Apple removed a huge number of game apps from its China store on Thursday. The number is 39,000, which is the biggest removal ever in one day. All the game publishers were given a year-end deadline to obtain a license.
This unexpected takedown came because the Chinese authorities have overlooked the license policy of the games. Alongside the 39,000 games, Apple has also removed more than 46,000 number of apps from their store on Thursday. According to the research firm Qimai, some renowned titles have also been affected by the sweep, like NBA 2K20 and Assassin’s Creed Identity.
Among the top 1,500 paid games, only 74 of them have been able to survive on the Apple store, said Qimai. Initially, the deadline from Apple was given until the end of June but later it was extended to December 31. The government-issued license was for enabling users to make in-app purchases in the largest game market in the world.
It’s not new that China is not serious about the regulations on the license. But it was not clear why this year Apple was forcing them more strictly.
Todd Kuhns, the marketing manager of AppInChina (a firm that helps overseas companies to distribute their apps) said, “However, this major pivot to only accepting paid games that have a game licence, coupled with China’s extremely low number of foreign game licences approved this year, will probably lead more game developers to switch to an ad-supported model for their Chinese versions.”
