Apple announced a lot of new things at its event yesterday (March 25). And somewhat strangely for a show that had been hyped on, well, shows, the most interesting updates arguably lay away from the celebs and their big-budget telly.
An Apple credit card may seem the most major move to most, but not far behind it was Apple Arcade, the tech firm’s first foray into fully-fledged subscription gaming – and lots of its reveal was noteworthy.
First, the timing. With the all-you-can-eat magazine buffet of Apple News+ revealed for £9.99 a month, it was odd that there was no price yet, especially when, what with Apple Music at the same price level, it’s almost certainly going to be the same.
This isn’t Apple TV+ with lots of factors still to fall into place and trailers to stagger, so why go now without all the details? The recent Google Stadia announcement and Microsoft’s heavily-rumoured xCloud reveal to come at E3 in a couple of months may well have forced its hand before all partnerships were fully tied up and contracts signed.
Second, the messaging. There were so many barbs aimed at Google throughout the event, as there so often are, but the focus on playing your App Store games across all your devices (yes, even on Macs) and the repeated refrain of privacy was aimed squarely at their door.
Yet despite the questions, Apple Arcade did just enough to impress and is such a simple idea that it’s surprising it hasn’t been done before.
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With free-to-play games dominating the App Store to an almost suffocating degree, and paid-for mobile gaming threatening to go south without support soon, a middle ground wrapping up some 100+ exclusive games from a wide variety of developers for a monthly subscription fee makes a lot of sense.
Landing in autumn, the service doubles down on security by ensuring no micro-transactions on featured games and also offers the now-standard family sharing to the package, too. This is not just fan service, but a responsible re-legitimising of App Store gaming.
While Google Stadia and Microsoft's xCloud are sure to be big game changers, too, this felt like a positive step to bringing paid-for gaming back into the spotlight, and opens up the door to Apple offering attractive subscription bundles around Music, TV and now gaming.
The question, of course, is how many subs can one person afford? Sky TV has made itself almost prohibitively expensive with its many, often-confusing packages to choose from. While Apple's offering is sure to be far simpler to understand, it's important the pricing is similarly simple to make it a viable upgrade option. The games industry and our wallets might depend on it.
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