In 2006, Apple released “Texas Hold’em” for the iPod, eventually porting it over to the iPhone in 2008. By 2011, the game had disappeared from the App Store. But now, Apple is bringing the title back with a few new upgrades for fans to enjoy.
Apple wrote that the game was coming back to celebrate a historic anniversary for the App Store, though it appears they missed the mark by about a year.
New Version Features Series of Major Upgrades
The Apple Texas Hold’em game actually predates the existence of the App Store, which was only launched on July 11, 2008. That means it has been nearly 11 years since the store opened, despite what it might say in the poker game’s patch notes.
“To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the App Store, we’ve brought back one of its first games, a popular classic,” the version history for Texas Hold’em says under the 2.0 listing.
That announcement comes nearly 11 years after the last update to the game, which came for version 1.1 on Aug. 31, 2008. Way back then, the game boasted new features like “gesture-created emotes, more statistics tracking, and unlimited re-buys in multiplayer games.”
The re-release comes with a suite of new features as well. Players can play multiplayer games with up to eight friends, choose from different gameplay views, and compete at 10 different venues. The patch notes also brag of updated graphics, new characters, and more challenging gameplay for offline play. Computer opponents can even give off tells that can help players read their hands.
Apple Arcade Likely Motivated Relaunch
In reality, the relaunch of Texas Hold’em is probably more about Apple’s future rather than a providing a nostalgia trip for its users. Apple has recently gotten back into the business of games development, at least in small ways, such as when it worked on “Paper Wizard” earlier this year.
Looking forward, the company is planning the launch of Apple Arcade, a subscription service that will allow users to pay a monthly fee for access to a wide variety of titles inside the App Store. Expected to launch this fall, Apple Arcade will feature over 100 games and be available on the iPad, iPhone, Mac computers and the Apple TV digital media player.
What’s less clear is whether or not this re-release might be the beginning of a change of course for the tech giant when it comes to online gambling apps.
Apple has long had a fraught relationship with poker and other online games. While operators could sometimes find ways to slip their games through the company’s screening process, real money gaming apps have only been permitted in the App Store when created by licensed operators in regulated jurisdictions.
Last month, Apple further cracked down by signaling that it would no longer allow real money gambling apps to be built using embedded HTML5 code. Instead, all gaming apps – along with applications from some additional categories – must now be created using native iOS code, rather than the “wrappers” that are commonly used to redirect users to existing HTML5 games.
