Oliver Haslam on May 26, 2018, 7:00 am

Apple Rejects Valve’s Steam Link App For iOS, Apple TV Citing “Business Conflicts”, But Issue May Be Resolved Soon

When Valve announced earlier this month that its Steam Link application for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV was due to be released soon, there was understandable excitement. The app was to allow gamers to play their Steam library on the aforementioned Apple devices, something that could potentially be a bit of a game changer for the Apple TV in particular.

However, things didn’t quite go according to plan with Valve announcing that Apple had rejected the app, preventing it from being released on the App Store.

In a statement to CNET, Valve said that Apple had initially approved the app and that it was all set to go live on May 7th. However, after the app was officially announced by Valve a couple of days later, Apple apparently changed its mind, rejecting the app. Valve said that Apple’s reasoning was “business conflicts with app guidelines” and that the app review team did not realize this was the case during initial review.

Despite appealing the decision, Valve was told the app was a no-go.

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.

However, Valve has since spoken with Reuters and confirmed that it has now disabled game purchasing via the iOS Steam Link app, potentially allowing it to go back through App Store review unscathed. If Steam Link did allow gamers to buy new titles initially, then things would make much more sense and we already know that Apple doesn’t like digital goods being offered via stores within apps. Amazon’s Kindle is a prime example of that.

Hopefully, the resubmitted version of Steam Link will tick all of Apple’s boxes this time around.

(Sources: CNET, Reuters)