In the fast-paced digital world, updates are the keys to improvements in security and user experience. And Apple seems to value that a lot.
This is seen when developers of apps and games have begun receiving emails from Apple notifying them that the company is delisting their app from the App Store. The notification states that the reason is because of the apps' insufficient updates.
According to Apple's App Store improvement measure, anything on the App Store that has "not been updated in a significant amount of time" is at risk of being removed.
To be exact, anything that is hasn't receive any update in two years, can be affected.
Apple is giving developers 30 days to update their apps and games, before the ban hammer takes place.
It's worth noting though, that users who have downloaded or purchased apps and games that are banned because of this reason, shall not experience interruption.
As Apple explained in its email to developers, even if a favorite app or game is removed from the store, users should not encounter any issues using it, including microtransactions.
The delisting only prevents new users and players from downloading and accessing any app and game that haven't seen any update in two years time.
To avoid being delisted, Apple suggests regular updates "to fix bugs, offer new content, provide additional services, or make other improvements."
Following Apple's announcement, the policy was quickly met with controversy.
Developers have pointed out, that the measure is not always sustainable.
I feel sick. Apple just sent me an email saying they're removing my free game Motivoto because its more than 2 years old.
It's part of their App improvement system.
This is not cool. Console games from 2000 are still available for sale.
This is an unfair barrier to indie devs. pic.twitter.com/7XNcLfiEcR— Protopop Games (@protopop) April 23, 2022