Water Cooler Games

a forum for the uses of videogames in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment



ABOUT
About This Site - RSS Feed

Ian Bogost (editor)
Gonzalo Frasca (editor)


SPONSORS
Visit Persuasive Games
Visit Powerful Robot


COMMUNITY

iTunes App Store can reject you for any reason
May 7, 2008 - by Ian Bogost

Following my occasional series of gripes about Apple openness (1, 2, 3, 4), I thought I'd share a part of the agreement iPhone application developers must accept in order to be able to publish to the forthcoming iTunes App Store:

6.2 Selection by Apple for Distribution
You understand and agree that Apple may, in its sole discretion:
(a) determine that Your Application does not meet all or any part of the Documentation or Program Requirements then in effect;
(b) reject Your Application for distribution for any reason, even if Your Application meets the Documentation and Program Requirements; or
(c) select and digitally sign Your Application for distribution via the iTunes Store.

There's reason for some kind of discretionary policy, but it's worth noting that para 6.2(b) allows so-called "soft censorship" as well. It's hard to say how or if it will be exercised.

Incidentally, the same is apparently true for the XBox Community Arcade (or whatever it will be called). I haven't seen the agreement for it, but at the Academic Days on Game Development conference Dean O'Donnell asked a Microsoft rep if they would pull down a game like, say, "George Bush: War Criminal." The answer? "Basically, yes."




POST A COMMENT

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?




SELF PROMOTION

RECENT ARTICLES
My new column: Texture

Gamasutra has published my latest "Persuasive Games" column, this one on how videogames are tactile. But unlike paintings and plats ...

Liz Losh on the NASA MMO Fail

Recently I made some strong remarks about NASA's decision to pull (or "reconfigure") the funding plan for their long-planned educational ...

iTunes App Store can reject you for any reason

Following my occasional series of gripes about Apple openness (1, 2, 3, 4), I thought I'd share a part of ...

Boxing Politician Games. Again.

It happens every election cycle, it seems. Games that allow players to make their favorite candidate box against their least ...

Me on Advertising and Games in the Guardian

If you read the Guardian, you may have noticed that they are running a series of articles and opinion pieces ...

Libery City Satire

I am a Gorilla

NASA MMO Update: Brains Pulled, not Funding

NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0

Air Traffic Chaos


FAVORITES

ALSO VISIT
RECENT COMMENTS
Ian Bogost on Libery City Satire

tanner on Libery City Satire

Tele3dworld on NASA MMO Update: Brains Pulled, not Funding

Tele3dworld on NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0

Ian Bogost on NASA MMO Budget Cut from $3m to $0

more comments... 

ADVERTISERS






  Copyright © Ian Bogost & Gonzalo Frasca, unless otherwise noted. Re-printing for commercial purposes by permission only (contact us: ). Re-printing for educational purposes is allowed with proper attribution.