It’s been a few months now since Microsoft warned Windows Store developers that it would start to remove apps and games that did not have their age rating correctly set starting September 30th. However, the company explained last week (when the deadline had already expired) that it would actually remove these non-compliant apps “on a rolling basis”, giving developers additional time to comply with the policy by logging in to Dev Center and taking a brief questionnaire.
According to new report from Neowin, a first wave of developers have now received emails from Microsoft to inform them that their apps non-compliant apps have now been removed from the Windows Store.
It’s not clear yet how many apps Microsoft has already unpublished from its Store, though developers who missed the deadline by mistake can still do something about it: they can easily resubmit their app to Microsoft after completing the Dev Center age rating questionnaire, a process which shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes.
It’s quite possible though that many Windows Store apps that have been left to abandon by their developers could disappear for good. However, these apps should still continue to work (in an unsupported state) for those of you who already installed them on their devices.
While the new age rating policy is obviously a good thing for consumers, could the disappearance of unsupported but still fully functional apps anger some users? It may be to soon to evaluate the consequences for the platform yet, but we’ll definitely keep an eye on the Windows Store in the coming days and weeks.
