Apple removes popular marijuana growing game 'Weed Firm' from App Store

Weed Firm is one of those games, like Flappy Bird before it, that took the App Store by storm, reaching the number one spot purely through word of mouth. The trouble for Apple is the game follows the "vicious and lawless career of Mr. Ted Growing", an expelled botany sophomore, and is essentially a marijuana growing sim in which you produce and sell different types of weed, and interact with various shady characters including cops, gangsters, druggies and dancers. Not exactly the sort of game Apple really wants to see at the top of its charts.

It was perhaps a surprise that the Breaking Bad inspired app made it through Apple’s rigorous, and at times prudish approvals process in the first place, but having flourished far too well at the top, it was only a matter of time before it was hacked down. The game, inevitably, is no longer available in the App Store.

There seems little question who is behind the disappearance of the popular app. As the game’s developer, Manitoba Games, explains on its website:

As you might have noticed the game is no longer available on the Apple App Store. This was entirely Apple's decision, not ours. We guess the problem was that the game was just too good and got to number one in All Categories, since there are certainly a great number of weed based apps still available, as well as games promoting other so-called 'illegal activities' such as shooting people, crashing cars and throwing birds at buildings.

The developer goes on to explain that "We do not want kids playing Weed Firm, but we firmly believe that adults should have a choice to do whatever the hell they want as long as they are not hurting anybody in the process" and promises that the game will be back, albeit in a slightly modified form to appease Apple.

Although the game was free, there were the usual in-app purchases available, so you could improve your drug yield by purchasing equipment like watering cans, pots, and boosters. Business Insider estimated the app was pulling in around $83,832 a day before being booted from the App store.

The game has also been removed from Google Play, but that is down to a publisher problem and not any content issues with the Play Store, according to Manitoba Games.

Plans are already well underway for a sequel. "Weed Firm 2 will feature updated and improved graphics and gameplay, completely new locations, magic mushrooms, new characters, obviously, and much, much more!" the developers say. Although whether it will make it into the App Store remains to be seen.