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Apple Arcade Adding Four Games Next Month, Including NBA 2K26

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Apple today announced that four additional games will be added to the Apple Arcade library throughout October, including NBA 2K26 Arcade Edition.

NBA-2K26-Arcade-Edition.jpg

On Thursday, October 2, three existing App Store games will be added to Apple Arcade, including the classic tile-matching game Dominoes by MobilityWare, puzzle game Piffle by Hipster Whale, and kids game Thomas & Friends: Let's Roll by StoryToys.

NBA 2K26 Arcade Edition arrives to Apple Arcade on Thursday, October 16, ahead of the NBA's 2025-26 regular season, which begins Tuesday, October 21. In the latest version of the game, you can relive the greatest eras in the NBA's history with the new "NBA Eras" option in The Association mode. And in MyCAREER mode, there are new player templates, so you can build players that look just like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or other stars.

NBA-2K26-Arcade-Edition-Players.jpg

As always, team rosters have been updated, too.

Apple Arcade is a subscription service that provides access to hundreds of games across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro. All of the games are free of ads and in-app purchases. In the U.S., Apple Arcade costs $6.99 per month, and it is also bundled with other Apple services in all Apple One plans.

Apple Arcade can be accessed through the App Store, and in the new Apple Games app.

Article Link: Apple Arcade Adding Four Games Next Month, Including NBA 2K26
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/23/apple-arcade-nba-2k26-arcade-edition/
Two tabs in the App Store and a dedicated Games system app…
I hate they they try to shovel games down people’s throats.
Personally, I’ve wasted many hours of my life with mobile games and hate that Apple tempts me and others so hard.
 
This is it. The games we were waiting on. Thank you Apple. Something decent and not pre school age games. How I can try out Apple Arcade after not trying it in a long time.
 
I hope Apple keeps pushing forward with gaming so I don't have to keep a PC around to play "real" games. They need to have a "gaming-class" GPU that isn't thousands of dollars, or simply create a thunderbolt 5 eGPU using Apple Silicon technology.

The best time for gaming was when we could dual boot Windows and us eGPUs. I wonder if we could see this come around again given the proliferation of ARM based Windows machines? Somehow I think it would be comparing apples to oranges hardware/ chipset wise.
 
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I really like the more Arcade style sports games. We NEED MORE. I don't want to plan out each play, manage rosters, etc. JUST LET ME PLAY. It's fine if it's not "real." I am a 300lb+ neck beard, I have no illusions or than the ones I PAY FOR. ;)
 
At this point I’d rather want to purchase those few games I do want to play regularly (Grindstone, Mini Motorways, Alto’s Adventure/Odyssey with the additional content). Alas 😔
 
Apple at the iPhone event: “Our new A19 Pro chip with vapor cooling system delivers sustained performance for demanding AAA games with ray tracing and shading.”

Apple Arcade: “Here’s a new dominoes and Thomas the Tank Engine game with pixel art graphics from 1992.”

Why does Apple continue to push GPU performance when there are zero games on Apple Arcade that even come close to taking advantage of what their current hardware can do? Apple Arcade should be a SHOWCASE for the gaming experiences possible on modern Apple hardware, but instead it’s a mockery of the power inside these devices.
 
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Simmias said:
Apple Arcade: “Here’s a new dominoes and Thomas the Tank Engine game with pixel art graphics from 1992.”
Click to expand...

The problem with Apple Arcade is the game design, not the graphics. Their offerings are low-stakes, unambitious in narrative, derivative in design.


Just for the record, here's just a few pixel art games released in 1992. In case you are someone who cares about gaming, you might have head of some of these titles.

- A Link to the Past
- Final Fantasy V
- Bare Knuckle II
- Romancing Saga
- Art of Fighting
- Sonic 2
- Shin Megami Tensei
- Shining Force
- Dragon Quest V
- Mario Land 2
- Dune II
- Kirby's Dream Land
- Mega Man V
- Contra III

I could go on and on. Those were proper games of many different genres, each of them better than anything on Apple Arcade. Graphics are absolutely not the problem with what Apple's offering.
 
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Selena Agna said:
The problem with Apple Arcade is the game design, not the graphics. Their offerings are low-stakes, unambitious in narrative, derivative in design.


Just for the record, here's just a few pixel art games released in 1992. In case you are someone who cares about gaming, you might have head of some of these titles.

- A Link to the Past
- Final Fantasy V
- Bare Knuckle II
- Romancing Saga
- Art of Fighting
- Sonic 2
- Shin Megami Tensei
- Shining Force
- Dragon Quest V
- Mario Land 2
- Dune II
- Kirby's Dream Land
- Mega Man V
- Contra III

I could go on and on. Those were proper games of many different genres, each of them better than anything on Apple Arcade. Graphics are absolutely not the problem with what Apple's offering.
Click to expand...
Agree completely. For me, Super Nintendo was the golden age of gaming. I have nothing at all against pixel graphics. I was pointing out the wasted graphics potential of Apple Arcade, but the games fail in many other ways including design. They are all shallow one finger tapping games, put to shame by any good console game of the last 40 years.
 
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Good to know about the new additions this month. However the catalogue is still not enough to make me subscribe to Arcade.
 
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