I wish I could say that Apple changed its mind. But it's more accurate to say that the game's publisher, UK-based Auroch Digital, found a way to humor the humorless iBureaucrats. "Endgame: Syria" has been repackaged as "Endgame: Eurasia", which is pretty much the same game except that the name "Syria" has been removed along with references to specific groups such as the Free Syrian Army or Hezbollah.
"We've come to the end of three rejections and one appeal and the only way we've been able to get Endgame: Syria out on iOS was to remove all references to the real world and sadly that changes it from a 'newsgame' into just a 'game'," developer Tomas Rawlings announced in a press release. "We've released this game version so at least players with Apple devices can get a feel for what we originally intended for the platform."
Rawlings told me that "the Eurasia game is the same structure as Endgame:Syria, but we're replaced the images of that identify Syria, such as the flag with fictional ones and all the locations are replaced with places from out-of copyright fictional locations, for example Eurasia is from 1984."
"Endgame: Syria" is still available for Android on Google Play and for the PC on GameJolt. It has been recently updated to include Scud missiles and weapons of mass destruction.
"Endgame: Syria" is not a high-fidelity political-military simulation of a very complicated civil war that even real governments and experts can't figure out how to resolve. But it is laudable that the publishers at least have tried to enhance the public's understanding of current events through games. If only Apple were as open-minded, or less fearful of offending dictators.
