Apple removes 39 000 game apps from China store to meet deadline
By Reuters By Pei Li
Hong Kong - Apple removed 39,000 game apps on its China store Thursday, the biggest removal ever in a single day, as it set year-end as deadline for all game publishers to obtain a licence.
The takedowns come amid a crackdown on unlicensed games by Chinese authorities.
Including the 39,000 games, Apple removed more than 46,000 apps in total from its store on Thursday. Games affected by the sweep included Ubisoft title Assassin s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20, according to research firm Qimai.
Qimai also said only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games on Apple store survived the purge.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Apple initially gave game publishers an end-of-June deadline to submit a government-issued licence number enabling users to make in-app purchases in the world s biggest games market.
Apple later extended the deadline to December 31.
China s Android app stores have long complied with regulations on licences. It is not clear why Apple is enforcing them more strictly this year.
Analysts said the move was no surprise as Apple continues to close loopholes to fall in line with China s content regulators, and would not directly affect Apple s bottom line as much as previous removals.
Apple purges nearly 40k games from Chinese App Store to close out 2020
Eric Abent - Dec 31, 2020, 10:03am CST
As the world turns the page into 2021, Apple has removed a huge number of apps from the iOS App Store in China. In all, the company removed 46,000 apps from its Chinese storefront, the vast majority of which were games. The apps that were removed come from publishers who didn’t provide Apple with a license to sell in-app purchases in their games or apps, with Apple implementing a December 31st deadline to provide those licenses earlier in the year.
According to Reuters, 39,000 of the 46,000 removed apps were games, which makes sense since these apps were removed in a crackdown on apps selling in-app purchases without a license from Chinese regulators. Reuters cites Qimai research which says that some big names were included in the games removed from the Chinese App Store, including
Apple Removes 39,000 Games From China App Store
Thursday December 31, 2020 3:24 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple on Thursday removed nearly 39,000 apps from its Chinese App Store due to the apps lacking an official license from local regulators, reports
The report, which cites data from research firm Qimai, says that games affected by the cull included Ubisoft title Assassin s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20. According to Qimai, only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games on the China App Store survived the purge.
In addition to the 39,000 games, the report says Apple also removed more than 46,000 apps in total from its store.
Apple in February gave app developers an initial June 30 deadline to prove they had a license for their games, and later extended the deadline to December 31. However, in July the company froze updates for thousands of iOS mobile games lacking an official license, and in August removed 30,000 apps for similar reasons.
Posted by Sanuj Bhatia on Dec 31, 2020 in Apple News, News
Just a day before 2020 ends, Apple has removed over 39,000 games and 46,000 apps from the Apple App Store in China. The move comes as the app developers and game publishers fail to get an official license from the local government.
Developers and game publishers, in China, were required to update their app page with a government-issued license number which would enable citizens of China to make in-app purchases. The move comes as the biggest removal in a single day, as per the report published by Reuters.
The list of apps includes Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Identity and 2K’s NBA 2K20. As per a report published by Qimai, only