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Executives and engineers from Facebook\u2019s games division submitted their new app, Facebook Gaming, to Apple last month for approval to offer it in the iPhone maker\u2019s App Store.<\/p>\n
Apple considered Facebook\u2019s application for a few weeks. This month, it delivered its verdict: denied.<\/p>\n
The Facebook team was not surprised. It wasn\u2019t the first time Apple had said no to the Facebook Gaming app. Or the second. Or even the third.<\/p>\n
Since February, Apple has rejected at least five versions of Facebook Gaming, according to three people with knowledge of the companies, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the details are confidential. Each time, the people said, Apple cited its rules that prohibit apps with the \u201cmain purpose\u201d of distributing casual games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Facebook Gaming may also have been hurt by appearing to compete with Apple\u2019s own sales of games, two of the people said. Games are by far the most lucrative category of mobile apps worldwide. Apple\u2019s App Store, the only officially approved place for iPhone and iPad users to find new games and other programs, generated about $15 billion in revenue last year.<\/p>\n
Apple\u2019s rejections of the app from Facebook, a fellow Silicon Valley powerhouse, illustrate the control it exerts over the mobile software and entertainment ecosystem \u2014 clout that regulators are increasingly examining. On Tuesday, the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union, said it had opened a formal antitrust investigation into Apple to determine if the terms that the company imposes on app developers violate competition rules.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to ensure that Apple\u2019s rules do not distort competition in markets where Apple is competing with other app developers,\u201d said Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission executive vice president in charge of competition policy.<\/p>\n This week, Basecamp publicly complained that its new email app, Hey, had been denied from the App Store because it charged customers outside Apple\u2019s payment system, keeping the giant company from collecting its 30 percent cut.<\/p>\n \u201cWe keep trying to find logic, consistency in Apple\u2019s App Store decisions,\u201d David Hansson, Basecamp\u2019s co-founder and chief technology officer, wrote on Twitter<\/a>. \u201cThe answer is much more basic: power. Apple can do what they want, when they want, so they do.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Hansson added that the Justice Department\u2019s antitrust division had contacted him earlier to talk about Apple.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Apple, which will hold its annual developer conference next week, said the App Store has many apps that offer casual games and that follow its rules, including the main Facebook app. <\/p>\n Facebook said it would release Facebook Gaming when Apple approved it.<\/p>\n