Apple has confirmed to publishers that it will remove all games from the App Store in China that have not received a government approval by June 30.
This is coming from Bloomberg‘s anonymous sources.
According to localization and publishing firm AppInChina, there are about 60,000 games on China’s App Store that are paid or offer in-app purchases. At least a third of them don’t have a license. It means that in July the publishers of these games will start losing revenue from China, which is usually their second-largest market after the U.S.
If these games are to stay on the App Store in China, publishers will have to transition their games to in-app advertising, which is not subject to the same review process. Alternatively, they can partner with publishers like Tencent to obtain licenses.
We are yet to see how long it will take Apple to remove all unlicensed games after the deadline.