Updated January 4th at 10:55am: OK, panic over, it looks like the Rusty Lake games are back on the App Store. Phew! Why not go check them out while you're here?

Original story below...



Classic Apple. Not only does it hate having any games that dare to broach a political topic in a serious fashion, it also likes to remove much-loved games because they apparently look like spam, despite the fact that they're really obviously not.

The latest to be hit by this issue is Rusty Lake, which has seen all its games pulled from the App Store due to them looking "identical" and like spam. Which is patently ridiculous.

To all who can't find our games in Apple's Appstore. Unfortunately all our games are removed from @AppStoreGames due spam and looking identical. We really hope this automatic generated removal and we are back online soon... https://t.co/ode4HCumBW — Rusty Lake ????? (@rustylakecom) January 3, 2019

The developer is hoping that this is just an automated problem, and that its games will be restored to the store soon. But beyond asking Apple to fix the problem and crossing your fingers, there's not much more you can do but wait at this point.

That said, if you already own any of the games, they are still appearing in your Purchased section on the App Store, and you can still download and play them to your heart's content. But if you wanted your friend to buy it and discuss the weirdness with you, you're bang out of luck.

We are, in general, fans of the Rusty Lake games - the last entry, Cube Escape: Paradox, bagged itself a Bronze Award from us, with our reviewer calling it "compellingly atmospheric stuff". So we are genuinely quite sad to see it go, and hope for its swift return.

There is one thing from Rusty Lake that Apple can't touch, however. The studio released a short film project which was Kickstarted late last year, so you can just go watch that for now while you're waiting for the games to come back to the App Store.

What say you? Mad at Apple for removing the games on a technical whim in another ridiculous move from the platform owner? Or not really fussed because you bought them ages ago? Let us know in the comments.