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[Update] Apple rejects Tank Battle: East Front 1942 because of the use of the term 'enemies'

With friends like these... (Updated: Apple reverses its decision)

[Update] Apple rejects Tank Battle: East Front 1942 because of the use of the term 'enemies'
Updated on March 14th, at 16:31: Hunted Cow has told Pocket Tactics that Apple has reversed its decision.

As such, Apple has approved Tank Battle: East Front 1942 and will allow it onto the App Store without any changes.

Tank Battle: East Front 1942 should be available on iOS this weekend.


In a bizarre turn of events, Hunted Cow Studios has revealed that Apple has rejected its upcoming war sim Tank Battle: East Front 1942 because of the use of the word 'enemies' in the game.

The following quote is taken from a screenshot of the Apple rejection note that Hunted Cow's Andrew Mullholland sent to Pocket Tactics.

"We found that your app contains content or features that include people from a specific race, culture, government, corporation, or other real entity as the enemies in the context of the game, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines," Apple states in its rejection letter.

"Specifically, we noticed your app depicts real entity [sic] as the enemies."

In other words, then, Apple rejected this historically accurate war game because - depending on which campaign you're playing - it depicts the Germans or the Russians as your enemies.

This is despite the fact that Tank Battle: East Front 1941, from the same developer, went live on the App Store last month without any problems. As did Tank Battle: North Africa.

It's a weird outcome. And Hunted Cow, as you might expect, is appealing the decision.

If this all sounds familiar, by the way, we've been down this very specific road before. Yep, Apple rejected the first incarnation of Pacific Fleet back in September 2012 for the same 'crime'.

Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.