Apple Decides To Have A Beef With Valve’s Steam Link iOS App

It looks like someone’s being a bad Apple again. Earlier this week, Valve released the Steam Link mobile app that let users stream games from their PC to their phone or tablet – a la NVIDIA GameStream (which has existed for five years). Like any developer worth its weight, Valve released both an Android and iOS version of the app, and while Google’s seemingly a-OK with it, Apple considers it a threat that must be dealt with. And it has been… as the app’s been removed from the App Store.

This is of course ridiculous, and simply Apple being Apple. Valve has made the argument that its Steam Link app is no different from any other remote desktop software, and really, that’s true. The point of the app is to merely broadcast a screen to a mobile device and let it be interactive. The problem is that most remote desktop software isn’t designed with gaming in mind; Valve’s solution was made to give gamers an option worth using.

Valve says that it’s disappointed (of course) in Apple’s decision, and that its team has spent “many hours” on the project. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Apple change its mind, because the design of this app seems to be just fine and dandy. People just need to make noise about it. TeamViewer is available on the App Store, for example. It too lets you interact with your PC, remotely.

To play devil’s advocate, it could be that something specific about the Steam Link design rubs Apple the wrong way, and if that’s the case, we’re bound to find out about it at some point. But considering the fact that Apple’s been heavy-handed with app bans in the past, I find it very difficult to trust its judgment on matters like these.

If you’re an iOS user and have been burned by this removal, it wouldn’t hurt to let Apple know that its decision is misguided. If you want to grab the app from a friendlier app store, go here.