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Apple accidentally pays Chinese App Store developers more than expected after bank error

Sources claim the error most likely affected indie developers; Apple to reclaim payouts

Apple accidentally pays Chinese App Store developers more than expected after bank error

Apple has reportedly paid App Store developers in China seven-times what they should have been last month after an error in converting currency saw it make payouts in USD rather than Chinese yuan.

That’s according to rumours swirling around social media in China, which you can see an example of in the image below (in Chinese).

It’s been alleged that rather than paying developers in yuan, they were instead paid in USD, generating them much more revenue than expected.

PocketGamer.biz has reached out to a number of our contacts in the Chinese games industry. One source passed on a message that developers have allegedly received from Apple which states that its partner, Deutsche Bank, “recently experienced an issue that may have impacted the payment for your July 2019 earnings”.

As a result, Apple is said to be reissuing payments to the correct amount. The message noted that banks will be in touch with developers that received payments in error for July to approve returns of the payments.

Yoozoo US GM Wenfeng Yang corroborated the accounts of a payment error and said “lots of individual developers who chose not to [be paid] in USD, got the same amount in USD”.

According to another source in China, many of the larger Chinese companies are paid in USD to accounts in Hong Kong and are therefore unaffected by the error.

However, a number of indie developers in China may have still received an unexpected sales boost for the month.

Technode has also reported on the story, in which it states it has received confirmation from the developer behind 'Panda Eats Messages' of an SMS notifying him of a higher than expected payment. 'My Goals' developer Zhang Zhong meanwhile stated that he had also received an inflated payment.

We’ve reached out to Apple for comment but have not received a response at the time of publication.

Head of Content

Craig Chapple is a freelance analyst, consultant and writer with specialist knowledge of the games industry. He has previously served as Senior Editor at PocketGamer.biz, as well as holding roles at Sensor Tower, Nintendo and Develop.