Here's how the tvOS limitation is keeping game developers away from Apple TV

When the first Apple TV was introduced in 2015 with tvOS and the App Store, Apple tried to market it as a kind of game. console. However, years have passed, and the catalog of games available for tvOS is very small. While the Apple TV isn't as popular a product as the iPhone, a particular limitation of tvOS may be the main reason game developers stay away from the platform.

tvOS limits the amount of storage apps can use

With Apple now allows gaming emulators to be used on the App Store, many users are wondering when one of these emulators will become available on the tvOS App Store for Apple TV users. That finally happened last week with the launch of RetroArch.

However, users who tested RetroArch on Apple TV noticed that their games were suddenly being deleted by the app. Unfortunately for these people, this is not a bug of the application, but a limitation of the operating system. Specifically, Apple limits the amount of memory each tvOS app can use.

“The maximum tvOS app package size is 4 GB. Moreover, your app can only access 500 KB of persistent storage local to the device,” according to the App Store documentation. You read that right: Apple TV apps can only store 500KB of data at all times, which is only enough for things like settings and game saves.

The thing is, tvOS apps can load more data, but the system can delete them at any time since they are all considered temporary files. Of course, the 4 GB limit for an app package is also quite low for console-level games.

Game and emulator developers are unhappy with this

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Also only the iCloud database level is supported. Emulators like to use iCloud file syncing because it makes it easier to support users without iCloud storage.

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As AppleInsider points out, many developers complain about tvOS' limitations when it comes to using storage. .

“I believe tvOS does not allow apps to use persistent storage. For example, the new gaming emulator RetroArch should store all your saves, screenshots and ROMs in the Caches directory, which the OS can clear at any time without warning,” said developer Ole Begemann.

Riley Testut, Developer of the popular emulator Delta said this limitation is the main reason it hasn't created an Apple TV version of its emulator. And it's not hard to imagine that many other game developers have also given up on bringing their games to Apple TV because of this.

It's not hard to imagine why the company introduced this restriction in the first place, since older Apple TV models started with 32GB of internal storage. memory. However, the Apple TV now starts with 64GB of internal storage, and there is also a 128GB option. We hope that Apple will remove this limitation in the future, at least for the latest Apple TV models.