Over 100 Gorilla Tag clones have been faraway from the Meta Horizon Retailer in a collection of mass delistings.
As seen on QuestStoreDB, a database passion venture just like SteamDB that is not affiliated with Meta, dozens of clones for the favored multiplayer hit Gorilla Tag had been abruptly eliminated over the house of an hour on September 30. This mass delisting did not completely have an effect on clones, although it was virtually completely such video games, and two further delistings occurred later that day.
65 Gorilla Tag clones had been eliminated in whole that day, although extra clones proceed to seem as additional titles get taken down. Since then, QuestStoreDB exhibits {that a} comparable, second wave of mass delistings occurred on October 9 inside roughly an hour. This time, one other 64 clones had been eliminated, with an extra 5 following these on the time of scripting this morning.
Whereas video games disappearing from digital storefronts is nothing uncommon, the widespread nature of those delistings in fast succession suggests a deliberate elimination effort. Meta beforehand didn’t reply to UploadVR when requested for remark.
Although this does not look like a whole ban, it is paying homage to VR sideloading platform SideQuest now not accepting Gorilla Tag clones in 2022. “At a sure level it turns into an excessive amount of and there’s no level in including any extra video games that wish to be like gorilla tag,” said SideQuest on the time.
Curation has been a scorching topic on the Meta Horizon Retailer since 2019, when Meta’s then Director of Content material Ecosystem, Chris Pruett, outlined a stricter course of for software program approval. Quite a few studios have since criticized the impression of Meta eliminating App Lab and opening the shop to all builders final yr.
App Lab allowed studios to host unlisted apps, an method that was praised for decreasing shovelware but additionally criticized, since Meta’s strict curation left some builders unable to maneuver to the principle retailer. At the moment, the Meta Horizon Retailer makes use of an open mannequin that enables builders to extra freely publish to the shop.
Whereas many studios praised this transfer as a great one in our February report, in addition they thought-about discoverability to have been considerably impacted by the adjustments as extra clones appeared. We’ll proceed monitoring this example to see whether or not these delistings proceed.
