If you thought you could enjoy your favorite steam games on your iPhone or iPad soon, than I have some bad news for you. Apple has rejected the Steam Link app for iOS devices, twice! The Steam Link app was announced earlier this month and would allow Steam users to access their library from their smart devices. The app is already out on Android and was planned to release on iOS as well but Apple has decided otherwise for no apparent reason.
According to Valve, Apple actually approved of the app on May 7th before rejecting it on May 9th. The app was rejected due to “business conflicts with app guidelines that had allegedly not been realized by the original review team,” Valve said in a statement to CNET. Valve has appealed to the rejection stating that the app works similar to other apps that stream your desktop to your phone, which are already on the iOS devices anyway. Ultimately the appeal was also rejected and now Valve is hoping that Apple will change their mind in the future.
An app being rejected due to “business conflicts” is really vague and could potentially be a whole number of different issues. However, from the wording in Valve’s statement it definitely seems that Apple had no real reason to reject the app and that the developers of the app are very frustrated with their decision. “Business conflicts” certainly sounds like a bunch of corporate nonsense.
The full statement reads “On Monday, May 7th, Apple approved the Steam Link app for release. On Weds, May 9th, Valve released news of the app. The following morning, Apple revoked its approval citing business conflicts with app guidelines that had allegedly not been realized by the original review team. Valve appealed, explaining the Steam Link app simply functions as a LAN-based remote desktop similar to numerous remote desktop applications already available on the App Store. Ultimately, that appeal was denied leaving the Steam Link app for iOS blocked from release. The team here spent many hours on this project and the approval process, so we’re clearly disappointed. But we hope Apple will reconsider in the future.”
