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iOS 11 Will Break Compatability With An Estimated 200,000 Apps

HotHamBoy

Member
iOS 11 goes 64bit. This means 32bit apps will be rendered obsolete without a compatability update.

The main issue here is that 1000's of affected apps are no longer supported/updated by their developers, meaning you may have to choose between iOS 11 and some of your favorite apps.

Alas, more and more future apps will require iOS 11, making the choice even more difficult.

This was brought to my attention when XCOM Enemy Within said it would not be working past 10.3. One of iOS 10.3's hidden features is the ability to tell you which apps will not be supported in iOS 11.

The dev that made XCOM EW's iOS port no longer exists. It's highly unlikely it will be updated after Bioshock was delisted when it broke less than a year after launching on the App Store. Sad for me.

BoardGameGeek.com has started compiling a list of board and card game apps in trouble:

With the release of iOS 10.3, it has become clear that apps that do not support 64-bit architecture will not work in iOS 11. That means many board games apps may go away if they are not updated. You can check which apps need updates on your iPhone or iPad.

We’ve already heard from Codito, Fantasy Flight Games, Ravensburger, and others that fixes are on the way, so this is definitely not a death sentence. The real casualties here will come from apps from one-off developers that may (understandably) not still be supported.

For the next few months, I’ll periodically update the below list. As we learn that an update will be coming, we will mark as such. Let me know if you have any updates or additions.


Games in Need of 64-bit Updates
6 Takes!
7 Wonders Companion
Army of Frogs
Bang!
Can't Stop
Caylus
Civilization Revolution 2
Desert Fox
Dice Soccer
Drive on Moscow
Epigo
Fairy Tale
FTL
Ghost Stories
GuardsGuards
Inkognito
Kahuna
Kingdom Builder
Las Vegas! (Still under evaluation)
Leaping Lemmings
Look and Find Books
Lords of Waterdeep
Monster Chase
Neuroshima Hex
Neuroshima Hex Puzzle
Nightfall
Qin
Qvadriga
Qwirkle
Risk
Robot Master
Rosenkoenig
Samurai
Stone Age
Tanto Cuore
Through the Desert
Timeline
To Be or Not to Be
Twin It!
Yggdrasil
Zooloretto

Games Still 32-bit but Update Coming
BattleLore Command
Codito Catalog
Eclipse
Elder Sign
Hey, That’s My Fish!
Scotland Yard

Anyway, just a heads up.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Well, on the other hand you can assume BOOL is a sane type now, YES? :)

Sorry, I will see myself out...

(It is a concern for developers who have abandoned their games, but Apple has given lots and lots of warnings about it and the time interval when the first warnings came and when iOS 11 actually ships is. It going to be trivially small)
 

Protome

Member
A lot of these games released (or released updates) after Apple switched to 64bit and introduce the "this app may slow down your phone" warning for anything that was 32bit only. Seems crazy to me that these devs wouldnt support it, especially given how little effort it takes.
 
But mobile and all digital are the future of gaming!

In fairness give it a few decades and it probably will be, but old games no longer being compatible with current hardware is a sad fact on every platform, just not something that has come up often on mobile until now.

Even on PC, with dedicated modders putting in the work when developers and publishers can't be bothered to, and the fundamental architecture and OS software remaining pretty consistent for far longer than any other platform has, good luck getting a lot of pre Steam (if not more recent) games to run on a brand new rig without any issues or work, if it's even possible to get them to run.

Backwards compatibility is, sadly, a privilege. One that's become expected, sure, but a privilege all the same, and the inevitable march of technology and end of profitability will always kill its feasibility eventually.
 
But mobile and all digital are the future of gaming!
in all fairness, there has been warnings since 2015 when launching 32bit apps on iOS. I think it's really shitty that backwards compatibility is being cut, but at the same time: the developers were given more than enough of a warning.

The real disappointing part about this is that apps by developers that no longer exist (e.g. XCOM iOS) are going to be abandoned.
 
Shin Megami Tensei 1 is 32-bit also.

Since it's still at 1.0 and the listed company is Index, I think it has little change of being updated. :(
 

KHlover

Banned
Guess everyone who wants these apps will now have to buy an iPhone 5 or 6 again (at least for the apps without devs to update them) lol
 

GeoNeo

I disagree.
Apple has given 5 years of warning to devs. The 32bit apps that no longer have dev support a lot of the time are buggy mess.
 
Apple has given 2 years+ of warning to devs. The 32bit apps that no longer have dev support a lot of the time are buggy mess.

Yea but some of best games that people have paid for no longer have devs to update them and no they are not buggy alot of the times.

My advice just stay on your old firmware only update when you absolutely have to thats basically how I treat every IOS update.
 
5 year deprecation cycle is more than fine. Sure it sucks if *your favorite game* is not going to be updated, but you can always stay on iOS10
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I think I'll have to say goodbye to the Xbox 360 Smartglass app, which is the only way I can launch directly into apps like Plex and Youtube without fiddling with a cursor.

Microsoft actively doesn't want to support it anymore. They were leaving it alive as a 32-bit app, but now that Apple are cutting off support, they'll definitely leave it behind.
 

GeoNeo

I disagree.
I think I'll have to say goodbye to the Xbox 360 Smartglass app, which is the only way I can launch directly into apps like Plex and Youtube without fiddling with a cursor.

Microsoft actively doesn't want to support it anymore. They were leaving it alive as a 32-bit app, but now that Apple are cutting off support, they'll definitely leave it behind.

They want you to buy an Xbox One. :(
 

NOLA_Gaffer

Banned
Compatibility is one of the big reasons I don't do iPhone gaming. It's downright depressing to see all the apps sitting in my iTunes library that are abandoned and no longer operate.
 

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
If the app does not give a slow down warning when opening it you're fine, since that means it's 64Bit.

w6crpuYh.jpg



Noooo. Namco pls.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
They want you to buy an Xbox One. :(

Of course.

But that's crappy because it breaks a perfectly good mobile-controlled set top box. Maybe I have an Xbox One and I want to put the 360 on a bedroom TV? Hrmph.
 
It takes a pretty massive misunderstanding of how any of this works to think that a physical release would change anything.

GAF has a surprisingly hard time with this. For the PS4, Xbox One, and Switch numerous GAFers wondered why digital games (including digital copies of retail games) from each console's predecessor wouldn't just inherently be backwards compatible, on account of being digital, thinking that those games were somehow different and barring them was just an arbitrary restriction with no technical reasoning.
 

Jinroh

Member
Great, it also concerns most of SNK games as well right? I'm gonna lose half of my game library, including things I bought recently.
 
I don't think this is confirmed yet, just expected with a 99% likelihood.

To find out what apps you're going to lose, go to Settings > General > About > Applications.

If you can't click on applications, you're fine, otherwise it'll list what you'll lose.

I'm gonna lose Sword&Poker2 for sure, which is sad because it's the best game on iOS. Developer doesn't exist any more, as far as I know. ZONR is at risk as well, man, I hope they update that because I love it so much. Perfect phone stuff. And War of the Lions, which I expect will be updated about one year late or something.
 
I'm actually super surprised that Infinity Blade of all games hasn't yet been updated. Surely an update is in the pipeline, right? That was a landmark game and I doubt Chair/Epic would just let it quietly die.
 

GeoNeo

I disagree.
Yea but some of best games that people have paid for no longer have devs to update them and no they are not buggy alot of the times.

My advice just stay on your old firmware only update when you absolutely have to thats basically how I treat every IOS update.

I'd say most of these devs were prob around when Apple started telling devs to move to 64Bit (2013 prob even sooner) hell it was simple to do. But, these devs were happy to take peoples money and just sit on their ass.

Like you said you can simply choose not to upgrade firmware. Or, better yet buy older iPad/iPhone or something and have that as your legacy device.

Of course.

But that's crappy because it breaks a perfectly good mobile-controlled set top box. Maybe I have an Xbox One and I want to put the 360 on a bedroom TV? Hrmph.

100% agree super shitty move by MS. Though, I'd hope they have plans to upgrade any of their 32 bit apps before iOS 11 seeing as how fucking big they are.
 
Meanwhile if this were Microsoft Tim Sweany would be losing his mind screaming "I TOLD YOU SO" from every rooftop.

Edit: Phone accidentlly quoted ppl. Must have hit the plus while scrolling. Removed the quotes.
 

meirl

Banned
But that's crappy because it breaks a perfectly good mobile-controlled set top box. Maybe I have an Xbox One and I want to put the 360 on a bedroom TV? Hrmph.

its Not MS fault and you cant blame them. Xbox 360 us very Old. They cant Support it for forever. Come on
 

Vuze

Member
Apple fans won't mind, it just takes courage.
Yeah, courage for the developers to not update their apps within 4 (or was it 5?) years since Apple told them to go 64bit :p

That being said, Apple should have delisted these apps a while ago. I still see apps with iPhone 4 size screenshots and pre-UI-revamp on the store occasionally.
 
At least now people will stop bringing up Apple as a shining example everytime the big 3 console makers release a new console ditching BC.
 

Pizza

Member
Lol see ya l8r iPod touch 1 apps


Edit: WAIT FUCK NO I CANT LOSE GRAPES ON A PLATE FUUUUUUUUCK


Edit2: fuck grapes on a plate confirmed abandonware:

mqhjH


Shit man time to switch to windows phone.
 
I wonder if my work's 2-step authentication app is affected by this. It was last updated on January 2013 and doesn't even have wide screen support (black bars above and below).

Already switched to an Android work phone, but there will be a lot of people pissed off if they're suddenly unable to work remotely because they can't log in.
 
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