Apple Bans a Game for Change Bejamin Poynter’s...

Apple Bans a Game for Change

Bejamin Poynter’s newest creation, In a Permanent Save State (video above), was just banned from the Apple Store for objectionable content.

The Verge reports:

Apple has banned a politically charged iPhone game that tackles human rights issues associated with mass-produced electronics.

Benjamin Poynter’s In A Permanent Save State is a surreal and visually striking interactive narrative that the creator says imagines the spiritual afterlife of seven overworked laborers who have committed suicide, alluding to real-life events at Foxconn’s electronics manufacturing plants in 2010. But the game was quietly removed from the App Store less than an hour after it went live earlier today.

It’s unclear which part of Apple’s guidelines the company claims the game violated, but sources familiar with Apple’s review process have pointed us to app guidelines against “objectionable content,” (16.1) and depictions which “solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation, or any other real entity” (15.3) as the most likely culprits.

It’s not the first time Apple has banned an app that deals with the murky side of production. Phone Story, which was a source of inspiration for Poynter, faced a similar fate.

What this highlights yet again, is Apple’s control over the app market. Google, thankfully, doesn’t control its store in the same manner and the Android version of Poynter’s game will be out November 12.