In a new email sent to affected developers, Apple warns it will remove apps from the App Store that haven’t been “updated in a significant amount of time” and gives developers just 30 days to update them.
“You can keep this app available for new users to discover and download from the App Store by submitting an update for review in 30 days,” Apple writes in the email. “If no update is submitted in 30 days, the app will be removed from sale.” While Apple will remove the outdated apps from the App Store, any previously downloaded apps will remain on users’ devices.
A number of app makers, like Protopop Games developer Robert Kabwe, have expressed their concerns about the change.
I feel sick. Apple just sent me an email saying they're removing my free game Motivoto because its more than 2 years old.
It's part of their App improvement system.
This is not cool. Console games from 2000 are still available for sale.
This is an unfair barrier to indie devs. pic.twitter.com/7XNcLfiEcR
— Protopop Games (@protopop) April 23, 2022
Developer Emilia Lazer-Walker also reported that Apple is removing “a few” of her older games from the App Store.
.@apple is removing a few of my old games b/c they have “not been updated in a significant amount of time”
Games can exist as completed objects! These free projects aren’t suitable for updates or a live service model, they’re finished artworks from years ago. pic.twitter.com/iflH70j7q4
— emilia ✨ (@lazerwalker) April 23, 2022
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, Apple will take into account that older games may not need an update (outside of removing outdated APIs or such) and not remove them from the store simple based on upload dates.
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Not a problem! Apple has every right to decide what to carry in their store.
We have every right to get them elsewhere.
Developers have every right to sell them elsewhere.
Fuel for 3rd party App Store advocates? If Apple will be removing ‘old’ otherwise working software why not have a 3rd party store that can cater to selling those Apps if Apple is unwilling to provide them anymore to users?
This should just not be an issue. There should be 3rd party App Stores period.
Though I agree, every issue that points out the deficiencies of a single App Store provides one more piece to tip the argument towards requiring 3rd party App stores as a norm.
Apple’s current hypocrisy of censoring Apps in China could also have been avoided if Apple allowed China run its own iOS App Store to censor to their heart’s content. Apple would have had no hand in censoring and could still keep its ‘high ground’ albeit at a possible loss of some profit.
I find it amazing that these Devs are obviously so lazy they cannot make some minor fix or tweak to their aging app and upload it and then they don’t have to worry about it…
Meaningless updates for the sake of meaningless updates? Why?????
Some of the best software requires the least updates.
Both sides of the argument have merit, but the fact remains that the App Store has LOTS of painfully outdated and non-supported apps and some of these business/devs are no longer operating.
The other fact remains that is Apple jettisons an App, it’s dead.
Maybe Apple then should limit ‘de-cluttering’ to removal of Apps from devs/business that are no longer operating instead of a wholesale removal of ‘old’ apps.
As a developer, I totally agree with this. I got an email like this for an app that I did YEARS ago, and realized it wasn’t up to snuff. Also,older apps can (and do) present security issues with new updates to iOS. If a developer cannot stay up to date with his/her app(s) then perhaps they should move on.
Of course Apple should contact developers if their software is stale. But only the developer should make the final determination.
Since there’s no other distribution store available, heavy handed app removals from Apple cannot be tolerated. It’s long past time that there be real app store competition by law on all major platforms. Some of us still believe in real competition, as opposed to unaccountable giants giving developers the choice of “take it or leave it”. Benevolent as underdog Apple may have been in the past, it’s just another gorilla corporation now, ready to screw anyone to make another dollar.