Hi,
Can Apple provide some reassurance on the continued support for SpriteKit in the coming years?
At WWDC 2025, Apple deprecated SceneKit, which was alarming for a SpriteKit fan and user. I'm aware Apple doesn't comment on future plans. However, committing to a specific framework for larger projects is a significant investment in time (and money). Developers need to know whether to continue investing in proprietary technology that could be deprecated at any time. Some reassurance regarding SpriteKit's future would go a long way.
I have moved my project from SpriteKit to RealityKit. RealityKit is certainly interesting, but I'd gladly switch back to SpriteKit.
SpriteKit has things going for it that no other Apple framework provides:
- Live drawing of shapes, paths, text, video, and images at 120 FPS across all Apple devices. RealityKit offers no procedural drawing API equivalent to shape nodes.
- Particles and physics fields are very easy and fun to play with.
- The rigid body engine has a good feel. By comparison, RealityKit sleeps too aggressively, and doesn't have spring joints.
- SpriteKit is lightweight and runs well on older devices.
In an ideal world, I'd also love to see SpriteKit improved:
- A deterministic physics engine
- Metal shader support
- Soft shadows for lights
One can dream.
Thank you!
Thanks for the thoughtful post. To address your direct question first: SpriteKit is not deprecated at this time. I checked the SpriteKit headers in the iOS 26 SDK — the framework as a whole carries no deprecation marker, and the only items in the headers that carry deprecation markers are individual APIs that have been so since the iOS 7–10 timeframe (early SKVideoNode initializers, GLKMath-typed uniform variants, and similar legacy entry points). The public API surface is intact in iOS 26.
Beyond that observation, I can't comment on roadmap or future plans — Apple doesn't speak to those publicly through DTS, and any specific reassurance from me would be speculation. The right place for the enhancements you've requested — a deterministic physics engine, Metal shader support, and soft shadows for lights — is the Feedback Assistant.
Please file an enhancement request using the Feedback Assistant so that your request can be seen by the appropriate decision makers. If you file the request, please post the Feedback number here so we can make sure it gets routed to the right team.
Please note that filing an enhancement request does not guarantee Apple will add any requested functionality to Apple products in the future. However, with that said, filing an enhancement request is a good way to get your ideas in front of the folks who make decisions about that sort of thing.
If you're not familiar with how to file enhancement requests, take a look at Bug Reporting: How and Why?.
A couple of practical notes for filing:
- Each enhancement reads better as its own separate Feedback Report rather than bundling all three together. Each gets its own tracking number and stands on its own merits, and you can reference each FB number individually if you follow up later.
- The detailed list of what SpriteKit does well that you included in your post is exactly the kind of context that strengthens an enhancement request. Include that material in your FBs as motivation for the asks — "here's what the framework already does well, here's what would build on those strengths" is a stronger framing than a bare feature list.
