Apple Inc is to start removing thousands of mobile games lacking government approval from its App Store in China next month, closing a loophole that the likes of Rockstar Games have relied on for years.
Developers and publishers in China have been told that their iOS games would need a license to continue operating from next month, people familiar with the matter said.
The decision ends the unofficial practice of allowing games to be published while awaiting authorization from the nation’s slow-moving regulators.
This has until now allowed games such as Grand Theft Auto, whose gory depictions of violence are unlikely to ever pass muster with Chinese censors, to be available within the nation’s borders.
China’s regulators require all games that are either paid or offer in-app purchases to submit for review and obtain a license before publication and major Android app stores have enforced such rules since 2016, but unapproved games have flourished on Apple’s platform.
Apple in February reminded iOS developers in China to obtain licenses for their titles by the end of this month, but it was only after prolonged uncertainty about enforcement that the iPhone maker explicitly told publishers that any unlicensed games after the deadline would be banned and removed from the App Store, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is not public.
There is no telling how long it would take to remove all the unlicensed games once the change comes into effect.
Chinese gaming blog Gamelook earlier reported Apple’s upcoming enforcement. An Apple representative declined to comment.
China accounted for about one-fifth of the US$61 billion in digital goods and services sold via Apple’s App Store last year, making it the largest market after the US, according to Analysis Group estimates.
Apple takes a 30 percent cut from the majority of such transactions.
There are about 60,000 games on China’s App Store that are either paid or contain in-app purchases, and at least one-third of them do not have a license, according to an estimate by AppInChina, which helps companies localize and publish their apps in the nation.
“These companies will suddenly lose all revenue from what is typically their second-largest market after the US,” AppInChina chief executive officer Rich Bishop said.
His firm has received three times its usual volume of inquiries about game licenses over the past week, he added.
Apple’s new effort highlights the Chinese government’s tightening grip on gaming.
Citing concerns about the proliferation of addiction among young people and the dissemination of offensive content, regulators now adopt a much stricter and slower review process than before they temporarily halted all approvals in 2018.
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