Apple pulls Civil War games with Confederate Flag

"Apple is removing games that feature images of the Confederate flag from the App Store, including several American Civil War strategy games.

Games affected by Apple's decision include Ultimate General: Gettysburg, Civil War: 1862, Civil War: 1863, and Civil War: 1864."

Apple to game developers: "We have removed apps from the App Store that use the Confederate flag in offensive or mean-spirited ways, which is in violation of our guidelines," the company said in a statement. "We are not removing apps that display the Confederate flag for educational or historical uses."

Game-Labs developer: "Spielberg's Schindler's List did not try to amend his movie to look more comfortable. The historical Gettysburg movie (1993) is still on iTunes," Game-Labs said. "We believe that all historical art forms: books, movies, or games such as ours, help to learn and understand history, depicting events as they were. True stories are more important to us than money. We really hope that Apple's decision will achieve the desired results. ... We can't change history, but we can change the future."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/06/25/apple-pulls-confederate-flag-games/29287163/

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/06/25/apple-pulls-civil-war-games-from-app-store-over-confederate-flag-imagery

What do you guys think? Was this appropriate or extreme? Discuss.

OK we just jumped the shark on this issue.

I don't even

I'm not sure what to say right now....

Watching people play games is not my bag but one the guys who does it made a really food comment on what Apple have done.

Lets call Apples decision what it was, screwing developers for cheap PR off the back of a tragedy. Wankers.

It should be fine in Civil War games or apps about that time period. It just doesn't need to he in front of a state capitol building is all.

At this point in time, that is to be expected.

But why?

LOL that's dumb

They said games with historical or educational value won't be banned. I don't really see much of a problem with their decision to be honest.

http://www.theverge.com/2015/6/25/8847381/apple-app-store-confederate-flag-ban-educational-historical-value

Basically my thoughts.

it's all about being PC in 2015...smh.

Meh.

*sigh* liberals.......thanks colleges for making people PC

I know, right?

@racob7: It's hard to stay moderate nowadays

Buy up the Dukes of Hazard merchandise. Pretty soon, nobody will be selling it. (Some bigger chains have already been given the order to pull it all and sent it back.)

... okay.

Great way to resolve conflict: forget history and just pretend it never happened at all.

Apple's current shot caller has the right to make that decision so I don't really care, actually I wouldn't care either way since I personally don't like that flag or what it stands for anyway so f*** it lol

I do agree that we shouldn't be trying to ignore or pretend certain things in the U.S's past never happened though, people need to know imo.

@unbreakable_fs4: But they've already pulled/banned civil war games. Civil War games are historical. They've said one thing, but did another. It makes no sense.

Someone sees an arabic man wearing a turban and suddenly becomes afraid of that person = bigot.

Someone sees a white man wearing a confederate flag and suddenly becomes afraid of that person = enlightened liberal.

This disgusts me.

My American history may be a little off being that I didn't grow up there but I remember hearing that the Confederate flag didn't actually show up until after the Civil War or possibly at the very end of it, can anyone confirm this?

@black_wreath: The Confederate flag as we know it today, was originally just a battle flag that was rejected as the national flag of the confederacy in 1861. So yeah it was around since the war started.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America

That's a tad strong, isn't it? It's a flag, not like someone just got lynched.

@silkyballfro94: Ah thanks for clearing that up. :) Ken Burns was a bad teacher.

Now that's bullshit

@reactor: It just reminds me of how pathetic our politically correct nation/generation has become. "Take down that picture because it hurts some people's feelings!"

Ebay and Amazon prohibiting the sale of anything with that flag is stupid. They still sell flags such as the First National Flag and the Bonnie Blue flag, but anything with the Cross of St. Andrews, nope.

Now I can understand taking the flag off of state grounds. But removing memorials, and altogether stop selling flags and things with the flag on them is freaking dumb.

Confederate veterans are recognized as American veterans by law. Removing memorials and vandalizing their memorials is criminal.

No more Lynrd Skynrd albums??

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This makes no sense? I mean why????? Don't they have games that have the Nazi flag in them????????

Stupid PC bullsh!t

Don't know if you're being sarcastic or not, but Skynyrd has stopped using the Confederate flag a while back, and only 2 or so albums have the flag on it anyways.. A live album and a greatest hits I believe.

Makes sense.

@godzilla44: I don't understand this either.

If people can not understand video games are fiction, then is ok at some level to do this, if you believe this...

Congratulations, you decide to go so far left you are the Left Fox News, is like all those crazy people that wants to ban Gone with the Wind even when is a fictional movie that never tells to be based on a real story or anything, then ignore the plot and what is actually going on in the movie and decide is about something is not.

The next thing is they will ban all those games where you play as terrorist or nazi, because in multiplayer someone has to be one of those sides.

This is getting blown out of proportion.