In an updated support document spotted by our sister site MacRumors, Apple has confirmed that games that leave Apple Arcade will be playable for at least two weeks after being removed, assuming you downloaded them before they were removed. If you try launching a game that isn’t playable anymore, a “No Longer Available" message will be presented to you. If you’ve not kept up with the service in the recent weeks, 15 games have been removed following the reveal that the games would be leaving Apple Arcade soon. These include some exclusives and others that have been ported to other platforms since arriving on Apple Arcade. The full list of games removed is below:
- Projection: First Light ()
- Lifeslide ()
- Various Daylife ()
- EarthNight ()
- Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree ()
- Over the Alps ()
- Dread Nautical ()
- Cardpocalypse ()
- Towaga: Among Shadows ()
- Dead End Job ()
- Don’t Bug Me! ()
- Spelldrifter ()
- Spidersaurs ()
- Explottens ()
- BattleSky Brigade: Harpooner ()
Apple’s support page also confirms that developers can choose to make a game removed from Apple Arcade available as a standalone release on the App Store, but the developer will have to allow you to load your progress to pickup and continue from the Arcade version. This is not the worst outcome, but it is nowhere near as seamless as how Xbox Game Pass handles these things. When a game is leaving Xbox Game Pass, you can just buy it at a discount to own it, and then continue without worrying about your progress. The developers don’t need to do extra work for this save data carryover. Hopefully we learn well in advance when more games are leaving Apple Arcade, and the exclusives get ported so they aren’t lost forever. I’ve speculated in the past about potential options, but it is good to see Apple directly confirm that a developer can put a game back on the App Store once removed from Apple Arcade. Have you bought any Apple Arcade games on other platforms yet and what do you think about how Apple is handling games and save data here?
