You do realize that 100% of the people that WANT to play Xbox games on their iOS device CAN do so, right?
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Microsoft Was Willing to Bring Xbox-Exclusive Games to iPhone via xCloud
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Right now, today.
If you want to compare revenue, mobile games still come out on top.
Cyberpunk 2077 has only 15K monthly active players, probably cause you need a high-end machine to run it.
MS is going to all this effort to bring Halo Infinite to iPhone even if it's streaming through the browser, cause that's where the players are.
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This is why I hope Epic games wins. The Apple Store just sucks so much and prevents us from great software.
Imagine if the MAC was only limited to what is available in the App Store.
And most apps in the App Store are worse versions that then ones you can buy directly from the developer itself because of App Store policies.
Imagine if the MAC was only limited to what is available in the App Store.
And most apps in the App Store are worse versions that then ones you can buy directly from the developer itself because of App Store policies.
Apple doesn't dominate the gaming market. They are dominating mobile casino's fueled by addicts who spend more than $100.000+ on these mobile casino's.
Microsoft offers real games.
Hi. I know of that program. It suddenly appeared relevant in 2019/20 or so without much news … 11 years after the App Store was released or so.
The way I see it one of the app developer concerns, especially innovative “indie“ devs when adhering to the App Store ways was precisely the stratification of its business model and busInes relationships with these so called “special programs”. This was happening on other kind of stores in particular “digital games store” … there were publishers and publishers, game developers and gamer developers … it was and is a stratified business model. Indies felt that was not fair, as it gives better condition to already powerful players.
So when Apple said back in 2009 or so that all devs / digital businesses would be treated equally it was refreshing.
Apple answer to these concerns was in assuring devs that big small would all be given the same “privileges” … meaning there would not be any special / program treatment … all would get access to the same features of the platform and provided the same service! This was reiterated in congress by Tim later in 2020 as if nothing had changed since then. Yet …
There are millions of developers around the globe, how many in that special program … 130 / 200?
Suddenly Apple had a change of heart. Some people would say that nothing has changed, every business can apply to the programs. Of course it can, who would force anyone not to apply to a VIP area in a disco / pub club? Would that even be possible to enforce? Because you can apply, it does not mean you get in or that is even read beyond 3 minutes. Even if rules are … “by invitation only” you can always apply to get an invite. It‘s irrelevant to the matter.
See the VIP areas in disco clubes in two ways. Either all customers are treated equally because you know, anyone can apply to access the special compartments, you just need to meet the conditions. Or that customers are treated according to certain condition that need to be met, aka special programs … meaning not all customers are provided the same service … it depends. I think the second is the one close to the truth … the first one is gaslighting.
I have no problem with Apple establishing special programs of any kind. This is business as usual and may make sense depending on some business strategies. I do take issue when Apple argues to the world that App Store is not stratified in any way … but in practice some business follow different rules depending on their application. If anyone can apply to those conditions is irrelevant considering that non application cannot be enforced … anyone can always try and apply to get into a VIP area … but in a stadium you have the crowd … special seats and the VIP area. So not all viewers are hosted the same way, treated the same.
The reason why I take issue with how Apple communicates this to the world and in congress is because … is misleading. In effect its a stratified business model like any other. Meaning different businesses play in the App Store by different rules depending on a number of conditions. One my call it programs, VIP areas, special compartments or whatever … it does not make it less stratified.
Apple was just like any other company set out to change the world. SJ created that mystic ... a visionary. It starts with that aim, they might even achieve something to that end. But it ends with the world changing them even more … especially when you have an old men leading the company as we have now.
Walled gardens, stratified policies, demanding payment for value delivered by others, taking out stuff while getting payed for it even more … it’s as old as the history of old men. Nothing new in policy making here, just an old book.
Old man focus on creating walls and its benefits … young man focus on creating bridges, breaking walls and its benefits.
Haven’t seen no bridge, no wall being broken from Apple in the last 10 years. By the contrary, higher and higher walls along with some strategic improvements. I guess it goes with the times.
Cheers.
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The idea is that people are paying for these games at all. As far as I know free games on iOS (where money is made via ads or IAP) is the vast majority of games on the platform. Those games are also where the vast majority of money is as well. That kind of game market doesn't really exist on any other platform and it really skews these kinds of conversations.
Cyberpunk 2077 can run on Intel UHD iGPU, you don't really need a high end machine unless your intent is to play with the graphics set to psycho level (ray tracing and all).
I haven't tried it yet, but I would imagine the H:I multiplayer experience isn't going to be as good playing via a stream.
Lootboxes/virtual objects = IAP. Even on non-Apple platforms the majority of the money made is via purchase of Lootboxes, or keys for lootboxes or costumes or in game cash, etc. That kind of game market exists EVERYWHERE.
To tie this back to the topic (sorta), if IAP is where all the money is why charge for Gamepass Cloud at all?
Because paying for xCloud is paying for the convenience of not having your system with you to play the game. And enables you to play with higher fidelity on systems that wouldn’t normally be able to play at that level (as long as you have an active internet connection).
They’re still going to make WAY more on the IAP, it’s just if they can get more money on top of lots of money, why not?
Through a round about way. This is like saying we don't need the App Store because you can just load stuff through Safari.
Have you tried it? It’s not a “round about way”. That would be like saying “I can get to Mac Rumors, but in a round about way.” It works via the web and, if your connection is good, the experience is good.
Apple is definitely being greedy here, and actively making gaming on iOS worse to protect their gaming revenues, but…
Would you expect Apple to allow a app that streams apps from Google Play? From Apple’s perspective, this is basically the same thing, in contrast to movies or music, which aren’t applications.
Would you expect Apple to allow a app that streams apps from Google Play? From Apple’s perspective, this is basically the same thing, in contrast to movies or music, which aren’t applications.
Apple’s making gaming on iOS worse by helping Microsoft get xCloud working in Safari?
I guess that’s one way to describe it.
Like on the Mac, loading stuff through Safari should work, and you shouldn't need the App Store, but Apple wants control. I'm actually amazed xCloud works in Mobile Safari.
I went down this route when thinking about whether to make an iPhone app or a PWA*, and Apple makes sure you don't want to do the latter. Mobile Safari doesn't support push notifications in PWAs even though all other browsers do, it's behind in other web techs like WebGL, and Apple disallows installing true third-party web browsers on iPhones (Chrome for iPhone is just reskinned Safari). They could easily make web apps work just as well as App Store ones for 99% of use cases if they wanted to.
Google is more web-focused and less strong-arm about things on Android but still wants people downloading Play apps. They're all-in with web on the Chromebook, and it works.
* Progressive Web App, or in non-annoying terms, a mobile website
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I’m not, Apple actually helped them get it running.
I guess if they're not going to take it on the App Store, they'll want it to work via Safari.
Also the alternative is someone buying an Xbox, which MS normally tries to encourage using exclusive games, but I think they realize it's a shrinking market and want to find another way to use that IP.Because paying for xCloud is paying for the convenience of not having your system with you to play the game. And enables you to play with higher fidelity on systems that wouldn’t normally be able to play at that level (as long as you have an active internet connection).
They’re still going to make WAY more on the IAP, it’s just if they can get more money on top of lots of money, why not?
The game console with the most lifetime sales ever is still the PlayStation 2, while overall tech usage has become a lot more mainstream in the past 2 decades. I thought it'd be the Wii or the Switch, but no.
I was discussing this with someone awhile back that this COULD actually effectively extricate themselves from the whole “console hardware” race. If enough people with good enough internet and sufficiently large data allowances are out there to make it profitable, they could lean hard into GamePass and, by the time of the PlayStation 7, just have a GamePass app on that!
That would be an interesting future. I do wonder about the "payment" split so to speak. Not every game is on GP (nor xCloud) so what would it take for that to be the default and why wouldn't we end up will a bunch of publishers going it their own (like EA Play and whatever the Ubisoft equivalent is).
Oooh, you know… it wouldn’t be above Microsoft to learn how to efficiently stream from xCloud and then, using what they’ve learned, bundle that as a service for anyone that wants to stream their own stuff INTO the millions of GamePass installations around the world. You can either make your game a part of GamePass and they take care of a lot of the care and feeding, OR you can setup your own GP Delivery Node (which EA and Ubisoft could certainly license).
As you say, though, the costs have to factor in the fact that the customer doesn’t own anything at the end of it… not even the right to stream the game if they decide to take down their servers. I’m sure that, after a few iterations, they could find a happy medium. Maybe even store the video feed in the cloud for later publishing to YouTube.
We’re now learning the great lengths Microsoft was willing to take to bring Xbox games to iPhones. The company reluctantly planned to bring exclusive triple-A Xbox titles to the App Store in the form of individual apps due to Apple’s requirements for games, but the deal fell through.
Get more detail to visit gizmodo site.
Get more detail to visit gizmodo site.