Apple rejects game based on Syrian conflict

Apple has rejected a games based on the current conflict in Syria due to guidelines forbidding games that "solely target a specific race, culture, a real government or corporation or any other real entity".

Endgame: Syria was designed by Auroch Digital in just two weeks, with the purpose of educating players about a real-world conflict.

"This decision is a shame really as it makes it hard to talk about the real world," said designer Tomas Rawlings.

"We had hoped that Apple would be more nuanced in how they applied this rule but we got a bit worried when it had been in submission for around two weeks without a decision - we then figured that because of the controversy of using the gaming medium to cover an ongoing war meant passing the game had become an issue for them."

Auroch will resubmit the game with changes to Apple, but pointed out that as a HTML 5 title it can be played on iOS devices. It is also available on Android phones.

"Our aim is to use games as a format to bring news to a new audience and submission processes such as this do make it a lot harder for us," added Rawlings. "I get that Apple want to make sure really offensive titles don't pass into their store, but ours is far from that.

"In fact the response to the game has been broadly positive with much of the mainstream media picking up on the story. We'll be making changes to the game and re-submitting it but it does mean we'll have to strip some of the meaning and context from it to pass Apple's submission process and that is not ideal."