Apple Offering Some Users an Extra Month of Free Apple Arcade Access

[Stella]

I pay for a game subscription service to play real games. No way in hell I'm paying the same amount to play crappy, limited mobile games!

If Apple Arcade was doing well, there would be no need to extend the free period.

 

[DevNull0]

The games just aren't very good. I tried it for 2 months (because I forgot to cancel the free trial in time) and played about 20 games. Sneaky Sasquatch probably was my favourite too, and I still got bored with it in under 20 minutes. It's just repetitive and tedious with almost no depth.

Microsoft Game Pass Ultimate is $25/3 months all the time at Costco. $8.33/month for hundreds of AAA console/PC titles or $5/month for Apple Arcade. There is just no value in Apple arcade at any price point when you see what else is out there. XBox One consoles were also cheaper than an Apple TV over Black Friday last year.

 

[DevNull0]

Apple Arcade supports Playstation and Xbox controllers as well as several other 3rd part controllers. Also its on your tv if you an Apple TV.

The games available in Arcade are simplistic, tiny, boring little things with graphics that most 1-person indie devs would be embarrassed to attach their name to.

Yes, a controller would make it viable to play games on an iPad or AppleTV, but the games just aren't there.

 

[Nebulance]

Life long console and PC gamer here, and occasional time wasting iOS gamer. Mobile gaming (iOS, Android) has always kind of sucked, and although there are games with great graphics now, I think ultimately what limits it is a lack of joysticks, and potentially even physical buttons. I think screens are large enough now on the Pro model, and iPads, but the touch interface sucks for games. The nintendo switch is how you do mobile gaming well. The fact that you can transform the game from a limited screen size, to console level by hooking it up to a TV is next level too - basically eradicates the limitations of mobile.

Yeah, those are certainly good points -- I've always been curious about the Nintendo Switch, certainly a big step forward in gaming. Agreed, physical buttons and joysticks are really important, and the experience they give the user is unmatched by your fingers getting in the way of the content on the screen (iPhone, iPad). I remember being really interested in a Star Wars game on the iPhone, and after a few minutes of playing it, I stopped and uninstalled it -- because my fingers were constantly in the way of everything. Same goes for a hockey game I tried at the time.

 

[psac]

After CatQuest 2 and Oceanhorn 2, there was really nothing else worth playing, so I cancelled. It doesn't sound like much has changed.

 

[Vanilla35]

Yeah, those are certainly good points -- I've always been curious about the Nintendo Switch, certainly a big step forward in gaming. Agreed, physical buttons and joysticks are really important, and the experience they give the user is unmatched by your fingers getting in the way of the content on the screen (iPhone, iPad). I remember being really interested in a Star Wars game on the iPhone, and after a few minutes of playing it, I stopped and uninstalled it -- because my fingers were constantly in the way of everything. Same goes for a hockey game I tried at the time.

Tactility is super low with your fingertip as opposed to joysticks. Also shooter games nowadays like COD and PUBG require a ton of on screen buttons, which further lowers the experience, and causes complications by tapping or swiping on adjacent areas of the screen by accident. Even if you have enough room to space them out OK, you never feel super confident with them. I agree sports games are probably the worst, it's just not worth. I actually play COD at a high level on mobile (top 99% globally -- although that doesn't say much since I got there in 2 weeks), but it took me a few days to even get to the point where I wasn't messing up the controls, and I have to assume there is some margin of error because of it.