Filed under: Gaming, Apple, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK
Apple rejects Unity games on the App Store
Touch Arcade has the news that the long-awaited Ravensword and a number of other games built on the Unity game engine have been rejected by Apple from the App Store. The problem appears to be a number of API calls in the engine (though not specifically the game themselves, as I understand it) that allow the games to access the iPhone's number and send it back to the developer's servers.Apple considers these to be private APIs, and they also got games developer Storm8 in trouble earlier this week; their games were pulled from the store in response to a lawsuit alleging that they were collecting data from users without their knowledge.
Chillingo, publishers of Ravensword, contacted us about this story, and they said that while the Unity engine does allow developers to use these calls, they did not use them or collect any user information. We're also told that the problem APIs "have been removed," and Chillingo has resubmitted the game for App Store approval.
As I understand it, this is the same type of issue that came up with Google a while back. It's not the same APIs (Google was using the proximity sensor back then), but now as then, it's Apple's call whether they will allow developers to use these private and undocumented calls. Obviously some apps on the iPhone have to access the address book from time to time, but it's Apple's call whether they can use APIs like that or not. This time, it appears, they said no.
Update: Unity has also contacted us, and they say that the engine was updated to Apple's wishes as soon as they learned of the issue. They also would like to point out that while Storm8 did use the same private API calls, they don't use Unity to run their games. Storm8's update on the issue is here.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Teslanaut said 12:30PM on 11-14-2009
Serial number? UDID? Phone number?
What number?
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Aerospeed said 1:29PM on 11-14-2009
Phone number. Pretty sleazy.
kmcgrady90 said 12:31PM on 11-14-2009
I hope Apple makes a lot more of the private API's public soon. If they have another March event I hope they do. I would love multiple selection with the image picker. Being able to only select one image at a time is a pain and an unnecessary restriction.
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Alex McKee said 12:41PM on 11-14-2009
You know, this is one rejection I really don't have a problem with. I don't want an app to be able to pick up my phone number without telling me, and I completely understand why Apple would want to reject that. This is more Unity's fault than anything. The biggest issue I see here is that like Mike said, it really does seem pretty hit and miss on what private API calls Apple's ok with developers using. I guess the solution is to not use them? I dunno. I wish apple would open up certain APIs though, not allowing the use of the proximity sensor seems petty and unnecessary.
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Mr Lizard said 1:14PM on 11-14-2009
Why does the game need to access this API?
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RyanR said 2:59PM on 11-14-2009
Didn't they say it doesn't? It's just part of the engine.
dagamer43 said 1:34PM on 11-14-2009
Common sense dictates that Apple should require a notification before an application can access your address book data. -_-
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macserv said 3:33PM on 11-15-2009
Thus, why that API is private. Before making it public, Apple would certainly create UI that allowed the user to block such data from being sent. Especially mobile phone numbers... those are considered to be pretty much off limits these days.
Grant said 2:28PM on 11-14-2009
Mr Lizard, the game doesn't need to access this API, which is why the game developers removed it.
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Thomas said 2:53PM on 11-14-2009
The game does "need" access to the API if they want to send the user's phone number back to their servers so they can help collect information about the user. It's totally improper for them to collect the information, but the only thing stopping them now is Apple removing their app from the store. How do you spell scum developer?
Grant said 3:12PM on 11-14-2009
Uh, Thomas, do you have any evidence that the developer of Ravensword was using the API and collecting user information? Chillingo said they didn't use the API, and while it's possible they're lying, you have no evidence that they are.
macserv said 3:37PM on 11-15-2009
They were making the private API call to read that sensitive information, or Apple wouldn't have blocked it. They may not have even stored the information on their side, and what they were doing with the information is open to speculation, but they definitely were reading it.
..Oh, I mean, RAAAWR Apple totally sucks for having a review process m i rite.
Travis Walls said 2:54PM on 11-14-2009
Hmm. I think the TA article explained it better than this one did. You do say that it was the Unity engine itself that used the private APIs that Apple didn't want them using. The game just happened to be using the Unity engine. What's important to note, however, is that when they re-submitted the game to Apple with the APIs removed, that was because they upgraded to a newer version of the Unity engine which has the private APIs removed from the engine itself. I don't think it was ever the game developer's intention to harvest any information from customers' phones. I'd hate to see a game like this flop because of Unity's issue and Storm8's alleged abuse of it.
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Amber Rowland said 4:19PM on 11-14-2009
Unity acknowledged what the issue was and has a fix for it:
Unity iPhone App Store Submissions – Problem Solved http://blogs.unity3d.com/
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Bowlernatnat268 said 11:32AM on 11-15-2009
Thank you apple for keeping my stuff personal. I'm perfectly ok with u rejection sleezy apps.
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Dr.Taru said 5:01PM on 11-14-2009
Thats completely dumb, considering that for skype to work the way it does it has to use a number of private frameworks, they even use the proximity sensor...
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Wooster said 5:08PM on 11-14-2009
I guess the App Store approval process can look out for the customers once in a while. It gets a lot of bad rep when they do something wrong, it's easy to call out that. Makes you wonder what Apple's caught that could've been a problem in the past.
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camkevbell said 7:31PM on 11-14-2009
WTF Storm8 is swiping phone numbers??? Now what, sell them to telemarketers?
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Noah said 9:15AM on 11-15-2009
More than likely.
S. Martin said 9:59AM on 11-15-2009
Unity: HBMS-certified!
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