App 'in review' for 4 days. Normal? [Archive]

Mastersoft

12-14-2009, 05:44 PM

My very simple app has been 'in review' for 4 days so far. Is that normal? There is not much to it and I doubt it would take more than an hour to test it (at most).

da shiz wiz 19

12-14-2009, 05:54 PM

From what I've heard I think its normal. It should be past review soon, maybe a day or two?

Flickitty

12-14-2009, 05:55 PM

My very simple app has been 'in review' for 4 days so far. Is that normal? There is not much to it and I doubt it would take more than an hour to test it (at most).

4 days isn't normal, but it is getting closer to Dec 24th. They have a lot of apps to test before that date.

shen

12-14-2009, 05:55 PM

Being in review for 4 days fits with my experience.

MindJuice

12-14-2009, 06:19 PM

My last two submissions were "In Review" for 7 days and 5 days. The second one was a simple bug fix with no functionality changes.

bomber

12-14-2009, 06:20 PM

Our new game GraalOnline Classic was 10 days "In Review", got approved after 13 days and 23 hours after submission :D (seems like Apple wants to keep that 14 days record)

qwiboo

12-14-2009, 06:24 PM

4 days is normal ;)

Flickitty

12-14-2009, 06:25 PM

Wow, okay I guess my experience is way off. Our normal 'In Review' is about 2 days. From submission to approval usually takes between 1.5 to 2 weeks.

I've heard of submissions taking 4+ weeks to be approved, even for some well known titles by well known developers.

Mastersoft

12-14-2009, 06:41 PM

Ah well I guess I had better be patient!

xenoclone

12-14-2009, 06:52 PM

I had a 4 day "in review" after a pair of 2-day durations. Seems normal.

GamerOutfit

12-14-2009, 09:42 PM

My experience over the past year or so:

WallZ was reviewed in 4 days.

War3100 took 60 days.

Zenflation took 12 days.

I think the more involved the game is, the longer it takes to review. War3100 has tons of contents compared to the other two (although Zenflation by far has the most unique gameplay.)

GregH

12-14-2009, 10:18 PM

Yeah, 4 days is fast IMHO.

Mastersoft

12-15-2009, 03:50 AM

War3100 took 60 days.

60 days !?! You must have been pulling your hair out!

Nijo

12-15-2009, 04:09 AM

There's a difference between "in review" and "waiting for review".
My last two submits have taken 1 week in waiting, then 2 days in review.

A previous app, a long time ago, took 30+ days and was eventually rejected. That's annoying when they reject you for something that can be fixed in 5 minutes.

Flickitty

12-15-2009, 04:11 AM

60 days !?! You must have been pulling your hair out!

Yeah, that is just stupid. I don't know about anyone else, but as soon as I submit to Apple, I immediately start working on an update within a couple days. You could have at least 2-3 updates in that 60 days.

I wonder how long the updates took to be approved.

tukun

12-15-2009, 04:42 AM

shen

12-15-2009, 04:48 AM

Yeah, that is just stupid. I don't know about anyone else, but as soon as I submit to Apple, I immediately start working on an update within a couple days. You could have at least 2-3 updates in that 60 days.

I think Apple is trying to discourage this sort of behavior with their recent changes that no longer highlight updated apps.

They are pushing developers towards "Finish then release" and away from "release then finish".

Nijo

12-15-2009, 04:51 AM

what was it, a game crashing bug or what? jsut curious

The large icon was not similar enough to the small icon.

That was in the early days - I was young and naïve and hadn't read the instructions closely enough. :rolleyes:

Mastersoft

12-15-2009, 04:53 AM

There's a difference between "in review" and "waiting for review".
My last two submits have taken 1 week in waiting, then 2 days in review.

Yep, mine is actually 'in review'. Maybe there is a problem as it is almost 5 days now and really is a simple app.

Sinecure Industries

12-15-2009, 09:28 AM

Our latest app has been "in review" for 7 days tomorrow. Normally our apps are "waiting for review" for a week or so and then "in review" for barely a day. I guess Apple is a little backlogged.

GamerOutfit

12-15-2009, 09:31 AM

Yeah, that is just stupid. I don't know about anyone else, but as soon as I submit to Apple, I immediately start working on an update within a couple days. You could have at least 2-3 updates in that 60 days.

I wonder how long the updates took to be approved.

Most of my updates have only taken a few days. It was just the initial release that took forever. I don't know what the deal was other than they must have played each of the 24 missions and it took them a while to beat it.

bomber

12-17-2009, 07:02 PM

Looks like Apple wants to give some early christmas presents, our applications get approved in lightning speed: our Bomber Online update 1.2 got approved in 3 days :D

MrBlue

12-17-2009, 07:22 PM

I came here to post that too. My update got approved in 3 days. It was a crashing bug fix, but no functional fixes. I just wanted to get it out there, but expected a week, maybe more.

MrBlue

12-17-2009, 07:35 PM

It just occurred to me that maybe after updates not showing up on new releases anymore, devs are no longer flooding the review queue with useless updates. Maybe they finally got through the backlog and we'll be able to see 3 day approvals.

I hope this is the case and not only extra manpower during the holiday season.

jamesj3k

12-18-2009, 11:19 AM

"In review" is totally meaningless.

Our latest game, Depict, is a multiplayer game and we can see on the server when people are coming and going. Therefore, we knew exactly when Apple's reviewers logged in. The first time they reviewed the game it changed to "In Review" after exactly a a week (at 8am in the morning). However, no one logged into the game for another 3 days and it wasn't rejected until the fourth day. The second time they reviewed it, it took exactly a week again and it changed status at 8am again and this time no one even opened the app. On the fourth day (again) it changed status to approved.

It seems like they just change it to "in review" so that you'll think something is going on.

godsized

12-18-2009, 12:40 PM

We have had games go as long as 16 days and as short as 6.

MindJuice

12-18-2009, 01:38 PM

The latest update to Charmed took 7 days exactly to go to the "In Review" state. It stayed "In Review" for 6 more days. It was a simple bug fix that I desperately wanted to have out ASAP. It seems that they are a bit quicker these days though.

During that time, there was not a single score from anyone at Apple on the leaderboards, which means they either did not play it or they did not bother to check the OpenFeint functionality at all.

I just really wonder what they actually DO to "review" a game. Really...I am REALLY curious! Maybe a TA member can apply to become a tester and report back to us. :)

bomber

12-18-2009, 02:10 PM

It really depends from app to app and current weather conditions. Sometimes the reviewers play 1 minute, sometimes 30 minutes and with multiple people from different parts of the world. I would say what they are mainly doing is checking if the app is starting and works for at least 1 minute of game play. Additionally they check if the descriptions, keywords, icon and screenshots are ok. This is possibly done by different people so a change in the application status possibly means that it is assigned to different people.

Random_Guy

12-19-2009, 03:28 AM

My very simple app has been 'in review' for 4 days so far. Is that normal? There is not much to it and I doubt it would take more than an hour to test it (at most).

Well, let's just hope that it gets approved before the 23rd!