Jeremy Horwitz, writing for 9to5mac:

What happens when an app — marketed as compatible with current iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches — is never updated for the latest version of iOS, and either stops working after an iOS upgrade, or never works at all on new devices? That’s the situation buyers of Square Enix’s $18 The World Ends with You: Solo Remix (and $20 iPad version) have found themselves in since iOS 8 was released. The game’s description claims that it “requires iOS 4.3 or later” and is compatible with devices that shipped with iOS 8, but it wasn’t actually iOS 8-compatible. Yesterday, Square Enix publicly flip-flopped on whether it would leave the game unplayable or fix it. Before changing its tune, the company told customers that they’d need to continue to keep using iOS 7 in order to play the game — an unrealistic alternative, though one that’s faced by users of numerous iOS apps that aren’t being updated by their developers.

Obsolescence is not a big deal for a 99 cent app, but a line exists, and that line is clearly crossed with an app priced at $20, or even $18.

A tough situation. You can’t force a developer to build an update. And it’s not quite fair to force a developer to refund money when the product they built actually runs on the OS for which it was built.

Should Apple refund a customer’s money when an app no longer runs on an updated version of iOS? That feels closer, but still, is it fair to penalize Apple for pushing the platform further along?