Star Warfare does not work on iOS 11

If you were not aware, iOS 11 beta was released yesterday during Apple's WWDC 2017 keynote. iOS 11 dropped 32-bit support, both in the actual OS, and in the device models that support it. The entry level devices for iOS 11 are the iPhone 5S and iPad Air, the first 64-bit devices Apple released. As part of this move, 32-bit applications will refuse to launch on iOS 11, and will prompt you to either close them or read an article as to why they don't work.

As far as I'm aware, Star Warfare has never been updated for 64-bit, so it will not launch on iOS 11 devices. I am not sure about Payback, since it was made in 2014, but if you want to play Star Warfare, I suggest asking a friend who installed the beta if it works before updating yourself.

(Edited by Anonymous 5dd841bec09de)

Undead.exe·6/6/2017

I'm not sure of the specifics, but multiple websites are stating that on iOS 10.3, you can see which of your installed apps are 32-bit if you go to Settings > General > About > Applications (picture guide included in an example site here).

So if you're on iOS 10.3 (which I'm not, for various reasons involving other games and apps), you can probably check the apps directly to see whether they're listed in the compatibility issues section.

So without that approach, from Googling around a bit...according to idownloadblog.com:

Quoted text:
Apple requires that both new and updated apps submitted to App Store in June 2015 onward support 64-bit processors. To put it another way, all apps listed in the App Compatibility section haven’t been updated since at least June 2015.

Provided the assumption that "apps which support 64-bit processors are able to run on an OS which doesn't have 32-bit support"...(I can't say I'm entirely certain of this, it's just what seems intuitive to me)

Star Warfare 1's last known update according to its iTunes page is 26 January 2016, for Version 2.95. Provided the above website's info is correct, that would imply the game should run, maybe...?

Star Warfare 2's iTunes page lists its last update as April 25, 2016 for Version 1.23, so that should also be safe provided the above info is correct.

All the same, it's probably safest to get direct confirmation from someone running the beta for iOS 11. I don't really know if there's a way to figure out the iOS app's architecture just from looking at its files.

(Edited by Undead.exe)

Anonymous 5dd841bec09de·6/6/2017

I wasn't aware that Apple required updates to be 64-bit after a certain date. That changes everything. I realize both Star Warfare games have been updated in 2016, I just didn't know they had to be recompiled into 64-bit, since that info is not present in the app update log (Freyr being vauge again).

Looks like Star Warfare should be fine, though like you said, the best way to confirm it is to have someone run the beta.

(Edited by Anonymous 5dd841bec09de)

Undead.exe·6/6/2017

Still though, thank you for the warning news regardless -- helps to know what sort of stuff and approach Apple is up to and how it can affect Star Warfare or other games/apps we have.

(Edited by Undead.exe)

JEAN9999·6/9/2017

This is technobabble to my untrained ears. All I understood was that at first it didn't work but now we know it should be fine. Correct me if I'm wrong.

(Edited by JEAN9999)

Undead.exe·6/9/2017

JEAN9999 wrote:
This is technobabble to my untrained ears. All I understood was that at first it didn't work but now we know it should be fine. Correct me if I'm wrong.

That's the gist of it, yeah, JEAN. It was originally a bit like backward-compatibility (e.g. a PS3 being able to run PS2 game discs), but Apple's deciding to remove that ability (like a PS4 which can't run PS3 games unless that specific PS3 game is modified and ported to the PS4 -- which is sort of what Apple required of all apps that were updated as of June 2015 if the above news is accurate).

If you were interested, digital trends had a quick article on it that gives a quick summary without blowing anyone's heads open: it's basically just about the idea of two separate architectures or ways of setting things up.

(Edited by Undead.exe)

Weaponizer·9/9/2017

SW:AI will run, it's 64 Bit since it doesn't appear in the 32 bit apps in settings. Plus, it's running totally fine for me. On latest iOS.

(Edited by Weaponizer)

Choic3velo·1/30/2022

Whenever I play star warfare on my iPhone 11,I cant see some spot that I could on a iPad,like that store and settings button isn’t visible and I can’t click it,is there a reason why?

Undead.exe·2/1/2022

Hey there,

Star Warfare 1 hasn't had an OS update since November 21, 2018, according to its version history on the AppStore.

A quick search shows that the iPhone 11 was released in September 2019, nearly a year after SW1's last known update. That's very likely the reason why it's showing incorrectly on your device: Freyr hasn't been actively updating any of their games in quite a long time, despite keeping their servers online.

I'm entirely unsure what you can do to reach out to them, since all their provided contact details on both the AppStore and GooglePlay now seem to be out of date or otherwise unresponsive.

`SleepyZenn`·1/3/2023

I can vouch for undead here because there was a similar question on the general wall, yes they are completely inactive and there’s no known way to contact them because of what undead just said. As for the unresponsive UI’s it will be different on other devices because I’ve tried messing with everything recently and it still works fine(I’ve got an iPhone 13), although it could be because of the version differences. I’ve heard that some people can do some things that others can’t because they’re on a different game version.

What do you think?