Over a year ago, 2K Games made the decision to pull BioShock from Apple’s App Store, after it was found to be incompatible with iOS versions greater than 8.3. Previously, 2K’s support site stated the removal was temporary, however, a quiet update yesterday made it clear it is, in fact, permanent.
The edit was spotted by former PocketGamer news editor Clément Renaudin, who posted a comparison of the changes via Twitter.
If you’re after something more definitive, it’s also possible to compare the current page to an archived one from the Wayback Machine.
Oh and the URL itself still contains the words “BioShock-temporarily-removed-from-the-App-Store”.
I doubt anyone lost much sleep over the original removal, let alone this new revelation, but that doesn’t make 2K’s rather delayed response any less interesting.
The pre-edited page stated that a patch was in the works to make the game compatible:
As of December 2015, BioShock is currently incompatible with iOS version 9 and has been temporarily removed from the App Store.
We are working to update the game as soon as possible to include iOS version 9 compatibility. Currently, if your Apple device is running iOS 8.4 or newer, you may encounter gameplay issues with BioShock.
Considering 2K pretty much slayed the various studios that worked on the BioShock franchise, getting the iOS version back up and running was probably a low priority, one that wasn’t going to be expedited anytime soon.
Killercow [Twitter, via TouchArcade]
Comments
5 responses to “BioShock For iOS Is Never Coming Back To The App Store”
We sort of take for granted Microsoft’s legendary forward compatibility (and the ecosystem that has been built up for stuff that isn’t). Where as Apple simply doesn’t have that same commitment.
Erm, I am assuming you haven’t got a bunch of business apps like I do that will absolutely not run on anything past XP.
And when it comes to their mobile platforms, good luck to anyone with the RT based apps.
My day job is getting those apps working, you have compatability modes and application virtualisation as part of the Microsoft stack for a start. For more problematic cases, do consider running 32 bit Windows if your application is really that important, as the NTVDM helps with plenty of XP and before era software. All else fails, dosbox or a virtual machine can get things running as well.
As for RT, you do realise those applications are universal, and in fact will work on any Microsoft device from Windows Phone, Xbox to Windows 10 (if the publisher allows it).
But I do love how you are comparing applications that are over 16 years old (and of which are probably trivial to get working), with a game that was released in 2014, and whose compatibility was broken by 2016.
Also kids, stop being tightarses and update your fucking software so you don’t have to pay people like me to get your shit working.
If you’re relying on virtualisation, or emulators, or installing versions from different architectures to get your old software working, then clearly compatibility has been broken in the new version.
If Apple released a virtualisation solution for their next iPhone that let you run iOS 8 in a VM, it wouldn’t change the fact that Bioshock doesn’t run natively under new versions of iOS.
Without knowing how Bioshock broke, it is hard to tell what went wrong. Maybe it’s Apple’s fault. Maybe the game was using APIs that were long deprecated by iOS 8, and were finally removed? None of the articles I’ve read about this gave any indication of the root cause.
iOS 8 broke a tonne of stuff across the board. And I was simply suggesting ways to get around it if it indeed didn’t work post XP – in general, most Windows software will work forward ported or mildly tinkered with, which is a helluva lot to say compared to others in the market.
But hey, the fact that Solitaire from Windows 3.1 will work natively on Windows 10 32 bit says a helluva lot.