Unity iPhone games rejected by Apple

Developers using the Unity development platform have run into problems getting their iPhone games approved by Apple.

The problem has occured due to two private API calls made by the Mono runtime used by the Unity engine: _NSGetEnviron and exc_server.

These two API calls have been linked to the recent controversy around allegations that developer Storm8 illegally harvested players’ phone numbers.

That’s not what they’re being used for in the Unity engine, but judging by this angry thread in the Unity forums, developers are paying the price for Apple’s increased scrutiny into these private APIs.

Touch Arcade reports that Unity has already updated its engine to avoid these issues, but games that have already been rejected by Apple will now join the back of the approvals queue once they’re tweaked accordingly.

"Apple has completely unnecessarily screwed me over as hard as I have ever been screwed over in my life. I hope to one day return the favor," says developer Russ Menapace, whose hotly-anticipated Ravensword: The Fallen King game was rejected this week for these reasons.

Unity has addressed the issue and will presumably issue an update soon. Those close to shipping who need a quicker fix can contact Unity for a release-candidate build.