Load up many older iPhone or iPad games and you may now find yourself facing a stark warning - that the "app will not work with future versions of iOS".

"The developer of this app needs to update it to improve its compatibility," the warning continues.

So far so standard, right? iOS updates itself all the time - and sometimes games are affected. (And speaking of updates, you'll only see this message if you're on the latest iOS firmware update, 10.3.)

But it's the scale of the issue which has many iPhone users concerned. The upcoming iOS update mentioned in the warning is almost certainly iOS 11, which is expected to drop this Septemer and will - it has been widely rumoured - kill support for 32-bit apps completely.

Apple introduced support for 64-bit apps back in 2013, with iOS 7, and has since mandated that all apps support 64-bit as standard. It later began warning users that 32-bit apps might "slow down" your iPhone, even if this generally wasn't the case.
It now appears Apple is ready to call time on the 32-bit era for good.

So, what does this mean for your games? Currently, hundreds - if not thousands - of well known titles are affected.

Games known to currently need an update include FTL, Baldur's Gate, XCOM: Enemy Within, Doom, Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box and Rayforce.

Many of these larger titles likely will receive the updates they require. Sadly, the real casualties will be games from defunct developers or titles which are just no longer supported.

You can check which of your games need updating on your iPhone by going to Settings > General > About > Applications.

Developers have around five months to update older games, or they will become obsolete. Alternatively, you can choose not to upgrade to iOS 11.

Andy wrote:

Eurogamer: Older iPhone, iPad games now warn they'll soon become obsolete.

Load up many older iPhone or iPad games and you may now find yourself facing a stark warning - that the "app will not work with future versions of iOS".

"The developer of this app needs to update it to improve its compatibility," the warning continues.

So far so standard, right? iOS updates itself all the time - and sometimes games are affected. (And speaking of updates, you'll only see this message if you're on the latest iOS firmware update, 10.3.)

But it's the scale of the issue which has many iPhone users concerned. The upcoming iOS update mentioned in the warning is almost certainly iOS 11, which is expected to drop this Septemer and will - it has been widely rumoured - kill support for 32-bit apps completely.

Apple introduced support for 64-bit apps back in 2013, with iOS 7, and has since mandated that all apps support 64-bit as standard. It later began warning users that 32-bit apps might "slow down" your iPhone, even if this generally wasn't the case.
It now appears Apple is ready to call time on the 32-bit era for good.

So, what does this mean for your games? Currently, hundreds - if not thousands - of well known titles are affected.

Games known to currently need an update include FTL, Baldur's Gate, XCOM: Enemy Within, Doom, Ridiculous Fishing, Super Crate Box and Rayforce.

Many of these larger titles likely will receive the updates they require. Sadly, the real casualties will be games from defunct developers or titles which are just no longer supported.

You can check which of your games need updating on your iPhone by going to Settings > General > About > Applications.

Developers have around five months to update older games, or they will become obsolete. Alternatively, you can choose not to upgrade to iOS 11.

I'm thinking about the games I still play that have been been showing the, "this app may slow down your iPad/iPhone," warning for a while. My concern is not just the games from defunct developers, but also those from the likes of EA who will choose not to update, because they'd rather you bought a newer version.

I'm already fed up of the wider issue of games/apps that I've originally paid for, that are then converted to a subscription / freemium model. I tend to vote with my wallet, and don't give them any more money, and I fully appreciate that it'll be covered by the EULAs, but it's still tiresome. Now I anticipate I'll be adding neglected apps to the list.