How many games will you lose when your iPad updates to iOS 11?

There’s almost nothing more terrible than seeing the notification for an iOS version update. What does this one do? Is it important? Will it break my stuff? Inevitably, some apps will work differently after the update. Others may just stop working entirely. It’s Darwinism by software. The next big Apple iOS update is a doozy that threatens to render hundreds of games inoperative. It’s the meteor coming to strike down the dinosaurs of legacy apps.

The iOS 11 update will reportedly push iPhones and iPads to a 64-bit system, leaving the 32-bit architecture behind. Good news for people that want more speed and stability in their Apple products. Bad news for people that want their old games to continue working. Despite warnings from Apple for years, many games are just not ready for the change. According to one estimate, over 187,000 apps are in danger of being made obsolete with iOS 11. Many of those on-the-edge apps are games, and unfortunately, some of them have been largely abandoned by the developers. Some are victims of neglect. Some are orphans whose developer went out of business. Apple mobile owners will have to make the painful decision to update their iOS to keep up with technology, while killing their outdated apps.

You can check this out yourself in the current version of iOS. Go to your General menu under Settings, then select About, and choose Applications. You should get a list of apps that will “slow down” your hardware and “will not work with future versions of iOS if they are not updated.” You’ll also see a helpful warning to “contact the app developer” for more information.