Social media giant Facebook has finally launched Facebook Gaming on iOS but without the mini games feature. The reason for the omission was Apple’s App Store policies, preventing the app from being fully realized on the platform.
Facebook CFO Sheryl Sandberg mentioned that they had to remove the functionality to get Apple’s approval on the standalone app. Sandberg said that this made the iOS version inferior to Android’s.
It’s worthy to note that the app was rejected by Apple multiple times, citing policy guideline 4.7 of the App Store as the reason. Facebook argued that 95% of activity was watching streams but the plea fell on deaf ears.
Earlier, App Store restrictions have made cloud gaming apps such as Microsoft’s xCloud, Nvidia’s GeForce Now and Google Stadia from being released on the iOS. Apple’s reason is that streaming game services are not allowed as they can’t be reviewed. However, streaming other types of content, such as TV shows, movies and videos were allowed.
