A new report on Cheddar via 9to5Mac says Apple is reportedly working on a subscription service for games. This report from Cheddar cites five anonymous sources who are familiar with the matter. This subscription serice would allow users to pay a subscription to gain access to a set of games that are bundled with the service. The report also claims Apple started talking to developers about this late last year. As of now, there are no details on pricing or even regional availability but the possibility of a subscription like this coming from Apple is interesting.
A subscription service could see Apple court exclusive game releases through funding or timed exclusivity and marketing deals. Having sequels to big name games launch first on the possible subscription service would drive up numbers for sure and also get a ton of exposure for many developers. We’ve seen many developers opt to launch their games first on Xbox Game Pass because it guarantees a playerbase. Games like Rocket League debuted through Sony’s PlayStation Plus paid subscription and immediately became hits. While Sony’s subscription is more about an online paywall and other features like cloud save backups and exclusive discounts, Microsoft has been more forward with their non streaming solutions in the form of Games with Gold (which is similar to Sony’s PlayStation Plus) and Xbox Game Pass that actually seems to be doing great.
While I’m all for more ways to get premium content to customers, so far only Microsoft has proved value in the subscription side of things with Xbox Game Pass. Xbox Game Pass has consistently gotten new content and Microsoft even launches Xbox exclusives on it day one for subscribers. With anything gaming and Apple, history has taught me to be skeptical because they often forget about things like controller support which was introduced a while ago. Just adding support for clickable sticks isn’t really enough. I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out and what Apple chooses to launch with when this supposed subscription service gets announced. Would you consider paying a fixed price per month to gain access to a set of titles or do you enjoy outright buying games you’re interested in?
Apple gives plenty of cause for your skepticism when it comes to supporting gaming.
And if THIS happens they’ll have even more reason to prefer themselves as primary curators for games on iOS. They will promote what they want people to sign up for. So it will probably be even more difficult for indie developers to get visibility and succeed on their own. And Apple will see even less reason to encourage sites like TA with link-through revenue, etc, and less need to be competitive with new game stores like Discord’s and Epic’s that give game developers a more generous cut.
It just seems like a move that will increase Apple’s control over what get’s played on their devices. That’s a great way to make money on the cash cow that mobile gaming has become. But I don’t know if it’s good for gamers, or for gaming itself.
I wouldn't be interested in this. I'd much rather individually buy the games I'm interested in. Subscriptions are taking over our lives, and I sure don't need another one!
i don't buy it the way that that they are suggesting it. IF they are doing something it will probably be maybe 20 old ass games that they will bundle into this magazine, music etc thing that they are supposedly about to use to 'kill' all other services. or they might allow folks to jump into it but only the small crews will do it. all the big games will skip it cause they don't need the promotion
It depends on how they run it if it’s a help or hindrance to the premium gaming market. If they load up on premium games as a F2P for a month or so is it a bad thing? Probably not. If they load it up on free to play games with discounts or “free” stuff the month it’s active it’s worse than the problem it purports to solve.
If you’re a game of the month publisher who has sold 70,000 games at $4.99 and all of a sudden 1,000,000 accounts have contributed 50 cents per to your bottom line what are you happier with? So much will depend on the revenue splits and deals.
It’s potentially a very big carrot and a very big stick at the same time. I can come up with as many ways to punish small publishers this way as I can to help them.
I’d be all for this if it gets ride of “free” to play’s nickel and diming shenanigans.
So Steam then. Apple is planning to copy Steam. Steam already is the Netflix for games. But you can't just say "Apple Plans To Copy Steam" because we give Apple free passes when they copy things, then later pretend they invented them.
No because Steam has regular sales, Apple doesn’t like any sales itself. And even if you did get them I doubt they’d be very often.
I'm sorry, Steam is already the Netflix of gaming no matter what childish nonsense Apple has planned for their copy so your point is moot. Apple doesn't matter.
How is Steam Netflix? You have to buy the games you play from it? You don’t pay a subscription for access to every game on Steam do you?
Not sure how you work that one. Steam is used for purchasing and installing apps - which makes it like the App Store.
This is about paying a set monthly fee for access to games that you only have as long as you keep paying.
Oh, it's because I'm talking about by pure scale. Netflix is the biggest at what they do. Amazon would be the Netflix of online sales. Samsung would be the Netflix of smartphones. BItcoin would be Netflix of crypto.
That doesn’t fit with your complaint above about Apple copying Netflix. That would mean every really successful company is copying previous really successful companies who had the original idea of being really successful.
Yes, it would wouldn't it? It's almost as if I'm calling attention to the obvious double standard.
Erm... No.
It's my thread so I get to be right. Neat huh?
If by "right" you mean "talking a load of bollocks" then sure
Yes, your childish personal attack is noted.
Childish maybe, but not personal. You talked crap and I called you on it.
You got emotional and made a personal attack. It's amazing to me that anybody would continue that arguing outside a playground. Perhaps one is missing you?
Pointing out that someone is taking crap when they're talking crap is not a "personal attack" and I didn't get emotional.
I've no idea what you're on about with "playground" and "missing"
Here’s a novel idea, why not let us buy games for one price that we like? Oh yeah I forgot it down a scratch that greed itch Apple and games studios have, so they must charge you 80 quid for a single in app purchase, or for Apple to charge you a monthly fee at lord know how much for limited games... all so it can pocket all the profits.
I’m afraid sheer utter greed has all but killed mobile gaming. But not in the Switch which doesn’t support this business model st all.
"oh no. Games I don't want to play exist alongside the games I do want to play".