There’s a battle brewing between Apple and Facebook over on the iOS store. According to The New York Times, Apple has rejected Facebook’s Facebook Gaming app for a fifth time since the social media network announced its existence in March.
The Facebook Gaming app, which has already sailed into the Google Play Store, is supposed to be a dedicated hub for the casual games Facebook offers on its social network. But Apple appears to be strongly opposed to a dedicated app for their existence on its platform.
The New York Times report includes some interesting data points about what Facebook has done to try and get on the App Store, and how Apple’s recent app-rejection is starting to draw the ire of antitrust regulators across the globe. What’s particularly notable is that Facebook already has a small hub for these games in its main Facebook app, but Apple has pushed back against the standalone app, citing Section 4.7 of its app rules.
Section 4.7 allows apps that distribute HTML5 games, but requires that “code distribution is not the main purpose of the app,” and “The code is not offered in a store or store-like interface.” The latter restriction seems to agitating Facebook’s developers. It reports that in the company’s resubmissions, it’s stripped the design of the Facebook Gaming app further and further back to eventually just be a list of games, and yet Apple will not budge.