Facebook, Microsoft blasts Apple for gaming app restrictions

Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel weigh in on the latest stories making headlines.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: And now let's get to Word on the Street for our panelists, find out what stories they are watching right now. Dan Howley, you are taking a look at a Facebook-Apple match-up here, a fight between the two companies, and it has to do with the App Store.

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, it's Facebook, Apple, and Microsoft, so let's just get all those big tickers in there all at once. And basically what's going on here is Apple has rejected apps from Facebook, something called Facebook Gaming, and Microsoft, basically something that allows you to game on your-- would allow you to game-- play Xbox games on your iPhone, saying they violate Apple's App Store guidelines.

Now, the issue here is that Facebook says that they can run their app fully on Google's Android store. Microsoft ditto, and they're saying that they are stifling innovation and hurting the overall market.

Now, the reason why they're using that language is because Apple is under investigation for running an illegal monopoly through the App Store. So basically they're using that as almost a cudgel to say Apple, you've got to let us in because you're really hurting your own case. And I think in the long run, this will hurt Apple because they are going directly into the arguments that regulators are making in saying that they are running an illegal monopoly through the App Store.

Apple, by the way, says, look, we have our guidelines. They're there. They are more than welcome to have their apps as long as they meet said guidelines. So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out, but it's an obvious play by Facebook and Microsoft to really kind of force Facebook to-- Apple to allow their apps to exist on the App Store currently.

JULIE HYMAN: Wait, so again, Dan, can you spell out for me what guidelines Facebook and Microsoft are not meeting here?

DAN HOWLEY: Yeah, so Facebook basically is not meeting guidelines for allowing certain games to run in HTML5. Now, Microsoft is not meeting guidelines for allowing a thin client, basically allowing you to stream games. Essentially what it boils down to is with the Microsoft piece, you would be allowed to play games from your Xbox on your iPhone. But Apple's guidelines would require every game that you would stream from your Xbox or from your Xbox library to be reviewed for use through the App Store, and that, you know, is an untenable situation for Microsoft.

And in the language-- I mean, the language that these companies use against Apple is pretty good. Let me pull up what Facebook has to say. They actually go in and say that they are breaking-- they don't have the time that other-- or they have the time to reply to issues that Apple has but other companies don't. The head of Facebook Gaming specifically says "even on the main Facebook app and Messenger, we've been forced to bury instant games for years on iOS. This is a shared pain across the game industry, which ultimately hurts players and devs and severely hamstrings innovation on mobile for other types of formats."

So clearly they're going after this antitrust argument of really leaning into it.

JULIE HYMAN: Ah, yes, Facebook, champion of the little guy.