Anybody ever seen anything like this before? About every two or three days and new app shows up in the racing section. Shows one single splash screen in the images and the actual “game” is a fake… at best a 2d view of something and one button to push that could be made in two hours of work.
How did these get through the approval process? Its obvious what they are doing, a short span of Free, then they probably have several accounts that they give themselves 5 star ratings then they change it to a Pay game and sucker everybody in.
Should not be allowed that they don’t have actual in game screenshots and more description. Makes all of us look bad and in the long run, reduces peoples confidence in the app store.
Here are just a few, there are several more. I didn’t see anywhere to report apps either
Anyway the “quality control” is about making sure there’s no malware and that the basic guidelines are followed. It’s not about making sure apps are actually any good, but they seem to respond to complaints about fake apps and take them down when notified, judging from past incidents.
The worst parts some of their apps are xxx content yet have a age rating of only 4+. They seems to be going under two names, “Sex Pretty Asian LLC” and “XXX Free Images LLC”
Why am I spending months on end putting together a game when I could just make a bunch of prototypes, un-finished and un-polished and get an awesome graphic and sell more copies than I would of if I actual put time and love into it?
Homestly, how mich money do you think these guys made? Maybe a hundred bucks? Maybe a 1000? Anyhow, Apple, like Eric said just has to make sure it works and is non offensive etc. They do not judge if it is good.
Why? It’s not like this is a new thing. There was that guy a year or two back who put thousands of apps on the store, where he’d essentially upload the same one half a dozen times, with literally the only change being the background color. Eventually got banned. Breaking news: some people will act like total gits in an attempt to cash in on popular thing. Shocker!
Seeing stuff like this, seeing stuff like Pokemon Yellow (non-functionining app blatantly ripping off popular IP illegally) get top chart spots, and mostly my continued experience making apps. The money is being more and more concentrated in the top percentage of apps – getting harder and harder to break in. I’m personally losing patience.
There is nothing wrong with the App Store. Anytime anything is set up, to benifit people, there is a small percentage that tries to abuse that system. Its nothing new. The App Store has nothing wrong as far as I am concerned.
A couple of tweaks would prevent this. 1. Require actual in game screen shot(s) in the app description. 2. Have a “Report App” button for the clear bait and switch, knockoffs, offensive etc. Store data and if it exceeds a certain percentage, have it flagged to be looked at by a human to see whats going on
Sure. Anything to get rid of the scammers, but as for the App Store, one of the, if not the, and certainly is in the mobile world, busiest, most properous market on Planet Earth, I think they are doing most things right. Pessimism does not enter my mind when I think of Apple’s App Store, but hey! That just me.
Wouldn’t you agree that, ideally, the quality of the apps relative to their value should dictate how well they chart? There are lots of apps that only chart because they pay for downloads and reviews. That’s a pretty big flaw in my opinion. The App Store is obviously one of the better digital markets, but I think it’s pretty ridiculous to say it’s infallible.
Im not suggesting that. i have never really thought about these thes of apps as more than scammers will be scammers. If Apple can come up with a system to detere these types of apps, then great. Just as long as it doesnt hinder the release of legitamite apps.
There are quite a few of those in the past few months. One of the more famous one is this :
“Temple Jump” (left) by Anton Sinelnikov - who ‘cloned’ the game of famous “Temple Run” (right), but with completely garbage non-working game…
Another one :
Some of the more ‘creative’ copycat:
I am pretty sure its probably by the same guy “Anton Sinelnikov”.
He also made bunch of other similar sounding title popular games such as "Plant vs. Zombie and Angry Ninja Birds", Plants vs. Zombie", “Tiny Birds!”, “Catch the Birds”, “Numbers With Friends”, “Angry Ninja Birds”, “Zombie Air Highway”…
It is also interesting to note he also made another game called “Sexual Offenders HD”. LOL.
Apple eventually removed his games after too many complaints. I guess he probably found a loophole and is making bunch of phony companies to submit his game to App Store.
"With unscrupulous game developers looking to make a quick buck off unsuspecting iOS users, Apple didn’t respond with decisive action against these poor applications until the press brought attention to the problem. Originally discovered by The Guardian earlier today, Apple’s App Store was flooded with copycat gaming applications that mimicked the design style and names of popular iPhone and iPad games like Plant vs. Zombies and Tiny Wings. Created by a developer called Anton Sinelnikov, these applications trick iOS users into wasting money on software that doesn’t even work. Sinelnikov is responsible for publishing apps such as Plants vs. Zombie, Tiny Birds!, Catch the Birds, Numbers With Friends, Angry Ninja Birds, Zombie Air Highway and Temple Jump. Keith Shepard, creator of the extremely popular Temple Run game, was posting on Twitter earlier about the problem and stated “Yah, I feel bad for all the people fooled into buying this. It’s not even a working game, just a broken piece of junk.” Customers that purchased the application attempted to leave a barrage of one-star reviews warning other customers away from the scam, but that didn’t seem to tip Apple off. After the story was published on the Guardian, Apple took swift action against Anton Sinelnikov and removed the majority of the applications that were blatant ripoffs of extremely popular games. According to Apple’s guidelines for developers, the rule book clearly states “If you attempt to cheat the system (for example, by trying to trick the review process, steal data from users, copy another developer’s work, or manipulate the ratings) your apps will be removed from the store and you will be expelled from the developer program.” However, Apple didn’t bother removing any of these applications that were clearly violating the guidelines until there was a public outcry about the problem. While Apple allows users to report applications that are offensive or buggy, the App Store doesn’t offer an option that would allow App Store customers to report apps that are clearly ripping off another application. Since Apple doesn’t seem to be interested in policing the App Store internally, the company should at least crowdsource the task with customers. It’s also surprising that Apple actually published Sinelnikov’s applications as the approval process is said to be extremely exhaustive. If the app approval process allows applications with nearly identical art styles, names and icons to pass though the process unscathed, it’s clear that Apple needs to revisit how it judges new apps. Apple’s role in copyright protection and IP infringement has been far less involved than the approval process though. Similar to relying on customers for reviews, Apple relies on developers of popular applications to police the App Store and submit complaints to Apple directly. Apple investigates the complaint and removes the harmful application if the complaint is deemed as valid. While larger game publishers have used this process to protect classic titles being prepped for the App Store, independent developers likely don’t have the manpower or time to dedicate to policing the App Store on a daily basis. During late October 2011, an app called Cut the Birds was removed from the App Store after the creator of Angry Birds, Rovio, submitted a complaint that the game was too similar to its popular game. Cut the Birds combined the concept of Fruit Ninja and Angry Birds. It quickly caught the attention of Rivio after the game skyrocketed to the top of the charts. Despite the game’s removal from the App Store and the Android Market, the company that developed the game released a new version of the game using 3D models of the birds as well as a followup called Cut the Birds 2, both of which are on the App Store right now. In 2009, Apple took action against app developer Molinker after the company was busted by customers for creating fake reviews on iPhone applications. A member of an iPhone photography blog community spotted a trend in which Molinker applications were reviewed by the same people over and over. Before 1,000 Molinker applications were removed from the App Store for good, the iPhone blogger estimated that over 90 percent of all of Molinker’s reviews were completely fabricated."
You know, I think the solution to this problem is actually pretty simple.
Just DELAY THE PAYOUT - make the payout to developers every 3 months. Any time during the 3 month period if there are user complaints - it will trigger Apple investigation, and all the money earned during that time will be forfeited and return to buyers. So effectively, it will stop the "grab and run’ by these unscrupulous developers.
