Apple Arcade vs. Google Play Pass

[TJ82]

To be absolutely clear I am not accusing anyone here of trolling but if I were a troll I would almost certainly post comments like "I cancelled after 3 days because..." It's free for 1 month! Why would anyone cancel after just a few days when it's free for a month. With 60 games can you expect anyone to seriously believe you took time to evaluate the product and all its offerings and decided it was so unusable that it was worth taking the time to cancel it after only 3 days?

Arcade is not for everyone. It probably isn't really for me. But if I were a gamer I would certainly take more than a few days to evaluate it thoroughly given that it is free for a month. Otherwise I would expect people to accuse me of trolling. Which, to be clear, I am not.

Just wasn’t for me, I had more than enough time with the titles to know they werent able to hook me. Only saw 5 that I liked to play, and have them a decent go.
Always cancel as soon as you’re done with a sub so you don’t get charged. Learned that the hard way.

Sorry if common sense seems like trolling to you.

I am many things but a 14 year that lives with their mum and defines themselves as a gamer is definitely not me. I don’t have the time or inclination to spend countless hours doing something so meaningless.
It they can make touch games more mature and more immersive that will be excellent for casual playing. They haven’t. Graphics are childish too, the recent styles are awful. No character.

Sayonara and the Capcom title exempt.

 

[1098474]

So Google rounded up a bunch of stuff hanging around in the shed out back, slapped a sticker on it and called it Play Pass?

Sounds more like a garage sale.

Don't forget Google Stadia is coming, that will kill Apple Arcade quickly

 

[DNichter]

Clear winner here. Exclusive titles, tons of variety, and developer buy in. I’m actually like Apple Arcade and I don’t really like games. Everything I’ve tried has been great, will keep it.

 

[Scottsoapbox]

60 games? I count 29.

 

[Dboggus]

60 games? I count 29.

there are actually around 70. You have to scroll to the bottom of the arcade section and click the see all button down there to see the full list.

 

[djcerla]

Just wasn’t for me, I had more than enough time with the titles to know they werent able to hook me. Only saw 5 that I liked to play, and have them a decent go.
Always cancel as soon as you’re done with a sub so you don’t get charged. Learned that the hard way.

Sorry if common sense seems like trolling to you.

I am many things but a 14 year that lives with their mum and defines themselves as a gamer is definitely not me. I don’t have the time or inclination to spend countless hours doing something so meaningless.
It they can make touch games more mature and more immersive that will be excellent for casual playing. They haven’t. Graphics are childish too, the recent styles are awful. No character.

"I don’t have the time or inclination to spend countless hours doing something so meaningless."

Enough said.

 

[Mabus51]

Don't forget Google Stadia is coming, that will kill Apple Arcade quickly

Nah Google Stadia is DOA. Didn’t work for OnLive, Genki, PlayStation. It won’t work for Google or Microsoft either. Major problem is input lag and download caps from ISPs. Streaming games over the internet takes way to long for button inputs to register. It sorta works on local lan. But even then it’s only passable at best.

 

[EvilEvil]

I wish I could buy Grindstone a la carte. I don't want to subscribe to Apple Arcade.

 

[Justanotherfanboy]

So Google rounded up a bunch of stuff hanging around in the shed out back, slapped a sticker on it and called it Play Pass?

Sounds more like a garage sale.

Right? Lol.
Further... I thought the big attraction to Android was that everything is free.
I honestly didn’t realize there were “hundreds” of games on Android that anyone was paying for.

 

[mixel]

You don’t have to want Apple Arcade.. nobody is making or expecting everyone to use the service. It’s clearly not for everyone.

I don’t see how anyone genuinely interested in playing new things couldn’t find hours+ worth of stuff to play already. The library is getting incredible buzz from the games industry/media for being such a strong lineup.

Don't forget Google Stadia is coming, that will kill Apple Arcade quickly

You dont see how these have totally different target audiences and types of experience? They are barely even competing.. Streaming to the phone? No thanks. Stadia poses no threat to Apple Arcade, the only threat to Apple Arcade is the possibility of Apple losing interest and leaving it to falter. Hopefully that won’t happen.

 

[iGMX]

The Google Pass games are 99% junk. And why did the article gloss over the fact that you can play the same saved game on iPhone/iPad/Apple TV/Mac? And Android is just not built for games with it’s antiquated OS libraries, that’s why they keep slapping on more memory hoping that would fix it.

 

[BugHunter]

Regardless of which one is better, can we just take a minute to appreciate that this may lead to profitable games that don't rely in In App Purchases. Though it isn't going to get studios the millions of dollars that some fremium games drag in, but hopefully it'll start cutting into their profits if people move to playing these games instead.

The idea of paying a few bucks for extra levels is fine, but then some genius came up with re-purchasable smurf-berries, and the design of the games changed from entertainment to addiction. Then the games changed even more to focus on whales and the whole experience just became wretched.

I'm happily going to pay for Apple Arcade just to reward something that's not IAP.

 

[Solomani]

Sony needs to bring back the PSP. Playstation Portable.

 

[SteveJUAE]

Google Play Pass games can't be played on the larger screen of a television, which gives Apple Arcade a bit of an edge when it comes to non-mobile gaming.

Is this not slightly misleading as any owner of Samsung S10's, Note 10's and Fold should be able to run Google Play pass on many platforms and devices including MasOS and large screen TV's etc

I think the edge may be more to Samsung especially as it supports this out of the box and no additional device is require

 

[coolfactor]

Just wasn’t for me, I had more than enough time with the titles to know they werent able to hook me. Only saw 5 that I liked to play, and have them a decent go.
Always cancel as soon as you’re done with a sub so you don’t get charged. Learned that the hard way.

Sorry if common sense seems like trolling to you.

I am many things but a 14 year that lives with their mum and defines themselves as a gamer is definitely not me. I don’t have the time or inclination to spend countless hours doing something so meaningless.
It they can make touch games more mature and more immersive that will be excellent for casual playing. They haven’t. Graphics are childish too, the recent styles are awful. No character.

Sayonara and the Capcom title exempt.

Don't forget that more games will be added all the time. I actually appreciate that Apple is leaning more towards the "fun" end of the spectrum and less to the "violent and bloody" end that many successful game franchises employ. The world does not need more violence-induced games, regardless of how much or little they might contribute to the development of young minds. The world needs more fun, laughter, smiles and pure joy.

As for the graphics being childish, that's purely subjective. It's just a different styles that many people will enjoy, and that does not mean they are awful. Just not your style.

And 14 year olds should definitely be living with their parents! I'd be worried if they weren't! 🤣
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Even if you played just 1 game from the selection, it would still be cheaper than most paid and ad-supported games available today. Arcade is great value. Is it sustainable, I wonder?

 

[Scottsoapbox]

there are actually around 70. You have to scroll to the bottom of the arcade section and click the see all button down there to see the full list.

Thanks. I looked through the a few of the see all links and it's the same 30ish in different order.

 

[FightTheFuture]

Google Stadia is coming, that will kill Apple Arcade quickly

If it works as well as they claim it will.

This play pass thing is very reactionary. Not sure why they didn’t just tout Stadia instead.

 

[pratikindia]

So much for Apple Privacy. It’s Terms and Conditions says that it will provide your Apple ID to the game developers if you download games from Apple Arcade.

 

[Abazigal]

Don't forget Google Stadia is coming, that will kill Apple Arcade quickly

I am personally betting on Google killing Stadia themselves first long before this happens.

 

[DevNull0]

To be absolutely clear I am not accusing anyone here of trolling but if I were a troll I would almost certainly post comments like "I cancelled after 3 days because..." It's free for 1 month! Why would anyone cancel after just a few days when it's free for a month. With 60 games can you expect anyone to seriously believe you took time to evaluate the product and all its offerings and decided it was so unusable that it was worth taking the time to cancel it after only 3 days?

I haven't signed up yet because the games don't appear to appeal to me at all, and don't seem worth the time to try it. I'll save my free trial, and maybe some day, something will grab my attention.

But to be fair to the people you replied to, I wouldn't waste several days trying all 60 games either, I'd pick, 5, 10, or even 15 of the most appealing sounding titles and try them, and if they all left me disappointed, I sure wouldn't keep trying games that don't even sound good.

Arcade is not for everyone. It probably isn't really for me. But if I were a gamer I would certainly take more than a few days to evaluate it thoroughly given that it is free for a month. Otherwise I would expect people to accuse me of trolling. Which, to be clear, I am not.

I do consider myself a gamer, and I'm very clearly not in the target market, which is fine with me, I don't have to hate every product I don't love.

 

[matrix07]

Clear winner here. Exclusive titles, tons of variety, and developer buy in. I’m actually like Apple Arcade and I don’t really like games. Everything I’ve tried has been great, will keep it.

Yep. only $5 a month for quality games I can play on every Apple devices I owned. No brainer. I don’t have to play it everyday but when I want to I know they’re there.
Right now the doctor forbid me to be stressed so Sayonara on Apple TV is out of a question (and What The Golf on the phone as well) so I have to get by with Patterned, which is not bad at all.

 

[FlyingDutch]

There is a clear winner here. Google Play Pass is the usual half baked product.
But Apple has to keep pushing on developers to make arcade a premium service.

 

[Codpeace]

Regardless of which one is better, can we just take a minute to appreciate that this may lead to profitable games that don't rely in In App Purchases. Though it isn't going to get studios the millions of dollars that some fremium games drag in, but hopefully it'll start cutting into their profits if people move to playing these games instead.

The idea of paying a few bucks for extra levels is fine, but then some genius came up with re-purchasable smurf-berries, and the design of the games changed from entertainment to addiction. Then the games changed even more to focus on whales and the whole experience just became wretched.

I'm happily going to pay for Apple Arcade just to reward something that's not IAP.

Exactly right. Well said (thank you). I like to play games but deal with addictive tendencies in my life that cause me difficulty, shame, and guilt. A game should be a respite from difficulties in real life — not a perpetuation and reinforcement of them.

 

[Coconut Bean]

Nah Google Stadia is DOA. Didn’t work for OnLive, Genki, PlayStation. It won’t work for Google or Microsoft either. Major problem is input lag and download caps from ISPs. Streaming games over the internet takes way to long for button inputs to register. It sorta works on local lan. But even then it’s only passable at best.

On wifi I get around 20ms to the data center in town 30ms-50ms to other continental data centers and around 100ms-150ms to cross-atlantic ones. Apart from that is of course the rendering and compression, that will have to be done on server that must start when my input is received, say 30 ms (equivalent of 30fps, dont know what figure would be actually realistic). And add on to that the decompressing and input lag to the TV, mine is a ****** one with input lag of maybe 60-80ms (I think gaming modes on better TVs is around 20-30ms). So for me an input lag of around 160 ms is to be expected.

Now this is not good for playing competitive FPS or even Dota, but for console titles should be more than enough. Keep in mind that current multiplayer games already have a ”propagation lag”. But instead of console to server -> Rendering -> server to console -> TV’s input lag
you have:
player 1 to server -> server to player 2 -> Rendering -> TV’s input lag.

Bandwidth might be an issue yes, especially as more heavily compressed material will in general generate more latency (in the rendering and decompressing part) although they will likely have some dope hardware acceleration in place. I’d love to see some CNN-based upsampling like Nvidia’s, but that will likely take some more time.

 

[ds2000]

To be absolutely clear I am not accusing anyone here of trolling but if I were a troll I would almost certainly post comments like "I cancelled after 3 days because..." It's free for 1 month! Why would anyone cancel after just a few days when it's free for a month. With 60 games can you expect anyone to seriously believe you took time to evaluate the product and all its offerings and decided it was so unusable that it was worth taking the time to cancel it after only 3 days?

Arcade is not for everyone. It probably isn't really for me. But if I were a gamer I would certainly take more than a few days to evaluate it thoroughly given that it is free for a month. Otherwise I would expect people to accuse me of trolling. Which, to be clear, I am not.

I binned it after 6 hours, reason being I didn't wait until the end of the trial is I didn't want to forget and get charged. I tried about 15 titles, none of them felt remotely premium.