During Apple’s special “It’s Show Time” event, the company introduced its new Apple Arcade video game platform. A new platform under subscription that will offer more than 100 new exclusive games and some other advantage, such as availability in iOS, Apple TV and macOS, or compatibility with the Family Sharing function.
After the announcements of Apple Arcade and Google Stadia, as expected, the videogame developers have been very enthusiastic about the idea of being able to take their creations to another level.
We still have a lot of things to know about Apple Arcade. To date, the economic cost of monthly subscriptions is unknown. But we also do not know what percentage of developers’ revenues Apple will take.
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Apple Arcade will not have freemium games
While the App Store is packed with free games with integrated purchases within the app, the Apple Arcade platform will only provide paid games.
When Apple presented its new video game platform, they wanted to emphasize how hard it was for developers to create a good micropayment system in freemium games.
“PAY GAMES ARE USUALLY ACCLAIMED AND LOVED BY THE PEOPLE WHO PLAY THEM, BUT COMPETING WITH FREE GAMES IS DIFFICULT, EVEN THE BEST GAMES OF THIS TYPE HAVE ONLY MANAGED TO REACH A VERY SMALL AUDIENCE.”
For this precise reason, from the company of the bitten apple, they want all their Apple Arcade games to be paid. That is, there will be no free-to-play games that offer integrated purchases for improvements, characters, weapons, etc. Also, there will be no advertising.
What do the developers think about Apple Arcade?
In The Verge have spoken with more than a dozen mobile game developers to know what they think about the new platform of games of Apple. Recall that Apple has managed to reach an agreement with developers as important as Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy; Will Wright, creator of SimCity; and even other teams of game developers such as Monument Valley, Alto’s Adventure or Florence, among others.
Most developers have a degree of caution in reference to the new Apple Arcade video game platform. But, despite them, all are very optimistic and excited about this great initiative of Apple.
The indie developer Zach Gage, for example, talked about Apple like this:
“I’M EXCITED TO SEE HOW APPLE DEVOTES SO MUCH ENERGY TO MAINTAINING AND IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF THE APP STORE, ESPECIALLY WHILE MAINTAINING INDIE GAMES IN A VERY SOLID WAY IN THE PLAYER’S SPOTLIGHT.”
There are many concerns in the world of developers about certain aspects of Apple Arcade and its services. One of the biggest concerns is that subscriptions could eliminate a large percentage of the price of their products. Although there are not many precedents to know what Apple will do after the launch of Apple Arcade.
In the presentation of Apple Arcade, the company showed a new tab called Arcade within the App Store. On the other hand, Adriaan de Jongh, the creator of Hidden Folks, said the following on this subject:
“THIS IMPLIES THAT THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT APPLE ARCADE WILL BECOME ANOTHER SOURCE OF REVENUE FOR GAME DEVELOPERS, RATHER THAN REPLACING THE EXISTING ECOSYSTEM.”
In fact, since the last major user interface redesign the App Store received at the end of 2017, Apple focused all its efforts on offering suggestions, recommendations, and editorials about applications and games to promote developers and, thus, obtain additional income.
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And is that the iOS App Store has the great potential of turning a completely unknown game into a real boom of the moment. So it is possible that from the company of the bitten apple they use a very similar strategy with Apple Arcade.
“IT’S CLEAR THAT APPLE HAS A VISION FOR THE LEVEL OF QUALITY THEY WANT TO ESTABLISH, AND THEY’RE WILLING TO DEFEND THE KIND OF CONTENT THEY THINK MATTERS.”
Other developers also wanted to highlight Apple’s idea of wanting to offer games with stories that amaze the world and improve the gaming experience. And is that in the video game industry does not always reward this premise. So, in this sense, it will be very positive for them.
