In August, Apple will remove games that do not have a license from the Chinese App Store

On the morning of July 8, many Chinese game developers received a letter from Apple. It says: if the application does not have permission to publish in China, it will be removed after July 31.

This is reported by several media at once. In particular, the news site Youxixinzhi informs about this on its public WeChat account, as well as the gaming business publication GameLook on its pages. Both back up the data with screenshots of the letter.

Evidence from Youxixinzhi
Here is an Apple letter in Russian:

“Dear (developer’s name), as you probably know, according to Chinese law, games must have a ratification number received from the National Press and Press Administration. In order for your paid or micropayment-containing game to remain available in mainland China, enter the ratification number and upload the supporting documentation in the information section on your game’s App Store Connect page, and then submit the application for review (App Review) by July 31. After July 31, your game will not be available in the App Store in mainland China until you provide the ratification number in the next application.”

This letter was an answer to the question that worried many (including Western) developers: what will happen to applications that did not have time to get a license to publish the game from Chinese regulators by the end of June.

Youxixinzhi reports that there are about 170 thousand games in the Chinese App Store now. Not everyone has permission to publish. We can talk about less than 20% of products.

This does not mean that Apple will remove 136 thousand games on the first of August. Such a measure should not apply to games that are monetized through advertising and do not contain micropayments. Therefore, in the Chinese media, when talking about how many will be affected by Apple’s new policy, they usually announce a figure of 50-60 thousand programs (however, some predict the removal of 120 thousand games).

According to GameLook, the Apple company has even formed a separate working group, which is now exclusively engaged in verifying the authenticity of the ratification numbers received from local developers.

At the same time, Apple has been actively cleaning the Chinese version of the store since July 1. In the first week of the month, the company removed 7,000 mobile games from the shelves. However, as we wrote earlier, while she cleans for other reasons.

By the way, according to the messages of the participants of the inGameDev Facebook group, some CIS teams whose games are in the Chinese store also received a letter from Apple. However, some developers say that nothing has come to them yet.

Also on the topic:

• On the first day of July, 1571 games disappeared from the Chinese App StoreBloomberg: Apple is going to remove thousands of iOS games from the Chinese App Store
• New details about working with the Chinese App Store after June
• Is there any news?