It may have only been made available yesterday, but the first subscription-based iOS game service has already been pulled from the App Store with no explanation.
Big Fish Games had its app approved by Apple which, according to initial reports, offered subscription-based gaming for $6.99 per month. The app allowed the streaming of games from Big Fish Games’ servers right to an iPad, with Apple taking their usual 30% cut of the revenues.
While Big Fish Games’ seemed rather happy with themselves for being the first to offer games with a monthly subscription on iOS, it turns out that Apple isn’t so keen, with the app now gone from the App Store…
There had been some confusion as to how the app worked, with it appearing that the system worked in a way similar to OnLive, with games being run on a remote server and then simply streamed to the receiving device. The iOS application was merely a viewer for the remote server, similar to any VNC apps that are also on the App Store.
Apple apparently wasn’t aware of what it had allowed onto the store. Was Big Fish Games not entirely accurate with the way it portrayed its app to Apple?
Until yesterday, news apps were the kind of apps to offer any kind of subscription model on the App Store. Whether that will change remains to be seen, but Apple will need to make things a whole lot clearer moving forward, or we could see a repeat of the problems Big Fish Games is currently facing.