Apple seems to have removed over 29000 apps from its Chinese version of the Apple Store on Saturday. Out of those, 26000 seems to be games that people play on their iPhone. The report was confirmed by the research firm Qimai. The 26000 games that have been put down from the App Store in China are mostly considered to be licensed games. The reason for this seems to be a crackdown on unlicensed games by Chinese authorities.
Before the actions were taken, Apple did ask the game developers to provide the government-issued license number by June-end, which was required to activate the game’s in-app purchases. This restriction has been there on the Chinese App Store for over a year. However, this year Apple has been enforcing them very strictly.
Over 2500 titles were removed from the App store in the first week of July, and some of them were popular games like Zynga, Supercell, and more. The report was also confirmed by the research firm SensorTower. The Chinese government is also taking the same action for a long time to restrict sensitive content on gaming apps.
As per the gaming mobile gaming industry in China, they claim that getting the game’s license in China is not an easy task and takes a lot of time for the same. It is why the ban’s effect is going to take a lot of game developers into surprise. As per them, it is going to disturb the entire gaming industry in China for iOS. It seems that more applications would have to bear the heat in the coming times.