Apple is updating its App Store policies to relent on a longstanding ban on game streaming apps. Developers are now allowed to submit a single app that can contain a catalog of games, where the game code is running off a server. This allows services like Xbox Cloud Gaming to finally release a native app for the iPhone and iPad.
Previously, Apple required developers submit a separate app for each game individually, a laborious and untenable affair.
Unlike most of the other changes introduced today which apply only in the European Union, the game streaming policy update applies globally.
Of course, game streaming apps must conform to the usual laundry list of the other traditional App Store rules, but the path is now clear for them to exist on the App Store at all.
To support the category of game streaming apps, Apple is also adding new capabilities that help enhance discovery of streaming games, and other mini-apps like chatbots or plugins. They will also accommodate supporting separate in-app purchases for the first time, such as a subscription to an individual chatbot.
Xbox Cloud Gaming was previously only available through the iOS Safari web browser, due to Apple’s rules. Now, Microsoft (and others like Nvidia GeForce Now and Netflix) will be able to create a native app.
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