Windows Store age rating rules kill some 90,000 apps

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Published onOctober 31, 2016

published onOctober 31, 2016

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A little more than a week ago, we reported that Microsoft had startedremoving apps and games that did not comply with the Windows Store’s new age rating policy. While it wasn’t yet clear how many non-compliant apps disappeared from the Store following this first wave of cleaning, a new report fromWindows Blog Italiareveals that 90,291 apps have been removed from the Italian Windows Store between September 26th and October 19th (viaNeowin).

According to the report, the number of Windows Phone apps available on the Italian Windows Store has gone from 329,507 to 239,216 following the purge which represents a 27% decrease. As a reminder, Microsoft still claims onthis pagethat there are 669,000 available on its Windows Store though that number has not seen an update since at least a year (not all these apps are available in all markets).

For now, it’s still unclear how this new age rating policy is affecting the Windows Store globally and we have yet to learn about the removal of popular Windows Phone besides high profile voluntary departures from the likes ofeBayor evenSkype for Windows Phone 8.1 phones. However, the apps that have now been removed from the Windows Store should remain usable for consumers that have downloaded them prior to the cleaning. Additionally, developers can still resubmit their apps to Microsoft after completing an age rating questionnaire on the Dev Center though we doubt they’ll do it now after missing the September 30th deadline in the first place.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time).

For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web.

Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they’re looking for.

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Radu Tyrsina

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Windows Store age rating rules kill some 90,000 apps