Last week Valve claimed that its Steam Link app for iOS was rejected by Apple due to “business conflicts”. Now it seems that Apple’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller has weighed in on the matter in an email that made its way to Reddit. In it he stated that the company cares “deeply about bringing great games” to the App Store and wants Valve’s games and services to be on iOS and Apple TV. In addition to this, he shed light on the reasons behind Steam Link’s rejection from the App Store.
“Unfortunately, the review team found that Valve’s Steam iOS app, as currently submitted, violates a number of guidelines around user generated content, in-app purchases, content codes, etc. We’ve discussed these issues with Valve and will continue to work with them to help bring the Steam experience to iOS and Apple TV in a way that complies with the store’s guidelines,” Schiller’s email reads.
Previously Valve issued a statement on the issue.
“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,” the companysaid.
“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.”
And while Schiller’s email hints at the possibility of Apple reconciling with Valve, users have taken to Change.org with a petition to show Apple how much interest there is around bringing Steam Link to iOS.
