Apple yanks Civil War games because of Confederate flag

A screen grab from the Civil War game Ultimate General: Gettysburg. A screen grab from the Civil War game Ultimate General: Gettysburg. Photo: Courtesy Photo Photo: Courtesy Photo Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Apple yanks Civil War games because of Confederate flag 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

If you find history offensive, burn the history book.

That seems to be the thinking behind Apple's decision to pull all American Civil War Games featuring the Confederate flag from the App Store.

According to TouchArcade, Apple told developers that the games were banned "... because (they include) images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways."

Apple appears to be belly-flopping onto the bandwagon in the wake of Amazon and Walmart's decision to stop selling Confederate flags and other Confederate symbols following the Charleston church shooting.

"Apps containing references or commentary about a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited or likely to expose the targeted group to harm or violence will be rejected," Apple said in a statement.

But the developers of Ultimate General: Gettysburg, Civil War: 1862 and the Hunted Cow Civil War games insist that the Confederate flag is used in their games only for historical context and accuracy.

"We're in no way sympathetic to the use of the flag in an offensive way, we used it purely because historically that was the flag that was used at the time," the developer of Civil War: 1862 told TouchArcade.

As Maxim Zasov of Game Labs, the developers of Ultimate General: Gettysburg, explains:

"Spielberg's 'Schindler's List' did not try to amend his movie to look more comfortable. The historical 'Gettysburg' movie (1993) is still on iTunes. We believe that all historical art forms: books, movies, or games such as ours, help to learn and understand history, depicting events as they were. True stories are more important to us than money."

As the Guardian notes, one can still buy App Store games featuring the Nazi swastika banner like the totally unhistoric shooter Wolfenstein 3D. And Legend by Lynyrd Skynyrd, featuring its Confederate flag album cover, and all seven seasons of Dukes of Hazzard are available.

Meanwhile, Zasov and Game Labs can ponder how to accurately portray Pickett's Charge without a Confederate flag.