Lighten up, Apple! The strict restrictions that the fruity company has on its platform has taken another victim, as the preview of Project xCloud on iOS has come to an end.
With just one game that was made available for testers to try out — Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
According to reports, Apple has a guideline that is responsible for this wind down.
And that is the little fact that games offered in a game subscription on Apple platforms must be owned or exclusively licensed by the developer. To be fair, there are certainly more Xbox games that qualified for this rule, but Microsoft figured it was not worth the effort.
Which is why, it never bothered to pay too much attention to this side of the business while testing and optimizing its cloud game streaming service over the past few months.
Redmond did introduce the xCloud preview for iOS back in February, and it has now expired, with the software titan clearly not doing anything about it.
In fact, the focus is solely on the Android platform, as well as deals with companies like Samsung.
Microsoft’s cloud streaming service is set to launch on September 15 for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers who will have access to more than 100 games on day one.
Apple, of course, has been under criticism from several circles on the restrictions that it applies on its platforms. It does not allow game streaming in the App Store, which is why both Google Stadia and NVIDIA GeForce Now services are not available on iOS.
And unless something gives, Microsoft’s big cloud gaming bet will not be either.