Apple Yanks Historical Civil War Games From iTunes Because Of Confederate Flag [Update]

The Confederate flag is being pulled down left and right from public display and retailers in the wake of the Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre of nine African-American men and women by a lone racist. Apple has purged its iTunes catalog of the flag, which is a symbol of racism to most in the United States. However, did the company go too far by including historical Civil War games?

Touch Arcade discovered that games like Ultimate General: Gettysburg by Game-Labs and all of the Civil War-themed titles from Hunted Cow Studios, among others, have been pulled from iTunes. This was part of a site-wide purge that removed all apps with any kind of depiction of the Confederate flag, regardless of context.

Developers were told this is “because it includes images of the confederate flag used in offensive and mean-spirited ways.”

Game-labs posted a note on the Ultimate General: Gettysburg Facebook page stating, “Apple has pulled the tablet version of the game from Appstore because of the Confederate Flag.” The company added that further details were coming.

Hunted Cow has not made a note about the removal on any of its social media outlets yet, but a representative did tell Touch Arcade, “We’re in no way sympathetic to the use of the flag in an offensive way. We used it purely because historically, that was the flag that was used at the time.”

And that appears to be the issue with historical game fans, and some game fans in general. Hunted Cow and other game developers have always created simulations that use the weapons, uniforms, and flags from real world battles. So, this means that not only the Confederate flag being displayed, but also the Nazi flag for games based on World War II.

Fans of Ultimate General: Gettysburg voiced their displeasure over the move by Apple on the game’s Facebook page.

“Now this is silly. It is a historical flag and therefore part of the game,” Sean Rosekrans wrote.

“I can surely understand why some find it insulting when it is flying from a Government building. But this is just idiotic,” added Thomas Aagaard.

Hunted Cow is going to attempt to resubmit its Civil War games using the lesser-known 1861 version of the Confederate flag that features red bars, a white bar, and a circle of stars on a blue field. It’s unknown if it will be approved, though, because the developer is unsure if the game will be pulled because it depicts the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

This wouldn’t be the first time a game has been censored or altered due to a flag. Games like Wolfenstein, which depict fanciful and violent fights against Nazi Germany, are forced to remove all references to Nazis. This is the first time that games have been banned or censored in the United States due to the Confederate flag, though.

What do you think? Is Apple right in pulling historical Civil War games because of the depiction of the Confederate flag? Sound off in the comments below.

Update: Game-Labs has posted an official statement following the removal of Ultimate General: Gettysburg from iTunes. The studio has no plans to alter the game and resubmit it to the store and, while accepting Apple’s decision to remove it, comes across as disappointed in the company’s decision. The game is still available to purchase for the PC via Steam.

Here is the statement in full.

“As you may have been already informed, Apple has removed our game from AppStore because of usage of the Confederate Flag. Ultimate General: Gettysburg could be accepted back if the flag is removed from the game’s content.

We accept Apple’s decision and understand that this is a sensitive issue for the American Nation. We wanted our game to be the most accurate, historical, playable reference of the Battle of Gettysburg. All historical commanders, unit composition and weaponry, key geographical locations to the smallest streams or farms are recreated in our game’s battlefield.

We receive a lot of letters of gratitude from American teachers who use our game in history curriculum to let kids experience one of the most important battles in American history from the Commander’s perspective.

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. 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.

Therefore we are not going to amend the game’s content and Ultimate General: Gettysburg will no longer be available on AppStore. We really hope that Apple’s decision will achieve the desired results.

We can’t change history, but we can change the future.

The Game-Labs Team”

[Images via Hunted Cow, Ultimate General: Gettysburg Steam Page]