Apple Removes 39,000 Game Apps from China's App Store
GAMEFINITY.ID, Jakarta – Apple removed 39,000 game applications from the Chinese App Store on December 31, 2021. Previously, they set the end of the year as the deadline for all game publishers to obtain licenses. As reported by Reuters, this deletion is the largest in one day.
The removal comes amid a crackdown by Chinese authorities on unlicensed gaming. In total, 39,000 games were removed with a total of more than 46,000 apps from the App Store being removed. According to research institute Qimai, some of the games that were swept were Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20.
Qimai also said only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games on the Apple store survived the cleanup. Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple initially gave game publishers a late June deadline to submit a government-issued license number that allows users to make in-app purchases in the world’s largest gaming marketplace. Apple later extended the deadline to December 31.
China’s Android App Store has long complied with licensing regulations. It’s not clear why Apple has enforced it more stringently this year. Analysts said the move was not surprising as Apple continues to close the gap to be in line with China’s content regulators, and would not directly affect Apple’s profits.
“However, the main axis of accepting only paid games that have game licenses, coupled with the extremely low number of foreign game licenses approved in China this year, may lead more game developers to switch to an ad-supported model for their Chinese versions, said Todd Kuhns, marketing manager for AppInChina.
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