Early this week Apple Arcade went live ahead of schedule for those running the iOS 13 beta, and the official launch is set for tomorrow September 19th when iOS 13 goes live. If you’re somehow unaware of what Apple Arcade is, it’s Apple’s new premium subscription-based gaming service which lives right inside the App Store app on your device. Apple Arcade has its own dedicated tab at the bottom of the App Store, and for $4.99 per month you can get access to more than 50 games on launch with new games arriving every week. In all more than 100 games are confirmed for the service, and nearly 100 developers have signed up to make games for the service. Based on my time with the beta version of Apple Arcade over the past few days, it is almost incomprehensible that I have unlimited access to this many quality games, with not an ad or in-app purchase in sight, for just $4.99 a month.
There is sort of a weird side effect of Apple Arcade though. When you dump dozens of amazing games into someone’s lap all at once, you’re kind of stricken with choice paralysis. Which of these many games should you play!? Apple does a great job in the Apple Arcade tab with highlighting different genres and featuring videos and write-ups for everything, but still, it is overwhelming to say the least. TouchArcade has always been driven by bringing the good games to light, and a large part of that has been with the involvement of our community, specifically in our forums. I thought it would be handy to have a central hub to discuss all the games on Apple Arcade, and since the service is distinct from your regular App Store releases, I figured it deserved its own dedicated, separate forum. So with that allow me to say…
Here you will find separate discussion threads for every game that is currently available in the version of Apple Arcade that’s live in the iOS 13 beta. I’m also slowly adding in threads for games that aren’t currently available, but have been confirmed for the service. A prefix before every thread title will show either “Out Now" in green or “Coming Soon" in red to denote if that particular game is currently available in Apple Arcade or not. I believe some of the games available in the beta won’t actually be there with the official launch, so I may be switching some of those threads from Out Now back to Coming Soon. But either way I think it will be nice to have a dedicated place to discuss every Apple Arcade game both before and after its release, and there’s already some developers participating and answering questions for players (Hi Zach Gage!).
Additionally, I’ve created a stickied thread for General Apple Arcade Discussion where people can ask questions about the service, offer up ideas of things they’d like to see changed or improved, and just post about anything Apple Arcade related that doesn’t quite fit into one of the dedicated game threads. You can also use that thread to post anything about the Apple Arcade forum itself, like adding new games or suggesting changes or new features.
And finally, I’ve also created a thread where you can suggest which Apple Arcade games you’d like to see us cover on the front page of TouchArcade. We are an extremely small staff with extremely limited resources, so trying to write about and review all 100+ games would be next to impossible. So you can use this forum to suggest which games you think we should prioritize with coverage and reviews, and if certain games seem popular enough we’ll move them to the front of the line.
So please come visit our brand new Apple Arcade forum. Learn about each game, check out some trailers, post your own comments or questions… that’s what our community is all about. And if you aren’t a member of our forums just yet, you can register right here in just a couple of minutes and join in on the fun. Our forums and community interaction have long been a defining feature of what makes TouchArcade so great, and while the activity has dwindled over the years, I’d love to get back to the vibrant and active discussions we used to have here on a daily basis. With Apple Arcade and its influx of amazing new premium games with no ads or free to play shenanigans to complain about, I’m hoping we can make a return to that former glory!
