TECHWEEK
Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, in a weekly Power On newsletter, speculated about how Apple is blocking streaming giant Netflix from developing its gaming service.
For example, Netflix recently launched its video game platform based on its Netflix Gaming series. The company has made it clear that it ultimately intends to attract a new audience of users to its service. However, there is one major obstacle in the way of Netflix – Apple, Gourmet notes.
Last week, November 2, the new gaming service successfully launched on the Android platform, then the company said that the version for Apple is not far off, but with the implementation of this may be difficult, says Mark.
At the moment, the Netflix offering is not like the classic all-in-one gaming service. Despite the fact that the head application has a “games” tab, each game is installed separately through the Google Play Store and works as a standalone application.
The journalist believes that the best solution would be to do the way videos and TV shows work now, allowing you to open everything directly in the main application. This is how services from competitors like Microsoft, Nvidia and Google work.
But if for Android it will be quite acceptable, then for iOS – no. The fact is that Apple’s app store rules do not allow third-party developers to create all-in-one apps for gaming services. The company requires the creation of a separate page in the App Store for each application, prohibiting the creation of an “application in an application”, even if it is a cloud service. This creates huge difficulties for companies, previously these rules did not allow the full launch of the services of Xbox Cloud Gaming, Nvidia GeForce Now and Google Stadia on iOS devices. There are no such restrictions on Google Play.
To provide full access to their services on the iPhone and iPad, the developers had to come up with “crutches”, namely – launch their applications through the Safari browser, which is inconvenient and significantly inferior to the original principle.
It seems that it is precisely because of Apple’s ban on all-in-one apps that Netflix’s gaming service came out as separate apps on Android, which gives an idea of exactly how the offer will work on iOS, Gourmet argues.
Thus, Netflix will have to release all of its games to the App Store separately. This approach is a solution to the problem, but not one that will allow the Netflix gaming service to have a chance of success. Consumers prefer all-in-one services.
The current Android solution does not work on this principle, but I expect that it will only be so for a limited time, ”concluded Mark.
To become a universal service on iOS, Netflix will need to make it cloud-based, and Apple will need to change its rules or provide an exception for Netflix. Thus, the fate of success is entirely in the hands of Apple, a longtime partner, as well as a current competitor.
