Apple rejects Steam Link app, citing "business conflicts"

[D13H4RD]

Well, this hasn't gone well. 

 

It's been reported that despite initially being approved, the Steam Link app has been rejected by Apple for distribution on the App Store, citing "business conflicts". 

 

Quote

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.

Source: https://www.pcgamer.com/apple-rejects-steam-link-app-for-ios/

 

Personally, I can't help but feel something is up. The Steam Link app in essence is basically mirroring what's displaying on your PC and streams it over a local network to a device that has the app installed or a dedicated Steam Link system. And if Apple cites that it rejected it due to business conflicts, why is Splashtop, an app that mirrors the display of a PC running Windows or macOS and then streaming it onto a device, on the store for a long time already? 

[Max_Settings]

Either this is Apple being assholes like always, or Apple is planning to come out with some sort of gaming system or gaming Mac. I would guess the former.

[D13H4RD]

1 minute ago, Max_Settings said:

Either this is Apple being assholes like always, or Apple is planning to come out with some sort of gaming system or gaming Mac. I would guess the former.

Would Apple even make a Mac dedicated for gaming though? 

 

Many Mac users aren't the gaming type. 

[Max_Settings]

Just now, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Would Apple even make a Mac dedicated for gaming though? 

 

Many Mac users aren't the gaming type. 

Hence why I said I suspect the former.

[bellabichon]

This is worrying. Apple lets all sorts of apps go on the app store when there are already almost duplicate version out there. I hope they don't release a 'gaming mac' because the amount of people who will fall for it, and pay ridiculous prices when they could build an awesome PC instead will be quite high (cough, cough, Razer). I really hope what @Max_Settings said is right, and they're just being a-holes.

[D13H4RD]

Just now, Max_Settings said:

Hence why I said I suspect the former.

Probably or just the guys who don't really understand it

[Max_Settings]

1 minute ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Probably or just the guys who don't really understand it

Apple is not a bunch of dummies, there's a reason they are the most valuable company in the world, they know what they are doing. I'm sure they understand what it is.

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

That angle does not apply here. Teamviewer is up and running on the store, and that is a multi-platform mirroring service. This is not so much an issue of what the app is, but rather what it has in order to make it work. There is something specific in how Steam Link works that Apple does not like, though since Apple is not giving any kind of useful information, all we can do is speculate.

[bellabichon]

1 hour ago, Max_Settings said:

Apple is not a bunch of dummies, there's a reason they are the most valuable company in the world, they know what they are doing. I'm sure they understand what it is.

Yeah. And even if some of the higher-ups don't, there are plenty of tech-savvy employees who know exactly what it is.

[Syntaxvgm]

3 minutes ago, Colonel_Gerdauf said:

That angle does not apply here. Teamviewer is up and running on the store, and that is a multi-platform mirroring service. This is not so much an issue of what the app is, but rather what it has in order to make it work. There is something specific in how Steam Link works that Apple does not like, though since Apple is not giving any kind of useful information, all we can do is speculate.

TV is not suitable for gaming though, I think it's the gaming specifically? 

[D13H4RD]

2 minutes ago, Colonel_Gerdauf said:

That angle does not apply here. Teamviewer is up and running on the store, and that is a multi-platform mirroring service. This is not so much an issue of what the app is, but rather what it has in order to make it work. There is something specific in how Steam Link works that Apple does not like, though since Apple is not giving any kind of useful information, all we can do is speculate.

I kinda wish we knew tbh

[williamcll]

Other than teamviewer, there's also moonlight stream which is available on both iOS and android but that only works on nvidia cards

[Qwertious]

Oh wtf why? Apple isn't anywhere close to the desktop gaming market. I don't see why they would block the app on such grounds... Moonlight is even available on the store. 

 

This would only make sense if they had something planned. The Apple TV can't be compared as it's an iOS device on last gen SOCs.

 

On the other hand. Parsec is even better as it doesn't need any configuration for steaming over the world wide Web.

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

20 minutes ago, Max_Settings said:

 gaming Mac

HERETIC!

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

13 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

TV is not suitable for gaming though, I think it's the gaming specifically? 

What I suspect is that there is something with the technology, for instance how exactly the connection is established between the phone/tablet and a Steam-equipped computer that Apple has an issue with. Apple generally does not like the idea of using Bluetooth to directly communicate in parallel with another end device. Or perhaps the way that the application runs an internal virtual machine makes Apple interpret it as an emulator, which the company has a zero-tolerance policy on.

[D13H4RD]

4 minutes ago, Colonel_Gerdauf said:

What I suspect is that there is something with the technology, for instance how exactly the connection is established between the phone/tablet and a Steam-equipped computer that Apple has an issue with. Apple generally does not like the idea of using Bluetooth to directly communicate in parallel with another end device. Or perhaps the way that the application runs an internal virtual machine makes Apple interpret it as an emulator, which the company has a zero-tolerance policy on.

Wait, maybe it's the Steam Controller? 

 

But then, Logitech sells an iPhone case that has physical game controls

[Colonel_Gerdauf]

Just now, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

Wait, maybe it's the Steam Controller? 

I have not seen the Steam Link app, and I did not test it with a dummy Android phone just yet, so I cannot tell you for certain how this or that works. With that being said, the only reason I can see with the Controller being the cause of the rejection is if the controller connects to the PC instead of the iDevice. That would effectively make the iDevices secondary screens for the games in question, which gets into murky licensing grounds.

[ARikozuM]

Time to sue Apple. Please do it, Valve. While you're suing Apple, stop attacking small indie visual novels for "nudity" unless* you're going to get rid of the big-ticket games that are similar. 

 

* "Unless" means "don't do it at all". 

[Shreyas1]

ohh so that's why I couldn't find it.

 

Wait so why is moonlight allowed then?

[DrMacintosh]

4 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Time to sue Apple. Please do it, Valve. While you're suing Apple, stop attacking small indie visual novels for "nudity" unless* you're going to get rid of the big-ticket games that are similar. 

 

* "Unless" means "don't do it at all". 

On what grounds could they sue? Is there really a case for being anti-competitive when Apple offers no such service? 

 

The App Store is their store after all, Valve does not have the right to be on the App Store. 

 

Not saying I agree with the repeal of the approval, but there could be something that we are missing in the code that isn't being reported on. 

[iamdarkyoshi]

Can't you just download it from elsewhere and install it manually? Oh wait, thats android

[ARikozuM]

7 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

On what grounds could they sue? Is there really a case for being anti-competitive when Apple offers no such service? 

I don't believe in coincidences. 

Quote

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, [MAY 10], Apple revoked its approval citing business conflicts with app guidelines that had allegedly not been realized by the original review team

 

Either they became selective over their approval overnight once news of Steam Link was released or they think it's a blow for their business to allow its existence. We can already use Teamviewer and GoToMyPC for remote gaming, yet Steam Link is not approved by their guidelines?

 

Also, I didn't say anything about anti-competitive practices; Apple cited "business conflicts". Clarification within a court of law is going to be necessary. 

[DrMacintosh]

14 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Also, I didn't say anything about anti-competitive practices; Apple cited "business conflicts". Clarification within a court of law is going to be necessary. 

I still don't really see Valves case. They would need to be able to prove that Apple did this as a direct response to them, and right now, its only circumstantial. 

 

And I do believe in coincidences, they happen, that's just fact. 

[Salv8 (sam)]

1 hour ago, Max_Settings said:

gaming Mac

yea that aren't going to happen because of one thing:

Metal (their rendering api)

from memory if developers want to render 3D graphics on a mac they have to use metal, only one problem:

it's notoriously inefficient doing the thing it was designed for

it's so bad that anything using it has horrible performance even with a huge team working with it (even competent ones have a hard time)

a gaming mac would be some much of a commercial failure that it would rival the apple newton!

and i'm not even going to bother to talk about the price, as it would be an understatement of people said it would be expensive

[Sniperfox47]

13 minutes ago, Salv8 (sam) said:

yea that aren't going to happen because of one thing:

Metal (their rendering api)

from memory if developers want to render 3D graphics on a mac they have to use metal, only one problem:

it's notoriously inefficient doing the thing it was designed for

it's so bad that anything using it has horrible performance even with a huge team working with it (even competent ones have a hard time)

a gaming mac would be some much of a commercial failure that it would rival the apple newton!

and i'm not even going to bother to talk about the price, as it would be an understatement of people said it would be expensive

A) Metal is just the low level API they allow. There's also OpenGL for a high level API. The only thing really not allowed directly is Vulkan.

 

B) Metal has just fine performance. It's pretty much on par with DX12 and Vulkan, and substantially better than OpenGL. Not sure what you're talking about.

 

C) MoltenVK is now available for free to impliment applications written in Vulkan on top of Metal. It has a slight performance hit and a few design limitations, but it will work fine for the vast majority of applications.

 

D) Yeah... it's harder to write applications for a low level API than for one that does everything for you. I'm not sure why that's a surprise.