The Live Indian Entertainment Blog

While there's no evidence that points to this developer's rant as the reason his app was pulled, it's undeniable that his game was pulled from the App Store soon after it. Game developer Tommy Refenes publicly called Apple's app store "awful" and "horrible" (and worse) on March 10th at the Game Developer's Conference. This week, Apple kicked his game out of the App Store.

His game was "Zits & Giggles." It's a simple pimple-popping game for the iPhone and iPod touch, which reportedly the developers created as a "lark." In fact, since the game was released March 9th of 2009, sales have been "negligible."

During his rant, Refenes said that he "absolutely f*cking hate the iPhone App Store. I think it's awful; I think it's horrible."

He added that he started an experiment five months ago, to prove that the App Store is "kind of sh*t, for most things." The experiment was changing the pricing, to ridiculous prices for a game, especially a game this simple.

Five months ago, Refenses raised the game's price to $15. The day he raised it, three people bought it. Raising the price up to $50 allegedly resulted in four sales, and fourteen people are said to have bought the game when the price escalated to $299. One person even bought the game for $400 on the same day it was removed from the App Store.

Refenses conclusion: most people who buy games on the App Store are not gamers. The App Store is a way to sell a brand, much like the old, unlamented Tiger handhelds he spoke about, as well.
Big names sell, but they don't play well on a touchscreen, he concluded.

Another possible conclusion: people paying $299 for this sort of game are idiots. But that's another story.

At any rate, the app is out of the store, and Apple, as it typically does, will not give an explanation for the banning. It could be because he continued to raise the price, as Apple has a history of banning outlandishly nonsense apps.

Or, it could be because he ranted and dissed the App Store. We'll never know, unless Apple opens up, and that's unlikely, based on history.

Watch Refenes' rant on video: