Horses and Saturnalia developer Santa Ragione has accused Apple of undermining the “value and sustainability of games as cultural and artistic products” after the tech company informed the studio its 2016 visual novel Wheels of Aurelia will be pulled from the App Store without “clear justification.”
Studio co-founder and director Pietro Righi Riva shared the news with Game Developer and explained Wheels of Aurelia will be removed from the App Store on July 25, 2025. It was apparently granted an extended grace period after Santa Ragione appealed the decision—even though those appeals were ultimately denied.
The studio has decided to make the title available free-to-download on the platform for the next 10 days to ensure as many people as possible can experience it before it is yanked from digital shelves.
Riva said Apple has so far failed to provide an adequate explanation as to why the award-winning title has been marked for removal. “Despite multiple appeals and sincere efforts to seek clarification, Apple has not provided clear justification for this removal, citing only their policy to remove apps deemed ‘obsolete’ or ‘outdated,’ despite the game being fully functional and compliant with current technical standard,” he explained.
“We firmly believe that removing fully functional artistic works simply due to infrequent updates undermines the value and sustainability of games as cultural and artistic products. Like books, films, and music albums, video games represent complete creative works that do not inherently require continual updates beyond maintaining basic functionality.”
“This ‘obsoletion’ policy further reinforces a vision that does not recognize games as an art form”
After his initial email appeal was quashed, Riva explained his second appeal resulted in a phone call with a member of Apple’s team who instructed them to file another appeal via a different form. In that instance, Riva underlined that Wheels of Aurelia “continues to function properly and meets all expectations of users, including full compatibility with Game Center and the latest screen ratios.”
He also emphasized that certain video games and other creative works “do not inherently require continuous updates beyond ensuring functionality and compliance with current regulation and technological requirements.”
“Updating Wheels of Aurelia at this stage would demand very significant resources solely to refresh engine and SDK elements without providing meaningful enhancements to user experience or artistic value,” he added in that second appeal, the contents of which were shared with Game Developer.
“For smaller development teams, such forced updates represent a substantial financial burden, diverting limited resources from new projects or critical ongoing work. Alternatively, removing these titles from the App Store impacts developers’ portfolios and visibility, ultimately affecting their sustainability and recognition in a very competitive industry.”
Riva then received a message explaining that Santa Ragione’s appeal was being evaluated. He claims it was rejected five minutes later.
Riva feels Apple’s approach to delisting titles it has deemed “outdated” leaves smaller developers at risk of needing to continuously update projects to meet vague demands, costing them time and money that might otherwise be spent on sustaining other projects or kickstarting new endeavours.
In addition, he says Apple’s “dominant position in digital distribution makes those practices especially troubling” and reinforces the important of diversified ecosystems. “We commend recent EU regulations designed to prevent monopolistic behaviors, fostering more fairness and plurality in the digital marketplace,” he added.
As for whether the situation will impact Santa Ragione’s plans to support Apple platforms moving forward, Riva said the team was already discouraged by the company’s shift away from human curation and questioned whether the company is actually committed to helping game developers succeed.
“This ‘obsoletion’ policy further reinforces a vision that does not recognize games as an art form,” he added. “It is a view that, unfortunately, is becoming increasingly common across the industry. In this context, it is hard to imagine how we could ever thrive within Apple’s ecosystem.”
Wheels of Aurelia remains available on other platforms including PlayStation and Steam.
Game Developer has reached out to Apple for comment.