Users won’t be able to play Microsoft xCloud and Stadia on Apple devices any time soon. Apple has now confirmed that streaming apps violate its App Store guidelines and anything close to them will not issue an approval. This comes in light of Microsoft’s cancellation of its Xbox Game streaming service yesterday. The company ended testing for the cloud-based gaming app after Apple revoked its license ahead of its 15 September 2020 launch.
Apple released a statement to Business Insider and claims these kinds of apps violate its App Store guidelines. In addition, these apps cannot exist on iOS due to the lack of access Apple has over each game available to stream.
Read more – All 16 PS5 and PS4 Games Showcased During The August State of Play
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#2FB6F5″ class=”” size=”21″]The App Store was created to be a safe and trusted place for customers to discover and download apps, and a great business opportunity for all developers. Before they go on our store, we all apps against the same set of guidelines that are intended to protect customers and provide a fair and level playing field to developers. Our customers enjoy great apps and games from millions of developers, and gaming services can absolutely launch on the App Store as long as they follow the same set of guidelines applicable to all developers, including submitting games individually for review, and appearing in charts and search. In addition to the App Store, developers can choose to reach all iPhone and iPad users over the web through Safari and other browsers on the App Store.[/perfectpullquote]
So what Apple is saying is that xCloud includes over 100 games at launch and hundreds more to come. However, for a game to exist on an Apple device, it needs to meet the requirements. This means Apple would need to approve and control microtransactions and content for every single cloud-based game on the xCloud platform. This is not possible.
xCloud joins a long-running series of streaming apps which have failed to meet Apple’s policies and denied on iOS. This included Stadia and GeForce Now. Both of which are not available on the platform nor will be any time soon.
Microsoft has since condemned Apple’s decision saying the company “stands alone” in denying consumers the benefits of cloud gaming. Furthermore, Microsoft has criticized Apple saying the company “consistently treats gaming apps differently” and “applies more lenient rules to non-gaming apps”. However, the company says they will find a solution to the problem;
[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”#59F500″ class=”” size=”21″]”We are committed to finding a path to bring cloud gaming with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate to the iOS platform,” [/perfectpullquote]
