Apple reportedly removing older games from the App Store

Every once in a while, it is nice to download a couple games on your phone to pass the time. Apple has tons of apps and games on the App Store, but it seems the company will soon be removing a plethora of them. Picture it as Apple’s way of having a Spring cleaning.

Apple has already begun shelling out tons of emails to a variety of developers who have Apps in the Apple App Store that haven’t received an update in a “Significant amount of time.” There was no exact time frame on how old an App needs to be to be on the list for removal, but it is speculated that if an App hasn’t been updated within the last two years, then the App will be removed within the next 30 days.

Developers are not too happy about this move that Apple is going to be making. In the emails that are being sent out from Apple, it states that the developers have 30 days to submit an update for review. If no update is submitted for review within 30 days, the App will be removed from sale from the Apple App Store.

The new App Store policy has even been confirmed on Apple’s website. They go on to state that the reason for why they are enforcing this new policy is because they are trying to make it easier for customers to find Apps that fit their needs. The full statement goes as follows:

"To make it easier for customers to find great apps that fit their needs, we want to ensure that apps available on the App Store are functional and up-to-date. We are implementing an ongoing process of evaluating apps, removing apps that no longer function as intended, don’t follow current review guidelines, or are outdated."

It will be interesting to see if developers try and find a loophole around the update process. If a developer has a few games that haven’t been updated in a couple of years, maybe they will try and submit a very minor update that doesn’t really alter the App much at all. I can see many developers doing this sort of thing just so their Apps do not go away.

There are a lot of Apps that are out there in the Apple App Store that developers have spent a very long time on, and I am talking about many years developing. As far as if this new policy will be ongoing policy for years to come or if this is just something that Apple is doing to clean house in the App Store is yet to be confirmed. However, given that the new policy is posted on their website, I believe that this is something that is going to stick around to make sure that developers are updating their Apps on a continuous basis.