It's days like today that make it feel like Apple just isn't going to be happy until TouchArcade as well as all other third party content creators and web sites that focus on the App Store just don't exist at all, leaving the App Store featuring process as the sole curation point for all things iOS. Just as we were formulating a solid plan for what to do with the TouchArcade app (which we can't update) as it dies with iOS 11, Apple announced that they're dropping their affiliate program commission from 7% all the way down to 2.5%. To give you an idea of how much this sucks, let's get into how the TouchArcade sausage is made.
Back in the good ol' days, TouchArcade existed as a business through selling ads and through referral links. Developers looking to promote their game would email [email protected], and work with us to buy ads on the site to coincide with their game launch. Before the days of free to play, ad sales were great. Today" Not so much. (You can tell when we have actual ads we sell running because things that relate to iOS games will be on the site, instead of just basic placeholder ads for Verizon or whatever else.)
Ouch! Apple just slashed the affiliate commission on apps and IAP. This will impact lots of great sites/apps. pic.twitter.com/dbv7CboMX3
— David Barnard (@drbarnard) April 24, 2017

While ad sales dropped off significantly, referral links still did pretty good. Any time you clicked a link on TouchArcade, the TouchArcade forums, or i...