This has been reported by various outlets in the last several hours, and the developer of Ultimate General: Gettysburg (which can be found on GoG) has released a blog post which can be read here:

http://www.ultimategeneral.com/blog/our-game-has-been-removed-from-appstore

Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote on Twitter ‘My thoughts are with the victim's families in SC. Let us honour their lives by eradicating racism & removing the symbols & words that feed it.’

Apparently that translates to removing any game on the AppStore which shows the Confederate flag, including Ultimate General: Gettysburg. Other media are not subject to the same restrictions on the platform. Developers have the option to replace to Confederate flag with something else if they want to sell their game on the AppStore from now on. This developer has refused.

It is disappointing to see Apple not only disregard context, but once again treat gaming as a lesser medium. Historical games tend to be a valuable gateway into another culture’s history, and have cultivated my interests over the years. I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned from the Total War franchise or Paradox grand strategy games.

Man, I just wanted it off the fucking Capital Buildings and court houses, this is going a little too far.

So the news is: people over-reacting to a bad situation make poor choices? That's not really news. :/

Apple: Think 'Different'.

Ooh I know what Southpark episode I'm going to watch tonight!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esksGxcdt3c

Speaking as someone born and raised in South Carolina, removing the Confederate flag is going to do absolutely nothing to help. All this is going to do is reinforce the beliefs of the racist idiots, that they're being "oppressed" or whatever, they're just going to dig into those beliefs deeper.

I don't care for the Confederate flag, it has a dark history and I'm all for removing it from wherever, but banning the flag is not the cure all that people think it'll be. The south has a lot of problems that have affected the culture for many many years, the flag is not anywhere near the biggest cause of the problems that plague the south.

Off the top of my head, a poor and broken education system, an awful job market and low salaries when compared to the same jobs up north or in the east which leads to high poverty and lack of hope for the future, inability to even afford the much praised nearby colleges, problem drinking culture (caused in part by the lack of hope and poverty) complete lack of positive role models in the media (but no shortage of evil southern characters, or terrible portrayals in "reality" tv) and the fact that we're all held to stereotypes that most of us don't fit in to.

For the sake of whatever deity you do or don't believe in, how about actually helping South Carolina's (and other southern states) school system and bring it up to modern standards. You might even do something to help replace the textile mills that were the among the main employers but have all been closed for forty some years. Gee, you might think better education and actual hope for a better future (as far as employment) and heck, just being allowed to not be ashamed of being born in the south, could help not just with racism but homophobia/transphobia/sexism/etc..but naahhhh let's focus on the flag, that's the REAL issue.


*This post is not based entirely on this article and is more widely based.

Welcome to Brave New 1984 World. There were neither Nazi in Germany nor Confederate States of America.

I looked at Google cache to check whether the devs might have done anything which might be potentially construed as racist, like using the Confederate flag for the app icon. Nope, the page is legit. Apple is fucking nuts.

(inb4 Civil War enthusiasts are racists: Paul Krugman is a huge Grant fan.)

I was named after Lincoln and have the same birthday as Lee. You must really love me. :P

I think it is quite clear that game like Ultimate general: Gettysburg promotes hatred and violence in current world so I applaud them for being so bold and doing this beneficial decision.
Now all it remains is to close all museums, erase it from history books and hopefully wipe memory of anyone who ever saw the Confederate flag and everyone will be happy.

Now we only need your surname for identity theft bingo.

With my credit and employment history? Yeah, like I'd be lucky enough to have my identity stolen. XD That would be like a car thief stealing a Pinto.

Yeah well when you have a choice between walking and a Pinto....um....the Pinto is nice if you need to go over 20 miles?