Apple Highlights Apple Arcade Games Ahead of the Holidays

[MacRumors]

Apple today shared a new Apple Arcade video that focuses on great games to play during the holidays in an effort to get new users to try out its gaming service.

Get Apple Arcade for the holidays, and your whole family can play with you. Tap the joystick icon on the App Store to start your one-month free trial.

Apple highlights top Apple Arcade games like What the Golf (which has been updated with new December levels), Cat Quest II, Super Impossible Road, Sneaky Sasquatch, Steven Universe Unleash the Light, Patterned, and Exit the Dungeon.

Apple Arcade is priced at $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year, and one subscription allows up to six family members to play through Family Sharing. For those who have not yet given Apple Arcade a try, there is a one-month free trial available.

Article Link: Apple Highlights Apple Arcade Games Ahead of the Holidays

 

[gplusplus]

They should highlight a new Apple TV, or maybe a steep discount on the existing, two year old model. I don’t have a device for Apple Arcade because I don’t want to buy an old device.

 

[Rodney Dangerfield]

Just bought a new 2019 Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR!...Where is my FREE Apple Arcade?...LOL

 

[Unity451]

They should highlight a new Apple TV, or maybe a steep discount on the existing, two year old model. I don’t have a device for Apple Arcade because I don’t want to buy an old device.

you don't have an iphone?

 

[LastStarfighter]

Despite all the power our mobile devices now have with A12 and A13 SoCs, we’re still not seeing any decent games. These happy clappy games do nothing for me. When will we get games of the stature of Knights of the Old Republic 1/2? Decent RPGs with ambiguous moral choices, not a baby knocking down blocks or a cartoon Sasquatch looting food?

 

[richpjr]

Despite all the power our mobile devices now have with A12 and A13 SoCs, we’re still not seeing any decent games. These happy clappy games do nothing for me. When will we get games of the stature of Knights of the Old Republic 1/2? Decent RPGs with ambiguous moral choices, not a baby knocking down blocks or a cartoon Sasquatch looting food?

^This. I keep checking and really see nothing that makes we want to subscribe.

 

[Matt Leaf]

I wanna see Switch Pro Controller support. I don’t have the other consoles/controllers and don’t wanna fork out for one just for Arcade.

 

[gkarris]

^This. I keep checking and really see nothing that makes we want to subscribe.

"Everything Golf" and "Cat Quest"....

yay....

 

[EvilEvil]

I wish Apple would give you the option to purchase games separately. I don't want to sign up for another subscription. The only game I enjoyed was Grindstone.

 

[mixel]

Despite all the power our mobile devices now have with A12 and A13 SoCs, we’re still not seeing any decent games. These happy clappy games do nothing for me. When will we get games of the stature of Knights of the Old Republic 1/2? Decent RPGs with ambiguous moral choices, not a baby knocking down blocks or a cartoon Sasquatch looting food?

They dont really make games "like" KOTOR anyway.. Closest thing being Mass Effect series and it's most recent entry got panned. At least Baldurs gate 1 and 2 are available on iOS already.

And failing big scale RPGs there are a few good turn based tactical games on Apple arcade. Overland is pretty great, and damned challenging. Might be a bit too procedurally generated in terms of story for your liking but you have to make a lot of heavy judgement calls.

TBH the dev times, investment and team sizes for something like the Witcher 3 (ie big modern RPGs) - I'd be surprised to see things like that turning up on Apple Arcade. If anything they could be the first line in iOS games that actually charge appropriate amount for big games, and will people really pay? Who's going to take that risk. It's a shame though as Witcher 3 runs nicely enough on the Switch of all things so a properly optimised iPad Pro version could be really special.

 

[DevNull0]

I wanna see Switch Pro Controller support. I don’t have the other consoles/controllers and don’t wanna fork out for one just for Arcade.

The XBox One Controller is $40 this week. I have an older revision model thats not Apple compatible, as well as a pair of 360 controllers, and I still bought a new one at that price over black Friday to play steam games on my Macbook. It is a fantastic value for the best controller available.

My issue is that I have a current gen iPad Pro and aTV 4k, so I thought it would be great to be able to use the controller with those. But I can't find a remotely good iOS game to play except a few ports that are better on another platform anyway. Kotor is $10 for iOS right now and $3.50 for the Mac via steam right now. And the Steam version is also far better.

 

[jimbobb24]

Despite all the power our mobile devices now have with A12 and A13 SoCs, we’re still not seeing any decent games. These happy clappy games do nothing for me. When will we get games of the stature of Knights of the Old Republic 1/2? Decent RPGs with ambiguous moral choices, not a baby knocking down blocks or a cartoon Sasquatch looting food?

These all look so terrible. If you have to highlight a feature of your game in diversity you made a bad game. What about the gameplay?

 

[pankajdoharey]

Despite all the power our mobile devices now have with A12 and A13 SoCs, we’re still not seeing any decent games. These happy clappy games do nothing for me.

Absolutely Whats the point of having the most powerful Mobile CPU and GPU in your phone when the games on arcade can run on any decent low level phone and even , AppleTV which has an older processor. What Apple Needs to do is first Upgrade Apple TV to a processor at par with the top iPhone Processor, only then Developers will be confident of delivering a game which has higher quality across devices. Right now a number of iOS devices are older generation. Also where are the AAA Games? Nintendo Switch has a much lower end processor than iPhone yet it has all the AAA Games, this is where iPhone can shine, AAA Games on iOS devices, People dont port to android due to rampant piracy, iOS dont suffer that, yet we see sad titles.
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I wish Apple would give you the option to purchase games separately. I don't want to sign up for another subscription. The only game I enjoyed was Grindstone.

You can purchase games separately its called the App Store.

 

[DevNull0]

What Apple Needs to do is first Upgrade Apple TV to a processor at par with the top iPhone Processor, only then Developers will be confident of delivering a game which has higher quality across devices. ... yet we see sad titles.

I think what Apple needs to do is put an end to in-app purchases. The App store had an amazing first few years in gaming, I used to spend a lot more time on toucharcade than I did on macrumors. Around the iPhone 3gs-4s generations, the iPhone was a magnificent gaming platform.

Now all the high end games are just iAP hell, broken game designs decide to lure you in and then make you pay to get past nearly impossible challenges. There is nothing fun about that model, and iOS is an utter failure as a gaming platform.

Take away the iAP model where all devs want to do is go whale hunting, and they'll have to go back to making games that are meant to be fun.

You can purchase games separately its called the App Store.

Sure, if you like ads and iAP tokens. Otherwise it's a wasteland.

 

[LastStarfighter]

Kotor is $10 for iOS right now and $3.50 for the Mac via steam right now. And the Steam version is also far better.

Thank you!

I hadn’t seen that KOTOR was out for iOS! I’d given up on looking for something like this a while ago. I’ve just bought the game. Always fun to play through these games again and I want to vote with my wallet to show developers that there’s a market for iOS ports of great games.

I think in-app purchases have been a terrible thing for developer creativity in games. Instead of creating great games that you want to spend hours/days playing and or replay for years afterwards, devs are now focused on generating games that operate like gambling to make you want to spend money for being able to progress where if it didn’t have in-app purchases you’d probably only have played for a couple of days and then gotten bored of it because there’s nothing to it when you actually have all the abilities/weapons/whatever else is pay walled. Unfortunately people pay and perpetuate this by making it highly profitable for the people who make games with in-app purchases.

 

[Bandaman]

They should highlight a new Apple TV, or maybe a steep discount on the existing, two year old model. I don’t have a device for Apple Arcade because I don’t want to buy an old device.

It's still the fastest and most buttery streaming box you can buy right now ... and offers pretty much every feature of surround and HDR that you could want.

 

[Plett]

They should highlight a new Apple TV, or maybe a steep discount on the existing, two year old model. I don’t have a device for Apple Arcade because I don’t want to buy an old device.

Why not?

 

[User 6502]

Why not?

Is that a joke? Buying two year old tech at the same price that had when it was realised is of course something most people are not willing to do.

 

[d21mike]

I think what Apple needs to do is put an end to in-app purchases. The App store had an amazing first few years in gaming, I used to spend a lot more time on toucharcade than I did on macrumors. Around the iPhone 3gs-4s generations, the iPhone was a magnificent gaming platform.

Now all the high end games are just iAP hell, broken game designs decide to lure you in and then make you pay to get past nearly impossible challenges. There is nothing fun about that model, and iOS is an utter failure as a gaming platform.

Take away the iAP model where all devs want to do is go whale hunting, and they'll have to go back to making games that are meant to be fun.



Sure, if you like ads and iAP tokens. Otherwise it's a wasteland.

Agree 100%
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I really do not understand why they do not release a powerful game targeted Apple TV. With the most powerful CPU/GPU available on the iPhone or iPad (if not more). And more memory to reduce reloading of games. Right now max is 64gb. Going forward they should offer the same memory options they offer on iPad Pro. And really encourage high end games without in app purchase as mentioned earlier. More like other game consoles.

 

[Plett]

Is that a joke? Buying two year old tech at the same price that had when it was realised is of course something most people are not willing to do.

No joke, curious why such a clipped response to a service, since the box works just find with Apple Arcade, and is the best streaming device available. You cleared it up, too expensive thanks.

 

[Donar]

I'll just self quote myself as I wrote about the ATV4k performance some minutes ago...

My favorite Apple Arcade game at the moment is Oceanhorn 2 (Action Adventure) I like to play it on my iPad Air 3 / iPad Pro 11” or AppleTV 4k with a supported controller. The Air 3 and the Pro are up to the task, unfortunately the Apple TV4k is not. I hope that Apple decides to upgrade the TV4k to at least an A12x.

Reason: Frame rate drops especially during cutscenes, things "popping" up instead of fading in smoothly. I do not see this issue on my iPads. The ATV4k is a great streaming box, but for Apple Arcade (especially Oceanhorn 2) it seems a bit underpowered.

On a side note:
If somebody is interested to talk about Apple Arcade, i tried to establish some kind of anchor point here on MacRumors.

 

[sakurarain]

btw. any rumors for the next gen. Apple TV?

 

[MandiMac]

btw. any rumors for the next gen. Apple TV?

Only an older one where it said we could expect a 2019 version with an A12 chip. Because of Apple Arcade I'm banking on an A13X Apple TV in March alongside with the newest iPad Pros.

 

[gplusplus]

you don't have an iphone?

I do have an iPhone. What’s your point? That I should play games on my phone? No thanks.

It's still the fastest and most buttery streaming box you can buy right now ... and offers pretty much every feature of surround and HDR that you could want.

Okay, but it doesn’t offer a buttery smooth Apple Arcade experience.

Why not?

Because it has a bad value proposition.

 

[psac]

Thank you!

I hadn’t seen that KOTOR was out for iOS! I’d given up on looking for something like this a while ago. I’ve just bought the game. Always fun to play through these games again and I want to vote with my wallet to show developers that there’s a market for iOS ports of great games.

I think in-app purchases have been a terrible thing for developer creativity in games. Instead of creating great games that you want to spend hours/days playing and or replay for years afterwards, devs are now focused on generating games that operate like gambling to make you want to spend money for being able to progress where if it didn’t have in-app purchases you’d probably only have played for a couple of days and then gotten bored of it because there’s nothing to it when you actually have all the abilities/weapons/whatever else is pay walled. Unfortunately people pay and perpetuate this by making it highly profitable for the people who make games with in-app purchases.

Along with KOTOR, there is also Jade Empire, which is an extremely similar game (I saw somewhere the same head writer), but in an Asian setting. I liked it a lot as well. Also available for IOS. But yes, it's a quick drop-off after that.

I just saw yesterday that Final Fantasy X and X-2 are available on Switch. If the switch can support them, so should my iPad Mini 5. (I get that controller can be an issue, too, which the Switch handles. But still...)