Gaming

Everything You Need To Know About Apple Arcade

by Rae Johnston  26 March 2019
Apple Arcade Sonic

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Continuing its incredibly profitable and frankly quite smart trend of focusing on services, Apple just announced Apple Arcade, which is essentially a gaming subscription service. It’ll work on your Mac and your Apple TV, but let’s face it — you’ll be using it for mobile gaming. That’s right, it will actually be available in Australia on launch.

More than 100 curated new and exclusive games will be on Apple Arcade. They will include originals from Final Fantasy‘s Hironobu Sakaguchi, The Sims‘ Will Wright, and Australia’s Ken Wong of Melbourne studio Mountains — the creators of Florence. You can also expect titles from What Remains of Edith Finch‘s Annapurna Interactive, Surgeon Simulator‘s Bossa Studios, Adventure Time‘s Cartoon Network, Night in the Woods‘ Finji,  Abzû‘s Giant Squid, Don’t Starve‘s Klei Entertainment, Konami, LEGO and SEGA. Looks like Sonic has found (another) new home.

Other than just a new platform to play games on, what you’ll get for your cash (we don’t know how much just yet) is the ability to try any game, all-you-can-play, with no ads or ad tracking. All the games will be playable offline — no internet connection needed — and a bunch will be playable with a controller, too. You can pick up where you left off in a game, even if you switch between your iPhone and iPad, your Mac or your Apple TV. New games will be added “on a regular basis”. You’ll be able to find it all via a new tab in the App Store.

Apple Arcade

“Free games, supported by advertising or in-app purchases, are enjoyed by hundreds of millions of players around the world,” Apple said in a statement to Junkee. “Paid games are often critically acclaimed and beloved by the people who play them, but competing with free is hard, so even the best of these games have only reached a smaller audience.”

The aim of Apple Arcade, basically, is to get the paid games in front of a bigger audience.

Along with curating the content you’ll get with the subscription, Apple is taking on a publisher-like role, too. It will be contributing to publisher development costs, and “working closely with creators to bring the games to life”.

“The App Store is the world’s biggest and most successful game platform. Now we are going to take games even further with Apple Arcade, the first game subscription service for mobile, desktop and the living room,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“We are working with some of the most innovative game developers in the world to create over 100 new and exclusive games to play across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. Apple Arcade games will be great for families, respect user privacy and will not have ads or require any additional purchases. We think players of all ages are going to love Apple Arcade.”

The service is launching in 150 countries around the world this Spring — and that includes Australia. I know, I said this already, but I just couldn’t believe it. I contacted Apple this morning just to ask again.

“That is correct – Australia will be one of the 150 countries Apple Arcade will be available in.”

Blessed Day.