Business Issues with Streaming Services on other Platforms *spawn*

[Deleted member 11852]

Its impossible, given Apples condition of: "and should not disadvantage non-subscriber customers". How do you list a game that is part of a subscription only service that does not disadvantage non-subscribers?

The new guideline is very difficult to interpret. I completely get Apple wanting individual content provided by streaming apps as distinctly identifiable for searches in the App Store. Netflix, Amazon Prime and, I assume, other TV/movie streaming apps do this for Apple TV. This is, again I assume, about discoverability. If you're looking for a particular movie or TV show you don't want to have to individually search a bunch of individual streaming apps - they would be tedious. And I can see the same argument for games but much less so. It's also good for your app, if I search for a game that is only accessible through your app, it's a path directly to your service.

I also kind of understand Apple want to be able to differentiate different streamed apps/games for the purposed of ScreenTime - the iOS/macOS functionality tracks and limits screen time of certain apps/games but this seems really nitpicky. If you don't want a child playing games, disallow the whole of the xCloud app. Is it about parental control? Can you set parental controls on the type of games the xCloud app will allowed to be played, i.e. only allow a child access to kid-friendly games?

The specific requirement you quote in bold is obviously nonsense. When searching for games, the App Store will show games that are only available in Apple Arcade, Apple's monthly paid game subscription service. So I can see them, but not play them without subscribing so I'm not quite following how this "advantages" me!?!?

The whole requirement about being to 'download' individual games, this almost sounds like Apple want to re-introduce the app model they abandoned for newspaper/magazines some years back. I wasn't a big user but I recall the approach was Apple had a clear framework for supporting types of 'traditional print' style content but each newspaper/magazine had it's own front-end app. This is how I sued to read the print versions of EDGE and Game Informer on my iPad. They ditched this because if you had a lot of magazine/newspaper subscriptions you quickly amassed a massive pile of individual app front-ends. This would be so much worse for xCloud.

Indeed, good on you MS. More and more of these roadblocks for iOS users will just push more iphone users to Android.

Maybe. It's hard to imagine that there are a significant number of people who want to play traditional Xbox console games on a smaller screen using touchscreen controls - or even with a controller. Even if every single GamePass subscriber switched, and I bet they don't all use iOS to begin with, that's nothing compared to the global iOS user base.