Good to see an increased list of games under Apple Arcade.
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Apple Launches 20 New Games on Apple Arcade
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Having a core library of decent games (not necessarily AAA) would help I feel. With Windows some of the earliest games developed are still playable on the latest operating system, which is not the case for Apple who have moved from PowerPC -> Intel -> ARM and each time games developed for the previous architecture have been left by the wayside.
There are actually some great games on the Mac App Store, like Metro, BioShock, Civilization, etc. They are a little old, but the are still very playable and they were expensive to purchase. Depending on how these games were ported, it might not be so simple to recompile them to native AS, and developers are unlikely to want to make the effort for older games where its less likely they will see a reasonable return on their investment.
I think a great approach would be for Apple to pick some of these games, like for example the Metro series, and fund their conversion with the developers with the agreement that these games would then become available in Apple Arcade for a period of time. This could end up benefiting everyone as the library of games will grow, and developers will see renewed interest in their games and Apple will bring a few more people into their ecosystem.
There are actually some great games on the Mac App Store, like Metro, BioShock, Civilization, etc. They are a little old, but the are still very playable and they were expensive to purchase. Depending on how these games were ported, it might not be so simple to recompile them to native AS, and developers are unlikely to want to make the effort for older games where its less likely they will see a reasonable return on their investment.
I think a great approach would be for Apple to pick some of these games, like for example the Metro series, and fund their conversion with the developers with the agreement that these games would then become available in Apple Arcade for a period of time. This could end up benefiting everyone as the library of games will grow, and developers will see renewed interest in their games and Apple will bring a few more people into their ecosystem.
It’s likely MR readers are not the target audience for Arcade. AAA titles are not the reason they make more from gaming than any other single company. These are games the common user is interested in. They are looking to appeal to a billion users not a few hundred thousand.
Blowback
macrumors 65816
The gaming market already has a "casual" platform called Nintendo. People who want a good quality product, a franchise they recognize, they can pick up a game get in the action, and put it down easily. Without getting into benchmarking streaming, and "console wars". During the pandemic lockdowns, every nerd girl I knew was playing "chick crack" also known as Animal Crossing 😛 .Its a Fantastic game! You won't find an equivalent casual masterpiece in Apple Arcade.
Apple Arcade however is less than casual, it is curated mobile trash. Worse, a good percentage is yesterday's mobile trash. Sure temple run was fun to kill a minute 10 years ago. But is it the tentpole of a subscription service? Occasionally you might find a great indie title like Kingdom that is in there, but that came out 8 years ago. So no, Apple Arcade isnt even a bastion of Indie game development. For that, I go to Steam and see what "early access" titles are in the works I can support. If I want to know what few good titles are on Apple arcade five years from now, I go on Steam today. That's a huge problem.
The tragedy is Apple Arcade is over a decade late. When the appstore came out back in 2008, there was a flurry of mobile game development until at least 2012. With some real innovation in there. But Apple didn't curate it properly and released IAP and it killed the market outright. They let cheap mass-made Chinese garbage games flood the app store. It became impossible to find the diamond in the rough. Apple Arcade is just any competently put-together game that doesn't have IAP. The fact that that's the bar to cross speaks about everything wrong with mobile gaming.
Apple Arcade however is less than casual, it is curated mobile trash. Worse, a good percentage is yesterday's mobile trash. Sure temple run was fun to kill a minute 10 years ago. But is it the tentpole of a subscription service? Occasionally you might find a great indie title like Kingdom that is in there, but that came out 8 years ago. So no, Apple Arcade isnt even a bastion of Indie game development. For that, I go to Steam and see what "early access" titles are in the works I can support. If I want to know what few good titles are on Apple arcade five years from now, I go on Steam today. That's a huge problem.
The tragedy is Apple Arcade is over a decade late. When the appstore came out back in 2008, there was a flurry of mobile game development until at least 2012. With some real innovation in there. But Apple didn't curate it properly and released IAP and it killed the market outright. They let cheap mass-made Chinese garbage games flood the app store. It became impossible to find the diamond in the rough. Apple Arcade is just any competently put-together game that doesn't have IAP. The fact that that's the bar to cross speaks about everything wrong with mobile gaming.
surfzen21
macrumors 65816
I don't play nearly as much as I did when Bugsy's Club, Feds seized them, was around. They had 3 or 4 free rolls a day that had a small cash prize for the top 3. I won a bunch of them and then used it to play small cash games.
My home game when to crap when two friends, one a drunk and on a degenerate gambler, got into a fist fight over a mucked hand that was actually the winner. 😵 I wasn't there for it.
I've been using WSOP on occasion, but would be open to suggestions.
I know lots of USA players circumvent any online gambling laws but I'm not looking to do that even though I'd like to play a real money game.
Bugsy seemed to be one of the best back in the day but even their algorithm seemed a bit off. It just seemed like more rare hands hit then didn't. I had to change my game-play cause of it.
I wish Apple One gave an option of either Arcade or News. I never use Arcade, but I'm not going to pay another $10 for News on top of the $23 I'm already paying.