Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 330 posts

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#51

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

_hao wrote: post #28
sillysaurusx wrote: post #22

Apple has always wanted to block "browser" type apps. If it can be used to install or view hundreds of other apps, then it's probably not a good fit for the iOS garden. We willingly give Apple money under this premise. I'm not sure why this is surprising.

How do apps like WeChat are allowed then? There are entire platforms and mini-programs inside.

Section 5.1.2(iii) of the App Store Review Guidelines has a special exception for Apps with a 1 billion install base from a country where the government doesn't give two hoots about your App Store Review Guidelines.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#52

Post by canofbars »

madjam002 wrote: post #32
ljm wrote: post #27

Wasn't even a year ago that I was singing Apple's praises for focussing on privacy. I don't feel the same way any more, and I've been happier with an Android device since.

I’m on iPhone thinking of making the switch too. Any privacy tips you recommend for Android?

The only thing you can do to retain some level of privacy is find a phone with great lineageOS support, install with no gapps, install fdroid as a system app so it can manage updates.

You still won't get kernel updates when security issues come around because not even the OEM can update that without convincing all the vendors to update their blobs.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#53

Post by monetus »

madjam002 wrote: post #32
ljm wrote: post #27

Wasn't even a year ago that I was singing Apple's praises for focussing on privacy. I don't feel the same way any more, and I've been happier with an Android device since.

I’m on iPhone thinking of making the switch too. Any privacy tips you recommend for Android?

I'm not who you replied to but using privacy focused apps from the F-droid store when you can rather than the play store is a good start.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#54

Post by dpkonofa »

FloatArtifact wrote: post #2

This includes platforms to stream games from users local PC to clients. As an example RainWay https://rainway.com/ So this ban is broader than the article suggest.

It does not include those platforms and Steam is mentioned explicitly in the article. Additionally, this article is from August so I don't see why it's being posted as if this is new information. Apple has already clarified their position multiple times since this article was published.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#55

Post by dogma1138 »

dpkonofa wrote: post #44
burnte wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do individual games need to be approved but not individual movies in movie streaming services? I think clearly we need to ban movie apps until every program has been vetted.

That's not necessarily true. The difference is that the streaming services don't have exclusivity on those licenses which is not the case for game services. Additionally, Apple runs its own movie service and allows movies that it has access to screen. The same wouldn't be true for games.

Netflix and Amazon definitely has exclusivity on their IP which means that there is far more exclusive content on video streaming services than on game streaming services which outside of Microsoft currently which has a few first party exclusives all license content from other publishers - and that content that is available on multiple platforms.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#56

Post by stale2002 »

dathinab wrote: post #6

Whats next iphones only opening approved websites? EDIT: While that seems super sarcastic. Consider this: Game streaming services are in the end just a gateway app to games, in the same way the browser is a gateway to the internet. Furthermore apple already did hinder "browserish" gateways, like apps which are a gateway to more ergonomically reading word-press blogs or message apps which where gateways to a federated…

> Whats next iphones only opening approved websites?

Unironically, I think that this could happen soon.

That sounds crazy, but here me out. Pretty recently there was an announcement regarding a streamer service, that would allow people to play Fortnite, from their phone, through a mobile safari

So, in order to block fortnite form being played on an iPhone, Apple would literally have to do what you are suggesting.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#57

Post by canofbars »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #22

Apple has always wanted to block "browser" type apps. If it can be used to install or view hundreds of other apps, then it's probably not a good fit for the iOS garden. We willingly give Apple money under this premise. I'm not sure why this is surprising.

>We willingly give Apple money under this premise.

There are not enough competitors for this to actually be something you can choose. I use and will continue to use iphones because I care about privacy and updates. That doesn't mean I like what is happening with this case.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#58

Post by sharken »

pumanoir wrote: post #45
ljm wrote: post #27

Wasn't even a year ago that I was singing Apple's praises for focussing on privacy. I don't feel the same way any more, and I've been happier with an Android device since.

I've used iphones from the 6s till 11 and this week I switched to an android. I hadn't realized how limiting iOS is.

For me it’s the anti-gaming sentiment that Apple promotes which is at fault.

Not going back to Apple until they change their ways.

So hello Sony Xperia 5 II and goodbye IPhone 11.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#59

Post by dpkonofa »

laumars wrote: post #50
threeseed wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple has always distinguished between interactive apps and read/view-only content. Music/Movies are in all countries regulated by well established rules which govern what level of objectionable content is permitted i.e. you will never find porn on Netflix. Apps/Games have similar regulations in some countries but definitely not all. So Apple has opted to "fill in the blanks".

There’s as many exceptions to that rule as there are examples: Twitch, video conferencing (Zoom, Teams, etc), text chat (Slack, IRC, Telegram, WhatsApp), social media (Twitter, Facebook), web pages themselves. I think the reason is Apple are making a stand here is simply because Xbox and Google have released subscriptions games streaming services after Apple released a subscription gaming service (albeit not streamin…

>There’s as many exceptions to that rule as there are examples: Twitch, video conferencing (Zoom, Teams, etc), text chat (Slack, IRC, Telegram, WhatsApp), social media (Twitter, Facebook), web pages themselves.

How are these exceptions to the rule? None of those platforms are the source of the content being provided. That's the primary reason why this distinction exists.

Re: Apple blocks game streaming services unless individual games are approved

#60

Post by dpkonofa »

dogma1138 wrote: post #55
dpkonofa wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not necessarily true. The difference is that the streaming services don't have exclusivity on those licenses which is not the case for game services. Additionally, Apple runs its own movie service and allows movies that it has access to screen. The same wouldn't be true for games.

Netflix and Amazon definitely has exclusivity on their IP which means that there is far more exclusive content on video streaming services than on game streaming services which outside of Microsoft currently which has a few first party exclusives all license content from other publishers - and that content that is available on multiple platforms.

That doesn't matter. Netflix still has to go through the same processes as movie companies regardless if their specific IP is exclusive to their platform. My point was that they don't have exclusivity when it comes to providing that content which is not the case with Microsoft's XCloud, for example. All of that content is only available from Microsoft because every game on the platform has to be licensed by Microsoft.
Post reply on HN