Developers express uncertainty over Apple Arcade’s future
Studios say Apple has turned away from original games and payouts have been declining for years
A number of developers have expressed uncertainty over the future of Apple Arcade.
Speaking to Mobilegamer.biz, sources voiced concerns about Apple’s game subscription service in the wake of the iPhone maker reportedly cancelling projects, cutting developer payouts, and turning its back on original games.
During the first few years after the service’s launch in 2019, it’s claimed that upfront payments for Apple Arcade games were high enough that most titles were profitable from day one, but these have since been cut.
Bonus per-play payments were also originally said to be very generous, but these reportedly started falling in late 2020 and have continued to do so in the years since.
“We’re going to see that amount and decrease and decrease and decrease until it’s pennies,” said one developer. “At that point putting a game on Arcade starts to become much less viable.”
One source claimed Apple “cancelled a shitload of projects and pissed off a lot of people” as part of a service reboot in spring 2021.
A strategy shift has seen Apple largely stop greenlighting original games for Arcade, it’s claimed. Instead, it now almost exclusively commissions family-friendly licensed titles based on popular IP.
Some developers who met Apple to discuss putting their games on the service said they were left confused about Arcade’s direction.
One reportedly said it had the “smell of death” around it, while another told the site: “I got the sense they didn’t really know where they were going with it all – almost like they weren’t sure if they’d have jobs at the end of it.”
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However, another source claimed Apple was considering rebooting the service in the face of Netflix’s entry into the games subscription space.
And others said they had positive experiences of working with Apple on Arcade, with one saying the service “has made premium games viable on mobile”.
