On March 25, Apple presented several novelties during the “It's show time“ event. There has been much talk of Apple TV +, a streaming service for movies, series and TV programs; instead, there was a little less talk of Apple Arcade, a new subscription service for downloading and playing video games. Apple Arcade will be available from the end of 2019 and although it is not yet known how much the monthly subscription will cost, there is still several information about it. Some of them communicated by Apple at the end of March, others have been released in recent days by the Financial Times: a very reliable newspaper, which claims to have obtained them from several people who are working on the project. All this information suggests that Apple has big plans for Apple Arcade, which in a few years could even make it more money than Apple TV +.
Apple Arcade will be available immediately in 150 countries and will have at least 100 games. You will need to subscribe to play and several members of a family will be able to share a single subscription. The games will be developed by some of the largest companies in the industry and you can play them on any Apple device (i.e. computer, tablet, smartphone and Apple TV): you will need to download them on your devices and you can then play even without an internet connection (but yes a game started on another can continue on one device, as long as the game is obviously downloaded on both).
The games will all be ad-free and without the famous in-app purchases (the ones that in many games are used to make customizations or advance in the game). Another important feature of Apple Arcade games is that, at least initially, they will only be available on Apple devices and not on the Play Store of Android devices. In fact, it is believed that one of the main objectives of Apple Arcade is to focus on quality to compete more with the Play Store, which in recent years is doing better than the Apple Store.
With its new platform, Apple therefore aims to provide games of better quality and greater depth than those that are better on the Apple Store today, i.e. those freemium (free + premium), which are initially free but then invite you to spend. money while playing, with so-called “microtransactions”. To get an idea of the type of games that can be found on Apple Arcade think of the best paid games in the Apple Store, but made even better. In many cases, however, it will be “independent” games: the executive of a video game company told the Financial Times that “more than Marvel films, they will be Sideways”, a reference to the 2004 film about wine and California.
The business model of Apple Arcade will be pretty simple and similar to the one already in use for Apple News: Apple will keep for itself a percentage of the money paid by the subscribers and distribute the rest to the developers based on the success on the platform of the respective games. For now, we're talking about revenue split at 50 percent (because that's how it works in Apple News +), but it's too early to be sure.
However, Apple is also collaborating directly with those who create these games, financing their development personally. The Financial Times wrote that Apple has so far invested at least $ 500 million in Apple Arcade and that the company is spending “several million dollars” on each of the more than 100 games it will make available. Also according to the Financial Times, Apple Arcade will be launched together with the new operating system iOS 13 and the cost should be around 10 dollars per month.
The video game sector is growing rapidly and, according to certain parameters, is already more profitable than those of cinema and streaming services. It is the reason why in addition to Apple, Google has also decided to aim for it. Google has in fact recently launched its video game production division and presented Google Stadia, a video game platform that will however be made available in streaming, not for download. Google Stadia seems to want to aim to offer an alternative to players accustomed to the PlayStation and the Xbox; Apple Arcade seems to have other plans instead. Giuseppe Carrabba wrote on EveryEye:
Although apparently it may seem like a formula very close to PlayStation Now, Xbox Game Pass or the Staff itself, Arcade looks like it is moving in a different direction, capable of attracting both console players and devotees to the world. mobile, offering experiences far from microtransactions and advertising content.
Apple also wants to focus on video games because it is looking for more stable sources of revenue, linked to content rather than products: in summary, now that iPhone sales are decreasing, it wants to focus on other things as well. However, it is a risky choice, because Apple is about to enter a complicated sector, with a lot of competition, which requires high initial investments in the face of earnings that are potentially very high but which are far from certain.
HSBC analysts estimate that, if it goes well, Apple Arcade could bring in revenue of $ 4.5 billion in 2024 (versus the $ 4.1 billion and 2.7 billion revenue it is estimated it could have from Apple TV + and Apple. News +). But these are only predictions, because Apple Arcade may not even be able to establish itself in the market or because the profits of Apple Arcade could replace what Apple currently makes with games from the Apple Store, where there are currently more than 300,000 games available.
Apple Arcade is in fact a service that is proposed as a sort of premium option for Apple Store games: on the one hand there are paid games, with advertisements, perhaps not highly sought after; on the other hand, the most beautiful games, without advertising and without requests for money. Apple's goal is to make money with both services, but that's not necessarily the case.
