AppleInsider Staff
The sequel to cult indie game The Binding of Isaac will not be allowed in the App Store — at least for now — thanks to what Apple has reportedly deemed to be themes of violence toward children.
"Your app contains content or features that depict violence towards, or abuse of, children, which is not allowed on the App [Store]," an Apple reviewer wrote in a rejection notice tweeted by studio head Tyrone Rodriguez. The missive was first noted by Polygon.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is an update to the cult indie hit The Binding of Isaac, based on the biblical story of the same name. In the story, God commands Abraham to sacrifice Isaac — his son — as a test of faith; the sacrifice is halted by the angel of God before it can be carried out.
In the game, Isaac is a young boy whose mother is similarly inclined. Players work to help Isaac escape from the basement, culminating in a boss battle against his mother.
This is not the first time The Binding of Isaac has faced opposition from a platform owner. In 2012, Nintendo rejected a planned 3DS port over "questionable religious content" — though Rebirth was allowed to launch on the 3DS and Wii U last year.
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10 Comments
Absolutely ridiculous. The game deserves an adults-only rating, but does not feature child abuse in an exploitive way. This game is regularly featured in the news and by reviewers as an innovative expansion of the art of video gaming by confronting real moral issues. No reasonable person could conclude this game deserves to be completely barred. Steve Jobs talked about these restrictive policies as "growing pains" while the App Store better figured out a balance of curation and quality. Seems like it still has some growing to do.
I hate how it's a Zelda ripoff. Not the story but the game design looks ripped from the 1985 Nintendo Zelda dungeons.
Apple sometimes just too tight fisted.
Apple doesn't get games. Steve didn't, despite announcing that he was going to make Macs the best gaming machines in the world back in 1999, and Tim doesn't get it either. Years behind in OpenGL development for OS X, restricting games on Apple TV to ones that can be played with the supplied remote only, failing to snatch up Bungie when they could, losing support from Blizzard for Overwatch. Going mobile on desktop and phasing out dGPUs isn't helping.
I've lost hope by now. It's really sad to say that after 20 years of loyal Mac gaming, but my next gaming PC is arguably going to be just that. A PC.