Is the Apple app store there to provide that kind of perpetual access?
A book's perpetual existence is mostly because a physical copy exists, that's not really the same, nor is anyone assuring it still exists.
I do sympathize with the issue about requiring updates and etc, I ran into that with Google recently, but I'm not sure I buy into this idea that requiring updates shouldn't happen ever because "my game is like art and art doesn't require updates".
All of them written by hobbyists, without support from console manufacturers, isn’t it?
Is there anything that Apple does to prevent hobbyists from writing an iOS emulator? If so, do other manufacturers do better?
Even if something stopped working, that doesn’t mean it can never work again.
Apple aren’t obliged to keep the platform backwards compatible as long as they let people try to run their software.
Ideally what Stop Killing Games would like is game preservation, but at minimum we need honesty/transparency about product market places. I finally know what my minimum OS lifecycle is for my Pixel phone, and I can make a comfortable purchase decision based on that.
Even Steam isn't immune to this, it simply has an good track record relative compared to most other platforms.
Apple took a ~30% cut of the sale of the product. That should calculate into it's servicing of the product. To Ross Scott's points (and many others), if you have a perpetual service but a onetime/lifetime payment, the business model will eventually not net out.
That is not a change to the game (or their art), simply an update that keeps the game in compliance. However, that would also mean that they now have to comply with the newer privacy policies that have been put in place since their last update, and declare what data it and any 3rd party dependancies siphons from Appstore users. IMO, it's worth considering that that would be worth causing a fuss about if one did not want to expose this information.
leakycap•6h ago
But then I searched the App Store for the game. The description still says "80% off!" from prior endless sales, the art style is pretty bad even for the 2015 copyright date, and the storyline is "I just robbed that bank" and similarly shallow storylines.
This isn't art as people would think of it, this reminds me of a run of the mill flash game from another decade.
theletterf•5h ago
leakycap•5h ago
Did you take the time to download it or look at the listing vs the article?
The article itself has a large image and no screenshots of the app. The app looks nothing like the image in the article, though.
AlotOfReading•5h ago
leakycap•5h ago
AlotOfReading•4h ago
leakycap•4h ago
I encourage you to review the App Store listing since that is what is being removed. The description on this free app still shows "80% off limited time sale!" on this art (which is now free, so the description makes no sense).
I think this is much ado about nothing. If you cared about the app, make it something people want. Nobody wants a game from 2015 with bad graphics and lackluster storyline.
saubeidl•2h ago
privatelypublic•4h ago
Flash was readily available, low cost (before creative cloud), had few to no platform specific issues. Basically- the easiest possible entry for young devs and game devs.