Earlier this week, Big Fish Games announced a new subscription gaming app that allowed iPhone users to pay a monthly fee in order to play dozens of different games.
It was a novel idea, in part because Big Fish said it marked the first time that a subscription-based gaming service had come to the iPad. At the time of its release on November 23rd, Big Fish CEO Jeremy Lewis said the service would “transform the marketplace for premium casual games.”
Well, now the free app, dubbed Play Instantly, has been removed from Apple’s app store.
Here’s the message that now appears when clicking on a link to where the app used to be in the store: “The item you’ve requested is not currently available in the US store.”
It’s unclear how many people installed the app, and a spokeswoman at Big Fish Games declined to comment when contacted by GeekWire.
But Big Fish founder Paul Thelen told Bloomberg News that he was surprised by the decision to remove the app because the company had worked with Apple for several weeks to make sure that they followed proper protocols.
“We’re trying to follow up with Apple to try to figure out what happened,” Thelen told Bloomberg.
At the time of the release, Big Fish noted that it planned to release Play Instantly — which allows game players to play as many as 30 different games for a $4.99 monthly subscription — on other mobile platforms next year.
