Following the news that Apple has removed indie developer Molleindustria's latest game from the App Store due to a violation of Apple's review guidelines, the game has now been released on the Android Market.
The game was designed by the studio to highlight workers' rights issues in the supply chain and production of Apple's iPhone, with a collection of minigames showing each step of the process.
Shortly after the game was announced and made available for purchase on the App Store yesterday, MolleIndustria tweeted that it had been removed for violating four separate app store review guidelines (as noticed by sister site IndieGames.com).
The cited guidelines prohibit apps that "depict violence or child abuse," "present objectionable or crude content," "contain false, fraudulent of misleading representations" or fail to "comply with all legal requirements."
Molleindustria has now released the game for Android devices. The content in the game is the same as the original iPhone release.
I know they claimed that this wasn't orchestrated in another article, but it really feels like they are playing the media (and Apple) like a piano with the pacing of news reports of the matter, which seems hard to cultivate organically with such success. Seriously, I've stumbled onto at least half a dozen instances mentioning this this morning. If they really weren't waiting with press releases for an intentional App store rejection (and I have a hard time believing they would expect such a controversial game speaking against Apple to remain on the App Store), then they are applaudably quick to cook something up post facto, getting in contact with the press so quickly, and... I guess flipping the switch in their custom dev environment to output to Java so they can launch on the Droid so quickly amidst the hype. Yes, yes, I know they must have had the Droid version built ahead of time and intended to launch it anyway, but "Anti-Apple App Banned from iPhone Seeks Shelter on Open Platform" is a tasty morsel to go after, and so many things are falling perfectly into place.
Either way, a very interesting example of a successful marketing story.
Don't know for sure, but it could have been developed in Unity or some kind of Flash middleware that exports to binary. Even if they are playing the media, it doesn't make the message any less meaningful.
I'd like to think we'd all be a little sickened if we discovered the unethical (and frankly sinful) labor practices that feed our modern comforts. You can't buy hardly anything without contributing to it somehow.
"A lot of tech-aware people heard about the story of the Foxconn suicides..."
Yep. And a lot of tech-aware people jumped to conclusions not supported by the facts. For example, the suicide rate at the Foxconn plants is *lower* than the suicide rate in other similar areas of China. It's also lower than the suicide rate in the U.S. But they didn't want to hear that, so instead you got a bunch of people (media included) talking about how the 'horrible work conditions' (again, better pay, etc. than other comparable positions, and significantly above the local 'norm') were causing 'so many' suicides.
If they're making claims about "issues in the supply chain and production of Apple's iPhone" (or any product, for that matter), they better hope they've got the facts on their side, or they're opening themselves up for a *world* of legal troubles.
Either way, a very interesting example of a successful marketing story.
Absolutely. I just like trying to figure out how information spreads :). Does Unity export to Droid? I haven't kept up with it.
www.fingermonkeywire.com
That's what i said on my post on the original thread of the game being banned.
Yep. And a lot of tech-aware people jumped to conclusions not supported by the facts. For example, the suicide rate at the Foxconn plants is *lower* than the suicide rate in other similar areas of China. It's also lower than the suicide rate in the U.S. But they didn't want to hear that, so instead you got a bunch of people (media included) talking about how the 'horrible work conditions' (again, better pay, etc. than other comparable positions, and significantly above the local 'norm') were causing 'so many' suicides.
If they're making claims about "issues in the supply chain and production of Apple's iPhone" (or any product, for that matter), they better hope they've got the facts on their side, or they're opening themselves up for a *world* of legal troubles.