Apple Rejects War Game For Depicting Germans, Russians As Enemies

[Andy Chalk]

Apple Rejects War Game For Depicting Germans, Russians As Enemies

Apple gave the thumbs-down to the iOS game Tank Battle: East Front 1942 for depicting Germany and the Soviet Union as enemies.

You may have read about a spot of unpleasantness between the Germans and the Soviets back in the early 1940s. Bit of a territorial dispute, some political wrangling, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 million dead soldiers over the course of about four years. Famously nasty stuff.

But not quite famous enough to pass muster at the App Store, apparently. Tank Battle: East Front 1942, a war game for iOS devices, was recently rejected by Apple for portraying the two sides as enemies.

"We found that your app contains content or features that include people from a specific race, culture, government, corporation, or other real entity as the enemies in the context of the game, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines," Apple said in an email sent to developer Hunted Cow Studios. "Specifically, we noticed that your app depicts (a) real entity as the enemies."

The email recommended that Hunted Cow review the app and "revise the concept to avoid targeting any groups or individuals" in order to bring it into compliance. Hunted Cow boss Andrew Mulholland says he's not really sure how to go about that. "I guess we could use 'opposition' [instead of 'enemy']," he told Pocket Tactics.

Oddly enough, its predecessor, Tank Battle: East Front 1941 [https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tank-battle-east-front-1941/id825767048?mt=8] was approved for the App Store just last month with no reported problems. Hunted Cow is appealing the decision.

Source: Pocket Tactics [http://www.pockettactics.com/news/ios-news/apple-rejects-tank-battle-1942-depicting-germans-russians-enemies/]


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[Xan Krieger]

Somehow I feel the timing of the release has everything to do with it, with the whole Russia making politics with NATO tense again.

 

[rofltehcat]

This is ridiculous.
However, are they refering to them directly as Russians and Germans? Maybe changing it to Soviets and Wehrmacht (e.g. "Ostheer" and Soviets in CoH2) would do the trick. Looks like they are already using the Soviet Union's flag and an adapted version of the WW2 Reichskriegsflagge (without the swastika) as opposed to today's German and Russian flags (in which case their rejection based on their terms would at least make a bit sense).
The rejection sounds still stupid though. Forgetting about history and all...

 

[thisbymaster]

The current times don't change well known history. It takes longer to make a game like this than the current problems have been in the news. This is very likely a innocent game.

 

[Khymerion]

Except the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany are both defunct nations from as far as my not quite as up to date knowledge of history tells me. Russia is not the Soviet Union and Germany is definitely not the country it was during the 1940s, as that state was ground into dust. Good to know that the un-educated fools at Apple do not understand history in any way, shape, or form.

What next? Should any war game that uses the United States be banned because the US is a real entity?

This is just utterly ridiculous.

 

[1337mokro]

Because fuck history. Revisionism in action.

We can't actually make stuff about real events. That would harm the feels of some people! Despite the fact we have the exact same stuff already on our store...

Truth is we just didn't like your hair, that's why we thumbed it down.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I'm guessing that there are absolutely no other games on the appstore that involve WWII or the US military then? Naturally Apple would rather not have controversial material such as anything to do with actual history, that way they can have more fart noise apps.

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/fart!!/id375248440?mt=8

Stay classy Apple.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

I knew it. Apple is turning into a powerhungry megalomniac tyrant. They're already sanitizing history, erasing the parts that do not suit their views. And then they wait until all have forgotten and no one will see it coming when the iTanks roll into Poland.

 

[Tanis]

Apple...is run by retards.

If Steve 'I'm going to die even faster by embracing fake medicine' Jobs wasn't bad enough...
Now there's THESE morons!

 

[teqrevisited]

As a company that is so aggressive to the point of bullying when petty legal matters come up I'm surprised that they don't condone depicting real world entities bashing the ever-living shit out of each other.

Well as long as they don't invent the iChronosphere...

 

[Kargathia]

What next? Should any war game that uses the United States be banned because the US is a real entity?

This is just utterly ridiculous.

Try and make a game where you're fighting against the US. That should go over well.

 

[FalloutJack]

Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize we had all the feels for a tank battle game with no such friction set against almost any other war game with nationalities involved ever. I thought we all agreed that Nazis and Soviets were considered acceptable targets. That is, past figures of ugly wartime who buy-and-large are dead, gone, and buried (except for like fleeting war criminals who are old as hell and still punished when found). Gimme some perspective here, Apple.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

The Uzbek tankers from my example were "only white soldiers"?

I sorta doubt the programmers put that much effort into detailing every unit to a degree where you can tell the pigmentation of the skin.

Yes, there have been some divisions of locals on either side, but those aren't really relevant in this particular case. Or do you imply it has only been disapproved because of ethnical diversity within the armies? Because that'd be absolutely politically incorrect.

So in the end, all that remains is nazis versus communists.

But yeah, make it "predominantly white soldiers" when it makes you feel better.

Norman Davies, a relatively eminent historian has pointed out that statistically the bulk of soldiers fighting for the Soviets from 1942 onwards were from the Central Asian regions of the USSR. There was nothing predominantly white about the Red Army. You're correct in saying that this isn't likely the excuse they used, though.

OT: Apple are clowns.

 

[mistwolf]

This is clearly a new or incompetent reviewer being too literal in interpreting the rules. I'd say resubmit and get someone else. The bad press here and elsewhere will probably get it approved anyway. There's no shortage of WWII games on the app store, this is simply a mistake, not a grand conspiracy.

 

[Dragonlayer]

....WHAT.

Well that's bloody stupid isn't it? Hopefully this was the result of a machine or computer program designed to root out dreaded racism and NOT some real living human being, otherwise I'll really lose my temper.