Online social RPGs on the iPhone have faced close scrutiny following the recent lawsuit regarding Storm8′s alleged phone number harvesting. CodxP’s Phoenix Emperor came under fire from a few of FingerGaming’s readers, who found that player phone numbers were accessed and displayed in text via HTTP links.
CodxP has responded to these claims, emphasizing that the company never shared or sold player phone numbers. CodxP explains that phone numbers were not stored, and were only used as a means of player identification at login.
The publisher has also announced the upcoming release of an updated version of Phoenix Emperor, which will no longer display player phone numbers in game URLs.
No word has been issued regarding the current status of Storm8′s removed iPhone apps.
Tags: codxp, Multiplayer, online, phoenix emperor, rpg, storm8
A number of iPhone developers report that their Unity-powered applications have failed Apple’s approval process, and are denied release in the iTunes App Store.
A thread at the Unity Community forums reveals that these applications have the potential of using non-public APIs accessible via the Unity game authoring tool. The same APIs were allegedly used by iPhone social RPG developer Storm8 to obtain, store, and transmit player phone numbers without prior permission.
Though Storm8 claims that its applications have been updated to remove this functionality, many of the company’s games, including iMobsters, World War, and Zombies Live, have since been removed from the App Store and are no longer available for download.
Ravensword: The Fallen King, an open-world RPG to be published by Chillingo, was among the handful of Unity engine games to be denied an App Store release.
Many Unity developers received their rejection notices from Apple earlier this week, despite explaining that the included APIs were not used to harvest phone numbers. Several affected apps included no network functionality at all.
Unity notes in another forum thread that the issue has been addressed, and the current engine update has removed the flagged APIs. Authors of rejected apps will need to download the new engine update and resubmit to Apple’s approval process.
[UPDATE: Unity has also published a weblog post on its official website explaining the problem and the fix.]
Tags: Apple, Industry News, rejected, Removed Game, storm8, unity
Technology blog Boing Boing reports that iPhone app developer Storm8 has been served with a class action lawsuit accusing the company of collecting and transmitting its users’ phone numbers without prior consent or notification.
Storm8 publishers a lineup of popular multiplayer online role-playing games for the iPhone and iPod Touch, including World War, iMobsters, and Vampires Live.
The suit, filed by Washington resident Michael Turner, alleges that Storm8 engaged in the practice of “accessing, collecting, and transmitting without notice or consent the wireless telephone numbers of iPhone users who download Storm8’s games to their iPhones via Apple’s App Store.”
Furthermore: “The wireless telephone numbers of users’ phones are not used or necessary to play any of Storm8’s games, yet Storm8 has written the software for all its games in such a way that it automatically accesses, collects, and transmits the wireless telephone number of each iPhone user who downloads any Storm8 game. It does so without disclosing this to any user before or after the fact.”
Storm8 acknowledged this behavior in August, claiming that any harvesting action was the result of a bug that had been fixed in a software update.
The suit, however, alleges that no such activity could take place as the result of a programming error. “Storm8’s characterizations of its practice of harvesting phone numbers as a ‘bug’ and an ‘oversight’ are false,” the lawsuit reads. “Storm8 could not have accidentally harvested its users’ phone numbers — it used very specific and specialized software code to do so.”
Storm8 has not responded to Boing Boing’s requests for comment.
Tags: Industry News, mmo, Multiplayer, storm8, vampires live
Every Thursday, FingerGaming rounds up the most popular free iPhone and iPod Touch applications, as current that day on the iTunes App Store. This week’s top titles are:
- Line Up Free
- Vampires Live
- Fling Free
- XenoWars Lite
- BeerPong (Beiruit) Free
- Haunted 3D Rollercoaster Rush Free
- iMobsters
- Papaya Farm
- Touch Hockey: FS5 Free
- Uno Free
LabPixies’ match-three puzzler Line Up Free comes out on top in this week’s free app chart. A free point promotion puts Storm8′s social game Vampires Live at second place and iMobsters at seventh.
CandyCane’s Fuzzle sequel Fling lands at third place this week, as the puzzle-RTS hybrid XenoWars takes fourth. BeerPong drops several spots after finishing at second place last week, while Haunted 3D Rollercoaster Rush moves up the chart as Halloween approaches.
Tags: charts, fling!, Free Games, line up, storm8, top free apps
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Online social RPGs on the iPhone have faced close scrutiny following the recent lawsuit regarding Storm8′s alleged phone number harvesting. CodxP’s Phoenix Emperor came under fire from a few of FingerGaming’s readers, who found that player phone numbers were accessed and displayed in text via HTTP links.
