iPhone game disappears following dev’s Apple rant

Pus-popping iPhone game Zits & Giggles has seemingly been removed from the App Store, days after one of its developers fiercely criticised Apple’s store publicly at GDC.

The game was released in March last year, and billed itself tongue-in-cheek as "the most advanced dermatological simulator ever released on the iPhone and iPod Touch".

One of its creators, Tommy Refenes, laid into Apple at GDC last week, telling a conference audience that "I absolutely fucking hate the iPhone App Store", while comparing iPhone to the poorly-respected Tiger gaming handheld.

Days later, Zits & Giggles was removed from the store by Apple. Punishment for his rant? Possibly not.

During his GDC speech, Refenes talked about the recent policy of hiking the price of Zits & Giggles to make a point.

It went from $0.99 to $15.99 on November 7th, before rising in sharp bursts to $399.99 by March 12th this year. According to Kotaku, 14 people bought the game for $299.99 in February.

I’m guessing it was the price rises that were the spur for Apple’s removal of the game, although the speech probably didn’t improve its chances of a reprieve.

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This story originally appeared on our sister site Mobile Entertainment.