Sweatshop HD Pulled From Apple iTunes App Store

Sweatshop HD has been pulled from Apple’s iTunes store listing. This is hardly the first time that Apple has decided that an app or a game wasn’t going to make the cut, but their decision to pull this game has struck some as the company being a bit tone-deaf to the purpose of the application.

The makers of the game are fulling aware that the premise might be a bit offensive to some people. In fact, the developers of the application are hoping that some people will be a bit put off by the theme of the game.

The game was a simply tower defense type game that allowed the players to run a sweatshop. Apple pulled the game because it felt “uncomfortable selling a game based around the theme of running a sweatshop.”

Sweatshop HD had actually been on the iTunes store since November of 2012, but Apple just became aware of its existence and subsequently pulled it. Littleloud’s head of games, Simon Parkin who created the game said that Apple told him that having managers blocking entrances and increasing work hours for employees were aspects of the game they couldn’t support.

The game was actually created alongside a charity that is called “Behind the Labor” and works to try and shed light on where people get their clothes. Far too many people are buying outfits from companies that use sweatshops.

Celebrities and the common folk alike don’t have a good understanding of where their clothes come from and this game was created as a way to shed light on that sort of situation.

Littleloud has actually tried to change the way people can approach the game. The company has told Apple that you don’t have to operate a sweatshop in order to win the game. They have also tried to take a more educational approach.

For now Apple is maintaining the ban.

Did you play Sweatshop HD when it was available?