For the second time this year, Apple has warned developers and publishers that thousands of mobile games will be removed from the Chinese App Store.
According to the news published by the Wall Street Journal, Apple has received a notification that developers who publish their games in China need to submit proof of a Chinese government license by December 31, 2020.
This indicates that a situation similar to July will occur. 15,000 games that failed to offer the required license in July 2020 were removed from the Chinese App Store within a month.
In fact, exactly four years ago, the Chinese government began requiring video games to be licensed before they were released. However, the developers who expressed the difficulty of getting approval in China for their games, somehow continued to publish their games. As of this year, Apple emphasized for the second time that the license should be shown. In a statement, the company acknowledged that it receives requests for the removal of apps in various regions.
In order not to be removed from the Chinese App Store, developers and publishers need an ISBN (International Standard Book Number) from the China National Press and Publishing Administration. Unfortunately, this is a long process and many developers fail to get it until the deadline.
“Apple studies these requests carefully whenever we receive them, and we contest and disagree with them often,” Apple said.
Also, according to Sensor Tower data, at least 94,000 apps have been removed from China’s App Store this year. In 2019, this number was only 25,000.
