Getting on the AppStore is a very tricky thing to do. Apple has some strict guidelines on what they will and won’t allow on their store, which is good and bad in a few ways. While the AppStore is nowhere near the mess that Android’s PlayStore is, Apple sometimes goes a bit nutty and bans titles for no apparent logical reason. For example, having guns depicted in screenshots for your shooter, which is now not allowed by some brand new standards.
Several developers are reporting that Apple has clamped down on violence in screenshots for apps on their store, banning the use of weapons and an acts of killing from being shown. Tempo – a game that is featured as an Editor’s Choice on the store – has had to pixelate all their guns from screenshots, in order to stay compliant with the new rules. Another title, Rooster Teeth vs. Zombiens, had to change their NES Zapper gun to a baseball bat in a new update – because that’s apparently less violent.
However, it does seem that some games are being given a free pass, or at the very least Apple hasn’t reached them yet. An insanely popular Clash of Clans styled game, Gang Nations, features a cartoony depiction of an AK-47, while Bullet Rush openly displays guns such as Sniper Rifles. If Apple is so intent on enforcing this new law, why are only some games being targeted?
Regardless of that, the rule itself is a little ridiculous. The majority of games nowadays are violent by nature, whether is be military shooters or small little pixel men throwing axes at each other. Trying to censor that type of content will just drive developers away from the platform, simply because Apple hasn’t yet found a way to properly hide content like this from eyes that shouldn’t be seeing it.
Why that is now being made the problem of developers, I’m not so sure.
Last Updated: February 13, 2015
Blood Emperor Trevor
February 13, 2015 at 14:35
No guns meh. You think I’ve never held a knife?
Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7
February 13, 2015 at 14:37
ur what?
Tosh "Did he just say that?"
February 13, 2015 at 15:00
If you turn a gun sideways, it kind of looks like a 7.
Raptor Rants A Lot:Original #7
February 13, 2015 at 18:43
why 🙁
Hammersteyn
February 13, 2015 at 14:41
Is it the 28th day already?
Ceyber, The Metal Rabbit
February 13, 2015 at 14:46
How’s more zombies gonna help? XD
Ceyber, The Metal Rabbit
February 13, 2015 at 14:41
There’s no restriction in age restriction, that’s the only problem I see here.
Either use more efficient implementation or a different model altogether.
Ghost In The Rift
February 13, 2015 at 14:46
Well the bright side is Hammersteyn’s Honey-Badger Ebola game will get a pass, cool way to look into the future dude..XD
RinceThis
February 13, 2015 at 14:52
I’ll buy it!
Hammersteyn
February 13, 2015 at 14:59
XD
RinceThis
February 13, 2015 at 15:00
So that is what you have been working on in the early hours of the morning in our bar. I thought you were with the strippers ‘teaching’ them to dance!
Hammersteyn
February 13, 2015 at 15:05
They learn that before they learn how to walk
RinceThis
February 13, 2015 at 15:05
As it must be! Back to the pole woman!
Hammersteyn
February 13, 2015 at 15:21
Wait, back to the pole or the pole?
Dutch Matrix
February 13, 2015 at 14:52
“Dear Male Apple Employees. Please remember to leave your balls with security and collect them at shifts end.”
konfab aka derp
February 13, 2015 at 14:54
Well, they better can that lovely KOTOR port as well.
AfricanTimeZA
February 13, 2015 at 14:57
use cobalt, mined in war torn countries … ok
use China’s child slave labour to make your cellphone, while poisoning them wiht toxins … ok
avoid paying billions of taxes through loopholes … ok
add 100 million billion gazillion % mark up on your products for your precious customers … ok
thumbnail of a cartoon gun game on your appstore … its just not cricket
wow amazing moral guidance Apple
lygamnt
February 13, 2015 at 16:43
So my new game Bionic gun chicken domination of the world Super Turbo Tournament Edition Remix will never get on the app store… The premise is cyborg guns become self aware and attack the human race using featherless neon colored genetically modified chickens. Each color represents a different weapon ability and can be upgraded by loading different colored eggs into there two rear augmentation slots. The tag line was gonna be “Guns don’t kill people but Guns with Chickens do. This has made me a sad panda.