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Game Developers Describe 'Smell of Death' Around Apple Arcade
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I agree, but in 3 to 5 years when every new piece of hardware coming from Apple has advanced shaders & ray tracing I think Apple will become a lot more attractive to higher end games. Apple already makes a lot of money from games, so they are happy for now, but they are planning for the future too… 😉
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Companies can charge as much as the market allows. It's the competition that keeps the price down. Except for personal computing and mobile phones, the cost of entry is so high as to prevent any meaningful competition from emerging.
This is where Tim Cook comes in. The three pillars of his strategy as Apple's CEO are:
- Milk the cash cow that is the iPhone for as long as possible while making incremental improvements to keep the consumers interested.
- Look to China to reduce production costs and increase market presence.
- Broaden service offerings to deepen user engagement and improve each device's profit margin.
This article correctly pointed out that Apple is more interested in music and TV than gaming. Tim Cook committed a fatal mistake in not recognizing the importance of gaming to the potential success of Apple's AR/VR devices. He doubled down on that mistake by investing heavily in content creation and streaming, which are bleeding Apple dry as we speak.
Apple has lost its way. AVP is looking more and more like a desperate attempt to remain relevant as time passes. Tim Cook neglected to build the foundation that would allow AVP to succeed as an AR headset, i.e., gaming, a social network exclusive to Apple users, and a vastly improved Siri powered by advanced LLM engines.
When was the last time people were truly excited by Apple's product announcement?
Apple under Tim Cook is a classic example of "resting on your laurels".
Go talk to any game developer who develops or used to develop games on the Mac. Most of them hate Apple with a passion. Ray racing won't change that. Unless Apple is willing to dole out big bucks to game studios to clone their AAA games for macOS, 5 years won't change anything. We're already way past the point where gaming can be salvaged organically on the Mac.
All of Apple's major operating systems are essentially one thing under the hood now, ever since the transition to Apple Silicon has been completed on the Mac. If game developers don't develop games for the Mac, they most likely won't develop games for iOS, iPadOS, or visionOS either. And it's AVP, which runs on visionOS, that's been touted as the next big thing that will replace iPhone as Apple's cash cow.
Your personal preference aside, in the bigger scheme of things, AVP simply won't succeed without gaming. And if AVP doesn't succeed, Apple won't succeed for the next 10 years.
In 3-5 years, PC gaming hardware will also be that much more advanced, and that is what AAA devs and publishers will be targeting when they want to impress with graphics. Mac gaming still won’t go anywhere because no one will be buying Macs to play AAA games any more than they do now. The potential customer base is what drives AAA game development.
Let’s face it. There are good reasons to buy a Mac, but what was the last time you heard someone say they bought a Mac for high-end gaming? On the PC side, folks go out of their way to build or buy for that purpose.
I had Arcade for about a year. Only game I loved was Samurai Jack. And I would gladly pay a one-time cost to keep that game around, but alas, after finishing the game the first time, I took a break from it, and didn't really pay any attention to the other games I tried on Arcade. I kept paying the monthly fee 'just in case' I wanted to jump back into Jack... and then the 50% price hike came and I cancelled.
I am by no means a gamer... I really liked Jack as well as a couple others I played a bit... so Arcade was a decent option, and I would have likely paid for it indefinitely had the price not gone up. Maybe that is the death blow it faces... the cost-benefit ratio got shifted too far for 'casual players' with the price hike.
I am by no means a gamer... I really liked Jack as well as a couple others I played a bit... so Arcade was a decent option, and I would have likely paid for it indefinitely had the price not gone up. Maybe that is the death blow it faces... the cost-benefit ratio got shifted too far for 'casual players' with the price hike.
I could not agree more … and as I can see the content growing for kids mainly I can easily see that arcade are used mainly by families softly … hundred of games on all platform with strict control is a dream for me and my daughter on her iPhone and iPad Air … I don’t think it will go anytime soon … thank you Apple
My choice would be for developers to be able to opt in to Apple Arcade when submitting paid apps. Any paid app lacking ads and in-app purchases would be eligible for free play for Apple Arcade subscribers, if the developer allows. It's a win for users (more games included with their Apple Arcade subscription) and for the developers (revenue from apple even if users don't choose to purchase the app on its own).
Sorry, but this attitude on Apple's part is exactly why their gaming initiatives never go anywhere. Ask gamers what they want. How many will say "energy efficient ray tracing"? GPU demos at Apple events are all missing the point. Look at what Nintendo achieves on potato hardware.
Apple makes more on its “lame games” than Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft could hope for. Does it run AAA games? No. Does it need to? Again no. However Apple is leveraging new hardware to be able to run much more elaborate games than what’s currently available for the Apple ecosystem. I expect we will see those in 3 to 5 years. I’m looking forward to the next AVP with an M4. 👍🏻
- No, Apple doesn't.
- Gaming isn't just about hardware.
- Hardware isn't the problem with gaming on the Mac.
All comments liking Apple Arcade mentioned kids, kids, and kids. This service is only good for kids.
I have been watching too much true crime content, this headline struck me as weirdly literal at first, until I realized the Arcade is a digital service... haha
This!! For kids, Apple Arcade is the ONLY way to go for the reasons you state
You can also like Apple Arcade simply for being a "non-IAP zone" in the App Store
Unfortunately, physical media isn't really a good solution either. DRM-free digital is really the best choice, if you can. GOG (linked in this thread) is your store, if you want "true" ownership.
It's not just the size of the games, even if the discs aren't just stubs/license keys. It's that, in the era of fast internet and ubiquitous connectivity, games ship broken. Even if the full game is on the disc, do you really want to play a day zero version of modern games? Indie games are more likely to be playable. But try playing any modern "AAA" game without day one patches, and I'd wager it has bugs galore and terrible performance. You might as well buy digital for convenience and offload to a backup SSD rather than trying to rely on physical discs. Nintendo handhelds are a possible exception, but even the Switch is expected to be internet-connected to download patches.
Why are people here upset about apple arcade?
Apple Arcade seems like just an additional service for apple one. Apple didn't promote it as killing consoles in the first place. Most of the games are games from indie developers. Who want to earn additional income from their own games that would normally sell out Pay only once. Business plan from apple arcade seem like not include A++ games with subscription price at 3USD
Apple Arcade seems like just an additional service for apple one. Apple didn't promote it as killing consoles in the first place. Most of the games are games from indie developers. Who want to earn additional income from their own games that would normally sell out Pay only once. Business plan from apple arcade seem like not include A++ games with subscription price at 3USD
So basically this reads as Apple nickel and diming developers in order to keep that subscription price low. But also sounds like they are being unprofessional and spiteful too by ignoring emails etc from developers.
If they don't want to support the service, and use some utterly bewildering way to calculate how much money they pay devs, they should just cancel the whole thing. It also explains why a game like Asphalt 9 is not in the store and 8 is.
If they don't want to support the service, and use some utterly bewildering way to calculate how much money they pay devs, they should just cancel the whole thing. It also explains why a game like Asphalt 9 is not in the store and 8 is.
Exactly this! I also liked to use it. I'd have a a bunch of new games every few weeks that I could play and would know that they are all up to a certain standard. If I would travel and needed to download some new games I immediately knew where to look.
The problem is that noticeable game updates now only seem to occur every few months. And amazing exclusives like Mini Motorways or Cards Against Darkness are simply missing.
I am sure that subscription rates would soar, if Apple added the right marquee titles.