Apple has been forced to suspend updates to tens of thousands of games available through its China App Store, under increasing pressure to comply with the country's licensing regulations. Until now, Apple has allowed mobile games to run on the App Store pending formal regulatory approval, but the company will now require developers to provide proof of their rights to operate in the region. Although Apple has yet to declare that it will permanently remove unauthorized games from the App Store, developers will not be able to update their titles without proper certification from the China National Press and Publication Administration.
Apple App Store
The escalating clashes with Chinese regulators could be a blow to Apple, whose app store is more profitable in China than in any other region. Driven mainly by game sales, the Apple App Store records €16.4 billion a year in China, the US market trails behind with €15.4 billion in sales. According to consultancy AppInChina, the company's losses could reach €879 million due to the new policy. The Chinese regulator is also notoriously selective about the mobile games it authorizes, approving just 1,570 last year (and 43,000 since 2010), suggesting tens of thousands of apps could be removed. imminent from the App Store. Some developers, including leading studios such as Electronic Arts, have already frozen their services in the region in anticipation of further action by the regulator, a crackdown on which is believed to be motivated by ongoing tensions between Washington and Beijing. . "No one is sure how Apple managed to avoid enforcing the 2016 licensing rule for so long. But with the US-China trade war starting to heat up earlier this year, the timing is suspect," said Todd Kuhns, Marketing Director of AppInChina. Apple has already been criticized for removing VPN apps from its Chinese app store at the country's request, a move that prevented Chinese citizens from circumventing the great firewall. The latest change in company policy on the App Store could also be interpreted as a similar capitulation to political pressure. Via Financial Times