You might be wondering: “Has Amazon just violated Apple’s App Store guidelines by offering cloud gaming service to the iPhone?” I can understand why, given that I only told you last week How does Apple not allow Google Stadia to be anything close to its current form, and Just announced Luna from Amazon Much like Stadia. Don’t the same rules apply?
But the truth is, Amazon has a simple way of getting around Apple’s App Store rules altogether – which makes me wonder how long it will take before Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, and other rules follow suit.
Short version: Amazon Luna on iOS is not a traditional app. It will never appear in the App Store, nor do you need to. Such as Engadget ReportsIt’s a progressive web application (PWA), and it’s mostly a great name for a website that you can launch and run separately from the rest of your web browser. Engadget It says it can appear as an icon on your home screen, which makes it look like a normal app before clicking on it.
Being a web app makes it an exception to Apple’s App Store rules, a fact Apple is well aware of – because two weeks ago, Apple actually mentioned this idea in its updated rules. You dared the important part:
4.9 Running
Games are allowed as long as they adhere to all guidelines – for example, every game update must be submitted for review, developers must provide appropriate metadata for the search, games must use in-app purchase to unlock features or functionality, etc. Of course, there are always internet apps and a web browser open to reach all users outside of the app store.
Amazon taking advantage of the alternative solution? Not surprising. The surprising thing is, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, and others have waited that long.
We’ve known for a decade that you can play a game of the highest levels in a web browser. If I’m exaggerating, it only takes three months: in December 2010, I wrote about broadcasting Mass Effect 2 In a web browser on a native Atom laptop, using the service that will appear next Turn to Sony Playstation now.
And Google has known for eight of those ten years that a web browser can originally Also broadcast these games: Before graduating to run the entire company, It was Sundar Pichai who showed exactly this thing On the Google platform. Stadia launched with support for Chromebooks and the Chrome web browser as well – but it also launched with an Android app, and an app that can’t play games on iOS.
Meanwhile, Nvidia’s GeForce Now I recently started using Chromebooks By creating a WebRTC version of its app, which would potentially open the door to a web browser version on top of its Mac, Windows and Android apps – a very broad door It appears to be working already If you really try. Some Redditors Owns Recently mentioned Stadia is also running on iOS if you can fool her into thinking you’re using a supported web browser:
There have been questions about how well these services work on the web, of course, particularly about console support. Sure, Google, Nvidia, and Microsoft might improve performance and quality if they had a native app rather than relying on web standards – and in the case of iOS, relying on the WebKit browser engine requires Apple that all iOS browsers be based. (This is also part of the App Store rules as well; See 2.5.6.)
But it does work – well enough, it seems, that Amazon is ready to suspend part of the success of its new Luna platform on iOS web browsers.
With Apple unwilling to budge and Amazon showing a way forward, it is probably only a matter of time before others do the same. Although, I am not completely sure About Microsoft… I’ll explain why in a future story.
