the man who supports an American politician who told the Chinese Leader that building concentration camps for Uighurs was a fine idea. What part of the Constitution do you think Tim Cook disrespects?
Says the man who supported the prior President who was a committed communist. Tim Cook doesn’t believe in free speech. He doesn’t believe in equal protection of the law, but prefers racial decision making that gives preferred treatment to politically correct racial groups and penalizes all others. He trashes the concept of freedom of religion. He promotes death through abortion support, versus “life, liberty and happiness”. He does not believe in states rights, as he trashed North Carolina for passing a law keeping predatory men out of girls rest rooms, because he likes predatory men more than little girls. He does not support the 2nd amendment. He basically wants to rewrite the whole thing to his liking like assholes like you.
I counted no more than one true and no less than twelve untrue statements in there. It’s not worth arguing with somebody who has that tenuous a grip on reality.
NO, everything Kent wrote is 100% ACCURATE. You know it and cannot refute anything, so your wholesale dismissal makes it easy to exit and bury your head in the sand…
Absolutely!
I’ll add past presidents and war heroes and for one example the removal of the Teddy Roosevelt statue in NYC.
What did Cook tweet or issue Apple press releases regarding Teddy?
Hypocrisy CRICKETS : : :
The ONLY good thing I can say about Trump is that he sometimes stands up to China. The fact that we are hoping that Apple will defend freedom where no nation will speaks of desperation.
In fairness every president since Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama/Biden have choose the interest of the CCP over the interest of the citizens of the United States…
Read about the history of Taiwan, Mainland China and the CCP. Just look at the CCP logo and its government symbols and artwork, that design style is based on Soviet Russia and not traditional Chinese art. The Republic of China in Taiwan holds most of the culture and historical legacy of China’s Qing Dynasty. The CCP is a communist government that for decades has destroyed and undermined the historical past of China. Ask the Tibet Buddhist monks, Falun Gong practitioners and the Muslim Uighurs how the CCP handles culture diversity and religious freedom.
… Trump seems to be supporting Taiwan more then any past president. Only time will tell if he will truly stand beside Taiwan or if it’s just more calculated BS. One thing is for sure we know how Biden 2.0 plays out. At least trump has us talking about the issue, the above list of past presidents secretly sold us out. Biden is a return to the old.
Little Timmy French kisses the CCP’s anus while he funds American anarchists.
Why do we buy iGadgets from this woke company?
I’m done with them. Been buying their crap for decades. No more.
Even if you disagree with Tim don’t be mean. State your ideas and consider what others think. Tim has expressed concerns about the CCP in the past. He has already started moving chip production to TSMC. There is a big chance that the new TSMC factory’s being built in Austin this very moment could play a role in apples future silicon designs. Tim faces the board, the stock holders and his conscious. Has small voices of the Apple community we should encourage him to do the obviously right thing
That’s Tim Cook. And yet he passed all Chinese Apple user data to ccp. Who knows? He did the same on mine too. Hypocrite!