Stoneloops! of Jurassica removed from App Store after complaints from Luxor creator
Marble popper disappears down a black hole
Maciej Biedrzycki, one of the makers of marble popping game Stoneloops! of Jurassica has been blogging about the game's woes after it was suddenly removed from the App Store.
Apparently, the reason is a complaint from MumboJumbo, creator of similar title Luxor.
Biedrzycki says it wrote to Apple saying Stoneloops!, which was released after Luxor on the web, but before it on the App Store, infringed Luxor's copyright and confused customers.
Codeminion, the company that originally developed Stoneloops! (the iPhone version was published by Playcreek), sent a response to Apple about the issue three weeks ago and then heard nothing more about it until now.
Biedrzycki also says the final decision to remove Stoneloops! wasn't made by Apple, but by MumboJumbo, after the iPhone manufacturer left it to the gaming rival to decide whether Codeminion's answers to the complaint were satisfactory.
"Of course MumboJumbo replied that they still want StoneLoops! removed," says Biedrzycki, clearly perturbed but in good humour.
"After all if you were to decide whether your direct competition will be allowed to sell products or not, would you allow them? Talk about unfair competition."
Although Biedrzycki happily admits that on other platforms, Luxor is the dominant force in the marble popping game genre, the fact that Stoneloops! made it to iPhone first reversed the two games' fortunes, and made the newcomer the popular choice for App Store shoppers - prompting the complaint.
"[If] Apple stands by its decision this will create a dangerous precedence," Biedrzycki concludes.
"If you are a developer and have an application in the App Store you should quickly request Apple to remove the apps of your competition, before someone else requests to remove you! I don’t believe this can get any more absurd, but this is exactly where this reasoning is getting us."
Codeminion is looking to resolve the issue, but in the meantime you can check out the full and frank story over on the company's blog.
