Apple appears to have quietly removed Click Wheel iPod Games from the iTunes Store, prompting further speculation that the company is planning to discontinue the iPod classic. A link to the Click Wheel Games section previously appeared on the App Store drop down menu, however that option has recently vanished and attempts to search for or even link from existing Click Wheel iPod Games now returns a response that the item requested is “not currently available.”
Downloadable iPod games were introduced in the fall of 2006 when Apple released the enhanced fifth-generation iPod alongside a firmware update adding support to the prior year’s model.
Game support was also added to the third-generation iPod nano when it was released the following year, although the 2007 release of the iPod classic and iPod nano controversially rendered all previous games incompatible, requiring users to repurchase the same titles for the new devices. The selection of games remained relatively limited since Apple never released an open SDK, instead hand-picking select developers to participate, and handling some of the coding on its own.
During Apple’s Fall 2010 event, the company released the sixth-generation iPod nano with a revised touchscreen interface and no iPod game support; the company also conspicuously omitted any direct mention of the iPod classic at that event, leaving many to conclude that the older traditional iPods are no longer a priority for Apple. [via AppleInsider]
.
