On May 19 Weed Firm — the iPhone game revolving around the growing and selling of marijuana — hit No. 1 on App Store charts in America, the UK, Australia and other countries. But when you search for the hit app in Apple’s App Store on May 21 there are no matching results.
UPDATE: Apple did remove Weed Firm from the App Store. Game maker Manitoba Games released a statement on May 21 saying, “As you might have noticed the game is no longer available on the Apple App Store. This was entirely Apple’s decision, not ours. We guess the problem was that the game was just too good and got to number one in All Categories, since there are certainly a great number of weed based apps still available, as well as games promoting other so-called ‘illegal activities’ such as shooting people, crashing cars and throwing birds at buildings.” Manitoba went on to say that they will return soon with a censored version of the game they hope will meet Apple’s standards.
Did Apple kick out the chart-topping game for its very adult content, including but not limited to the illegal growing and selling of marijuana? That’s what some are reporting, though we haven’t independently verified it yet.
If Apple did give Weed Firm the boot, few would be surprised. We asked the question in our review of the game: “Given the game’s themes and pot’s current federal placement in the U.S., is this game too much too soon?”
Weed Firm review: Our review of the chart-topping game
25 things I’ve learned from Weed Firm: If you play the game, you know
On May 20, Twitter lit up with players unsuccessfully looking for the game in the App Store. That same day, the people behind @WeedFirmGame (who may or may not be the game’s creator, Manitoba Games) tweeted, “Just doing a few maintenance things on the app, so it will be down from the App Store for a few days.” That same evening, I was interviewed by the Fox affiliate in New York City about the game’s crazy popularity, which propelled the game to the No. 1 spot on the App Store’s free games chart only a few weeks after its release.
Calls and emails to Apple’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters went unanswered on May 21, and a message to Weed Firm’s makers also went unreturned.
Meanwhile:
Weed firm hit number one on the app store and gets deleted lol
— jesse pinkman (@DamiPedrosa) May 21, 2014
