Indie drops game from ‘terrible’ Amazon App Store

A Swedish indie studio has removed its game from Amazon’s App Store and warns other developers to reconsider partnering with the retail giant.

Smartphone studio Bithack ended its relationship with Amazon with several damning parting shots.

A statement published on the studio’s blog criticises Amazon App Store’s “slow” submission process and a supposed lack of support for specific mobile handsets.

It is also claimed the app store shuts developers out from engaging with customers.

In a prepared statement, Bithack goes on to allege that Amazon hand-picks the games which feature on its ‘most-popular apps’ list.

And the studio has echoed other complaints about Amazon’s entitlement to lower the prices of all apps without notice.

“We’re sorry to announce that we have decided to pull [our mobile game] Apparatus from Amazon Appstore,” read the statement by the anonymous author.

“If you have the money to buy 384 phones and tablets, and if you have the resources to let the game go through a couple of months of pre-release testing, then Amazon Appstore is for you.

“If you are a small indie development team, or possibly even alone, don’t bother with Amazon Appstore. Create a great app, publish it on Android Market, and provide great customer support.

“You will never succeed on Amazon Appstore without a big wallet, or at least an established reputation so that Amazon puts value behind their promises.”