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Apple 'Netflix for Games' Subscription Service May Be Shown Monday

MacRumors said:



A previously reported "Netflix for Games" subscription service that Apple has been working on may be shown at the Apple Event scheduled for Monday, March 25th.

iPhone-SE-gaming.jpg

Bloomberg reports that beyond Apple's News and Video services which are expected to debut on Monday, Apple may be ready to unveil a similar gaming service.
The monthly service fee would be divided amongst the games in the service based on how much time is spent in each game. The service would likely focus on paid games rather than the popular free-to-play genre.

Bloomberg isn't certain the service will debut Monday but Apple has certainly cleared the way for a focus on new services for the event. Earlier this week, Apple quietly debuted new AirPods, iMacs, and iPads.

Article Link: Apple 'Netflix for Games' Subscription Service May Be Shown Monday
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Yet another subscription..

Yeah yeah.. no one's forcing us to subscribe.. I get that. I just find the amount of subscriptions 'regular' people have is insane. I asked around in my circle and everyone said anything from 5-8 monthly digital subscriptions.

Ridiculous. How many do you guys have?
 
Naaaaak said:
They've relaxed the controller requirement, but I don't think it will help. Leave mobile games on the phone / ipad.
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people need to stop thinking of it "mobile" games and just think of them as games that can (should) be available on any device that you own. That's the future gaming.
[doublepost=1553443785][/doublepost]
_Refurbished_ said:
No thanks.
I want to play my games without an internet connection, mobile or console. Streaming is the Holy Grail for old men that don’t play games and run gaming companies. Downloadable games w/ subscription (Xbox GamePass) is much more desirable and is the underdog I think will come out on top in the end.
Game streaming services have tried (and failed) to captivate a large audience. Unlike Netflix and other video content, gaming cannot be buffered. People don’t want to deal with “slow connection” indicators, they want their games to “just work”. When everyone has access to gigabit Ethernet or stable nationwide 5G, there may be a chance. For now, it’s a corporate pipe dream.
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Even MS will soon challenge Google and release their own game streaming service

https://www.thurrott.com/xbox/203505/microsoft-shares-a-few-more-details-about-xcloud-at-gdc
[doublepost=1553443968][/doublepost]
pankajdoharey said:
That wasnt supposed to be offensive, I meant it is literally cheap in terms of production cost. the current SOC costed $45 in 2016 when they launched, in current day after several production runs it should cost less than half of that, yet Switch cost has gone up not down. It hasnt got an upgrade in 2 yrs, the Quad A53 cores was released in 2015 are the same as Raspberry Pi and other Quad A57 core are from Tegra X1 which is 3 generation old, also it is underclocked at 1.02GHz. It qualifies all the markers of cheap!

On a funny side note, the prices of Switch games havent gone down even after 2 yrs, and they refuse to reduce the price of old titles. On average their games are twice as expensive as new titles in PS. Nintendo's hardware is not even close to what Apple fits in its iPhones, yet Apple quite literally dont even consider gaming as a important and viable market is what pains me.
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"yet Apple quite literally dont even consider gaming as a important and viable market is what pains me."

Yeah, I don't get it either.
 
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mozumder said:
If they do that then they really should build their own game console.
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Apple TV, over priced under delivered on content as a gaming device. For around $50 more one could buy a real gaming system that includes a Blu-ray player, streaming Apps and quality games. Hard sell to get developers of major gaming apps to Apple devices and operating systems. Time will tell.
 
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I hope Apple focus more on productivity apps, and apps that serve a function. There are so many click-here-to-win games in the App Store, that do nothing but wasting time and productivity.
 
Macaholic868 said:
They almost already have one. The Apple TV. If they beefed up the GPU, increased the amount of storage and shipped it with a proper game controller they could do some damage in the gaming world.
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Apple should have conquered gaming YEARS ago. Ore
smulji said:
people need to stop thinking of it "mobile" games and just think of them as games that can (should) be available on any device that you own. That's the future gaming.
[doublepost=1553443785][/doublepost]
Even MS will soon challenge Google and release their own game streaming service

https://www.thurrott.com/xbox/203505/microsoft-shares-a-few-more-details-about-xcloud-at-gdc
[doublepost=1553443968][/doublepost]
"yet Apple quite literally dont even consider gaming as a important and viable market is what pains me."

Yeah, I don't get it either.
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Yea, I’m quite aware of this.

Sony already offers PlayStation Now. Streaming is not new to gaming. I don’t know a single person in the gaming community that has Playstation Now.

Casual gamers may use a streaming platform because “why not”, but once they realize the shortcomings they’ll stop subscribing. Games need to be stored locally in 2019, plain and simple. Again, this is a corporate pipe dream. In TheoriticaLand, streaming is great. We don’t live in TheoreticaLand unfortunately.
 
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_Refurbished_ said:
Apple should have conquered gaming YEARS ago. Ore

Yea, I’m quite aware of this.

Sony already offers PlayStation Now. Streaming is not new to gaming. I don’t know a single person in the gaming community that has Playstation Now.

Casual gamers may use a streaming platform because “why not”, but once they realize the shortcomings they’ll stop subscribing. Games need to be stored locally in 2019, plain and simple. Again, this is a corporate pipe dream. In TheoriticaLand, streaming is great. We don’t live in TheoreticaLand unfortunately.
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I remember when OnLive first came out. I saw it at E3 and was thinking who would use this? I think most gamers who want to play AAA titles will build a machine to handle this as oppose to streaming it. With the advent of streamers on Twitch promoting computer parts and what not, I just don’t see how this will ever take off
 
smulji said:
people need to stop thinking of it "mobile" games and just think of them as games that can (should) be available on any device that you own. That's the future gaming.
Click to expand...

I think Steam works this way now. Buy a game, and if Mac or Linux versions of the same title are also on Steam you can run it there. Steam can’t operate on iOS, though. Anti-trust?

Google has their gaming streaming service. MS is probably doing one.

I’m thinking of mobile games because I don’t see what else Apple can offer that’s unique in content or business model. Apple’s biggest installed base uses touch input, meanwhile consoles ship with physical controllers.
 
You stream game executables to save install space. You try to save install space because of bandwidth limits on initial downloads, and limited local storage capacity.

You stream game visual to run the executable on different hardware.

The first is really stupid and is a solved by expendable local storage. Even console makers figured that out. Even Nintendo knows, and has included SD-Card expansion since the Wii.

The second is a bit more understandable. Especially if you don't want to release propertary Emulation code, which is what PlayStation Now mainly does. Or if that emulator takes more power than the local hardware could support.

So what is Apple's plan with a Game Streaming? Are they looking to do #1 or #2? If #1 they are admitting they have a storage and installation of problem with large (high quality asset, possiblity VR) games. If #2 they are admitting their phones can't handle the processing load of higher end games, which wouldn't be surprising but since Apple still doesn't gaming as serious business.
 
JagdTiger said:
If Sony goes cartridge for the plantation 5 than those Blu-ray’s will be obsolete and your games will have to be downloaded at a retail price.
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More likely: You will send the disc to Sony and the game will be added to your personal digital library. IF Sony will even add a backwards compatibility feature to their next generation consoles. The PS4 cannot play PS3 games. If the PS5 won't be compatible with PS4 games, then they won't have to do anything.

Microsoft, on the other hand, will most likely offer some trade-in program should they decide to go medialess. The backwards compatibility of the Xbox One is awesome and has been a great selling point. They won't drop that feature in a future version of the Xbox.
 
Winni said:
More likely: You will send the disc to Sony and the game will be added to your personal digital library. IF Sony will even add a backwards compatibility feature to their next generation consoles. The PS4 cannot play PS3 games. If the PS5 won't be compatible with PS4 games, then they won't have to do anything.

Microsoft, on the other hand, will most likely offer some trade-in program should they decide to go medialess. The backwards compatibility of the Xbox One is awesome and has been a great selling point. They won't drop that feature in a future version of the Xbox.
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Sony can’t dictate other publishers games.
 
Subscription: games, news, series/movies, music, apps, programs.

What’s next? Subscription iOS? Mac OS?

Fine then. But in that case... Give away iPhones and Macs for free.

But you can’t have it both ways and charge for the hardware and for the privilege of making it work.
 
There are very, very few engaging games on iOS and yet it could be such a wonderful platform, and this is entirely due to Apple (the only one that comes to my mind is Inside by Playdead which just happened to work really well with touch).

If they launch a gaming service they better had been working very hard on it for very long in secret otherwise it is going to be a little embarrassing, kind of like seeing the same app or game feature again on the 'today' section of the App Store.
 
ashton18 said:
Yet another subscription..

Yeah yeah.. no one's forcing us to subscribe.. I get that. I just find the amount of subscriptions 'regular' people have is insane. I asked around in my circle and everyone said anything from 5-8 monthly digital subscriptions.

Ridiculous. How many do you guys have?
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Are you including cell phones, internet, and cable ?

I subscribe to
Sling TV (I don't have cable) (monthly)
Funimation (yearly)
Crunchyroll (yearly)
Hulu (ad supported) (monthly)
MLB at Bat iOS (yearly)
Sirius/XM radio (6 month special)
Netflix (monthly)

and I probably have forgotten some :).
 
[QUOTE="ChrisMoBro, post: 27209691, member: 1055273" subscription for music, TV, dog[/QUOTE]
Oddity of formatting made me wonder about this new subscription service for dog
 
Winni said:
More likely: You will send the disc to Sony and the game will be added to your personal digital library. IF Sony will even add a backwards compatibility feature to their next generation consoles. The PS4 cannot play PS3 games. If the PS5 won't be compatible with PS4 games, then they won't have to do anything.

Microsoft, on the other hand, will most likely offer some trade-in program should they decide to go medialess. The backwards compatibility of the Xbox One is awesome and has been a great selling point. They won't drop that feature in a future version of the Xbox.
Click to expand...

If they do send it back to Sony or Microsoft it better not cost the consumer since they already paid.

If there is no backwards compatibility then that’s alot of money spent for a obsolete format, it would be better to trade it (for a obnoxious price) at GameStop.
 
_Refurbished_ said:
Apple should have conquered gaming YEARS ago. Ore

Yea, I’m quite aware of this.

Sony already offers PlayStation Now. Streaming is not new to gaming. I don’t know a single person in the gaming community that has Playstation Now.

Casual gamers may use a streaming platform because “why not”, but once they realize the shortcomings they’ll stop subscribing. Games need to be stored locally in 2019, plain and simple. Again, this is a corporate pipe dream. In TheoriticaLand, streaming is great. We don’t live in TheoreticaLand unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Have you used any of the 2019 game-streaming services? The two I know of are Nvidia's and Google's. I don't know what serious shortcomings there are.

As for local storage, the problem is every game is like 40GiB plus several installments of 30GiB patches now for some reason, and people don't want to wait for downloads. And there's lots of wasted money and effort dealing with gaming PC hardware if you want non-console games.
 
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512ke said:
Subscription: games, news, series/movies, music, apps, programs.

What’s next? Subscription iOS? Mac OS?

Fine then. But in that case... Give away iPhones and Macs for free.

But you can’t have it both ways and charge for the hardware and for the privilege of making it work.
Click to expand...
iPhone OS and Mac OS updates used to not be free. There are widely-used iPhone subscription services through cell carriers where you get a new iPhone every 2-4 years. There's no difference really, just tally the costs.
 
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