Earlier this month Valve announced that its free Steam Link app will arrive this week for both iOS and Android platforms, allowing PC gamers with existing rigs to play their Steam library of games on smartphones via a 5GHz WiFi connection, complete with controller support. Unfortunately, Apple has blocked Steam Link from release on its App Store, despite previously approving it.
A Valve PR representative explains via email that Apple initially approved the app on May 7. Valve waited to announce the Steam Link app news until May 9, which I covered here. They even had a release window targeted. The morning of May 10 Apple revoked its approval, citing "business conflicts with app guidelines."
Valve immediately submitted an appeal, explaining that its Steam Link has similar functionality to multiple LAN-based remote desktop apps that already exist on the App Store.
Apple denied the appeal, blocking the Steam Link app from being released.
"The team here spent many hours on this project and the approval process, so we're clearly disappointed," the Valve representative says. "But we hope Apple will reconsider in the future."
This leaves a ton of Steam users with iOS devices (both iPhones and iPads) out in the cold, as the app now appears to be in limbo. The Steam Link app is currently live in beta form on Google Play for Android users. It currently has more than 100,000 downloads after 3 days with an over 4.3 out of 5 rating.
Clearly something broke down following Apple's original approval, and Valve appears to have been completely blindsided by it. Apple hasn't cited a more specific reason for blocking the app, and wasn't immediately available for comment.
It's a disappointing development for iOS users, but I'm suddenly a little more thankful that I recently yanked myself away from the Apple ecosystem and returned to Android. However, Nvidia GPU users might want to look into an alternative iOS app called Moonlight.
What are your thoughts? Were you looking forward to being able to stream your Steam game library to your iOS devices?
