Valve may have failed to get the Steam Link onto the Apple App Store, but that doesn’t seem to be the end of the story. It turns out that Apple senior VP Phil Schiller sent an email out to Steam users over the weekend explaining the situation. And to say that Apple wants to work things out.
Schiller wrote:
“Thank you for your email and being a customer of Apple products and the App Store.
We care deeply about bringing great games to all of our users on the App Store. We would love for Valve’s games and services to be on iOS and AppleTV.
Unfortunately, the review team found that Valve’s Steam iOS app, as currently submitted, violates a number of guidelines around user generated content, in-app purchases, content codes, etc. We’ve discussed these issues with Valve and will continue to work with them to help bring the Steam experience to iOS and AppleTV in a way that complies with the store’s guidelines.
We put great effort into creating an App Store that provides the very best experience for everyone. We have clear guidelines that all developers must follow in order to ensure the App Store is a safe place for all users and a fair opportunity for all developers.
Sincerely,
Phil”
It’s still somewhat unclear what aspects of the Steam Link violate iOS guidelines. But the language used seems to be more of a problem with how Steam does business instead of the Steam Link itself. Whatever the case, the app has not been approved for the App Store.
Valve may have to make some additional adjustments to the Steam Link to get it on iOS, although there may need to be quite a few compromises to be made. This may end up changing how the app works; and at worse create an experience that’s substantially different from that on Android.
In any case, there is already a Change.org petition for Apple to allow Steam Link onto the App Store. This will unlikely change Apple’s position on anything, but at the very least it will get consumer opinion out on the radar.
[Source: Reddit]
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