Apple shuts down Stadium browser for iOS

Earlier this month, we reported on a clever way to get Stadia on your iPhone, despite Apple guidelines, stating that “Games offered in a streaming game service subscription must be downloaded directly from the App Store, must be designed to avoid duplicate payment by a subscriber, and should not disadvantage non-subscriber customers.” The solution came from the indie developer Zach Knox in the form of a free browser, called Stadium.

This app allows users to log into their Google Stadia account and play games directly from their library. The browser works on any iOS device with iOS 14.0 or later, and offers support for Bluetooth game controllers. Now it turns out that Stadium’s days on the App Store are numbered. Zach revealed on Twitter, that Apple will delete its app from the App Store because it violates Apple’s guideline 2.5.1 and section 3.3.1 of the Developer License Agreement.

For anyone interested, the official rules cited in my rejection were Guideline 2.5.1 and section 3.3.1 of the Developer License Agreement pic.twitter.com/brQsRsSf7B

— Zach (@zmknox) October 21, 2020

 What Apple didn’t like about Zach’s browser was the extended WebKit hooked into the native GameController framework. In layman’s terms – the Bluetooth controller support. Zach is determined to bring back the Stadium browser, though. The developer posted a tweet, reading “Watch this space”, indicating that more news on the subject will follow. One chance for Stadium to comply with Apple’s guidelines will be to drop the extended Bluetooth controller support and trade it for support for Stadia’s own controller instead. We’ll keep an eye on the subject and inform you about any further development.

Source: Phonearena