“Streaming game services may offer a catalog app on the App Store to help users sign up for the service and find the games on the App Store, provided that the app adheres to all guidelines, including offering users the option to pay for a subscription with in-app purchase and use Sign in with Apple,” the corporate stated in another section of its guidelines. “All the games included in the catalog app must link to an individual App Store product page.”
Apple has come under fire over its App Store practices currently on a number of fronts, notably from game publishers. Epic Games, in fact, is embroiled in a legal battle with the corporate over the 30 % cut Apple takes from in-app payments. Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store quickly after that fight flared up.
Microsoft and Facebook (each of whom have expressed support for Epic) have hit out at Apple’s rules too. They stated that the rules limited their gaming apps on iPhones and iPads. The xCloud and GeForce Now apps aren’t available for iOS gadgets at all when you can’t play games through the Stadia or Facebook Gaming apps as things stand.
Last month, Apple stated that it needed to restrict game streaming services because it said it must review and approve every title individually — guidelines that don’t apply to non-interactive streaming services like Netflix and Spotify.
Having to download every Stadia or xCloud game (or at least an app that connects to a cloud server with the full game) that you need to play a kind of defeats the core goal of game streaming. Still, at least it’ll be done so that you can play them on iOS gadgets from now on.
This transfer will give game streaming providers a level of parity with Apple’s own game subscription service, Apple Arcade. You need to download games individually with that too.