Earlier this month Valve announced it was developing Steam Link apps that would let you stream PC games over a home network to a phone, tablet, or TV. A week later the company released the Android version. And a week after that… the company announced that an iOS version might not be coming anytime soon.

That’s because Valve says Apple hasn’t (and won’t) approve the app for distribution in the App Store.

Steam Link for Android

Theoretically, Valve could released a Steam Link app that would run on jailbroken iOS devices, but it’s more likely that the company will continue to work to try to get Apple to approve the app.

In fact, the company says Apple had already approved the app before Valve publicly announced that it was going to be releasing Steam Link for Android and iOS… but that Apple “revoked its approval citing business conflicts with app guidelines that had allegedly not been realized by the original review team.”

It’s unclear what those conflicts are, or what changes Valve would have to make in order for the app to be approved.

Update: Apple has sent a note to some customers that says, in part:

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. 

In other words, it sure sounds like the company is concerned that Steam Link, which is basically a remote desktop app that lets you stream the Steam game client to a mobile device, somehow violates Apple’s rules because Steam is basically its own app store (and Apple doesn’t let developers distribute app stores in its App Store)… even though Steam isn’t actually running natively on Apple phones, tablets, or TVs. 

via CNET

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers

6 replies on “Valve says Apple rejected its Steam Link app for iOS”

  1. Malwares are not allowed in the AppStore, and this include valves worm/“””drm”””

  2. Assuming it’s because you can buy games on Steam…

    The Steam Link app is kind of like a remote desktop app but limited to Steam. If you use a remote desktop app you can essentially do almost anything that you would sitting in front of your desktop PC – including making all kinds of purchases.

    A quick google search shows that Apple allows remote desktop apps. It would seem inconsistent to deny Valve to have Steam Link on the App Store if they allow remote desktop apps.

    I think (again, assuming it’s about the Steam store aspect) perhaps Apple is taking issue with it because the end result is people playing games on their phone that were not purchased via their App Store.

    1. Exactly. Should I be disallowed from running a remote desktop app because I cannot buy Windows, Office, Adobe Creative Suite, Pro Tools and a host of other programs on the Apple App Store? Apple’s logic is very much backwards here.

  3. Apple want a cut in Steam sells. What is a mistake, because Steam do not sell over IOS or Android, and this is only a way of gaming in our Linux / Mac / MS WOS machine using your phone, tablet or box only as interface.

    Letting only Android boxes and not Apple TVs to run Steam games, with the lack of this kind of games OSX has is a great mistake for Apple, if they insist on it.

  4. I guess it’s about that any transaction on a Steam game would not be going through the Appstore so in Apple’s eyes it’s a seapare appstore in an app thet they don’t get a cut from, which is against the rules.

Comments are closed.