Further Update (2:54 p.m. Eastern, Dec. 12): Looks like the unedited version of Papers, Please will be appearing on iPad after all. "Just talked to Apple. The initial rejection for porn was a misunderstanding on their part," Pope tweeted. "They suggested I resubmit with the nudity option. I'll make an update to restore the nudity over the weekend (default to off) and it should be available next week."

Update (Dec. 12, 2014): Paper's Please developer Lucas Pope expanded on the tweets mentioned below in an e-mail interview with Ars Technica, saying that releasing the iPad version of Papers, Please in a slightly altered state was a "practical" decision that he doesn't feel is a "serious burden" on the game.

"The original game has a no-nudity option because I know that many people have a strong negative reaction to nudity, pixelated or not," Pope told Ars. "My mom would play with nudity off for example. Above most things, I'm practical. Adding underwear does dampen the intended invasiveness of the search scanner, but it's still uncomfortable enough to make the point."

After first submitting the app for approval on November 17th, Pope says he was on pins and needles waiting for Apple's response. "My main concern with creating an iOS version of Papers, Please was that Apple would decide the game was strongly political and reject it outright. ... I checked Apple's 'average review times' site for developers and it said something like 95% are approved in 5 days. It took 2 weeks for the first rejection [of Papers, Please] so I was pretty spooked at that point."

When the initial rejection came back, Pope says it cited App Store Review Guideline 18.1, which reads: "Apps containing pornographic material, defined by Webster's Dictionary as 'explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings', will be rejected."

All in all, Pope says he isn't that incensed about his artistic vision being compromised or anything like that. "I can understand Apple's general motivation so my outrage is pretty muted. I don't agree with the specific application of their guidelines here (I think a 17+ rating should've been enough), but the concept of establishing and enforcing content rules makes perfect sense."

"I made a game about seeing contentious issues from multiple sides though so I'm predisposed to look at things from Apple's side too," he continued. "If I ran a store, there'd probably be rules about what I wanted to stock that conflicted with some vendors, and the final decision about what to sell in my store would be mine alone."

Original Story

After naming Papers, Please our favorite game of 2013, we were of course excited to hear from developer Lucas Pope that a version will be coming to iPad on December 12. The version we get on iOS won't be precisely identical to the one we loved on the PC, though, thanks to some apparent worries about brief nudity from the App Store approval folks at Apple.

In the iPad version, when non-player characters go through the game's scanners (to be searched for explosives and contraband before entering the fictional country of Arstotzka), they will be shown clothed in light underwear, Pope tweeted. The underwear option was merely a selectable option in last year's PC version of the game.

In follow-up tweets, Pope recounted that after having a build rejected by Apple for containing 'pornographic content,' he "confirmed with the reviewer that it would likely pass without the nudity."

Once he removed the nudity and resubmitted the game, it was accepted. While the decision can be appealed, Pope tweeted that he didn't want an appeal to delay the release of the iPad game.

Pope didn't seem too concerned about the decision, saying on Twitter that "losing nudity isn't too severe, [in my opinion]," and adding later that players "might not notice [the] missing option without prior knowledge." The review process could have been worse in any case, Pope said: "The game has other content I expected to cause trouble that didn't, so there's some relief." Pope wasn't immediately available to respond to a request for comment from Ars.

This is far from the first time a game has had problems getting through Apple's App Store approval process. Just this year, games have been blocked from the platform for exploring the ongoing Syrian civil war, for examining sweatshop conditions, and for teaching women about masturbation.

These kinds of content-based restrictions are unique to the App Store on iOS devices and don't apply to Apple's similar book, video, and music distribution services. "We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate," Apple wrote in its App Store guidelines back in 2010. "If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app."