Apple Arcade

Entropy

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Apples' take on subscription service, primarily aimed at phone users.
The iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV are all supported by all of the games on the service, and offline play is available for all titles. Game saves are in the cloud, allowing for seamless play.

The games will have no advertisements, or any in-app purchases. Apple Arcade games cannot collect any data on the user, without consent.

Apple Arcade arrives in the Fall of 2019, in 150 countries and regions. Pricing has not yet been disclosed.
 
Family access too.
There is an audience for this.
The stuff my daughters download are almost all based on the business plan of digging through all your personal information and selling it. You have to be real careful not to give access down to your underwear, and the games continually tries to trick the girls to click the wrong button.
I hate it.
Getting away from this, in app purchases and so on would be such a relief.
 
What is the latest news on this product?
It's out, is continually added to, and works as advertised.
The games are severely lacking in bald marines and gore, so if that is ones preferred entertainment, it's useless.
In general, production budgets are modest, and the scope of the games reflect that.

If you have a more general interest in gaming however, it is a window into an alternative take on games - the absence of design around monetisation schemes, the not-produced-according-to-megacorp-focus groups feel of the products. It's like some kind of indie playground, where not so mainstream ideas get equal space. I like it, while at the same time not really being interested enough to make it a worthwhile subscription for me.

If you recognise yourself in my frustration about mobile games as a parent however, you will see a major appeal in trying to steer your kids away from spyware and games that revolve around creating gambling addictions.
 
This continuing lawsuit over Epic Games will stunt Apple's growth into the gaming sector ...

Apple will have to determine if preventing Epic Games from being able to maintain Unreal Engine on their platforms is the outcome they desire ...
 
This continuing lawsuit over Epic Games will stunt Apple's growth into the gaming sector ...

Apple will have to determine if preventing Epic Games from being able to maintain Unreal Engine on their platforms is the outcome they desire ...
Apple Arcade has 150 titles. Oceanhorn 2 uses Unreal Engine, and I think there are a few other examples but I actually couldn't find any. Realistically, studios will gravitate away from using Unreal Engine if they target iOS, regardless of whether Apple is forced to allow them to operate there or not this time around. There is no guarantee Epic won't pull something again, and they demonstrably don't care about pushing their licensees into the line of fire. It would be foolish not to weigh that into the decision of what tools to use when you have the responsibility for a project and employees with families. It may matter more for ports of large Playstation/Xbox/PC games built on UE to iOS/MacOS, though there are ways to for instance translate from Unreal to Unity minimizing the necessary work.

I doubt it affects Apple Arcade specifically a lot either way.
 
Apple Arcade has 150 titles. Oceanhorn 2 uses Unreal Engine, and I think there are a few other examples but I actually couldn't find any. Realistically, studios will gravitate away from using Unreal Engine if they target iOS, regardless of whether Apple is forced to allow them to operate there or not this time around. There is no guarantee Epic won't pull something again, and they demonstrably don't care about pushing their licensees into the line of fire. It would be foolish not to weigh that into the decision of what tools to use when you have the responsibility for a project and employees with families. It may matter more for ports of large Playstation/Xbox/PC games built on UE to iOS/MacOS, though there are ways to for instance translate from Unreal to Unity minimizing the necessary work.

I doubt it affects Apple Arcade specifically a lot either way.

It's not just Apple Arcade that's affected, it has implications as a whole for gaming on Apple systems ...

Unity isn't a viable alternative to Unreal for more complex projects since it has comparatively many more limitations so by preventing Epic Games from being able to maintain their own engine they're effectively locking out their own customers or developers in the future from being able to create/experience more complex projects as well ...

Is this truly where Apple wants to go down by having the hardest platforms to maintain ? From my prospective, out of the others it is my belief that Epic is the best positioned to being able to constantly refactor their codebase because very few other developers are willing refactor their low-level code especially on Apple platforms that are known for infamously breaking compatibility. Is it right to let a complex piece of software such as a game engine that has major support from a good chunk of he industry fall into disrepair ? What are developers who rely on Unreal engine going to do about Apple inevitably demanding that applications need to be shipped with ARMv9 binaries in a future where Epic can't provide the necessary support to them ?

It might be trivial enough to refactor smaller projects but alienating Epic is extremely counterproductive for more complex projects that rely on their well maintained codebase and for a hostile platform vendor that hardly makes any promises about backwards compatibility ...
 
It's not just Apple Arcade that's affected, it has implications as a whole for gaming on Apple systems ...
Well, this thread is about Apple Arcade specifically, and it's lack of traffic is both a testament to its success and to the inclinations of these forums.
There is a specific Epic-Apple thread.
That said...
It might be trivial enough to refactor smaller projects but alienating Epic is extremely counterproductive for more complex projects that rely on their well maintained codebase and for a hostile platform vendor that hardly makes any promises about backwards compatibility ...
Well, I think it is pretty unarguable that Epic did the alienating here.
And of course that isn't good for anyone really, neither Epic, Apple, dependent developers or users.
I'm simply saying that given the nature of the games on Apple Arcade, the impact to the service will be modest either way. When it comes to Apples backwards compatibility, they are quite upfront with guidelines to help future compatibility, and generally keep backwards compatibility for several years after a transition. Games are rather transient in terms of sales, and typically use, so unless you ignore their guidelines your product should be good for a decade or so with minor or no touching up. YMMV.

The games market on MacOS is set to grow, both because the new machines are attractive, but also because Mac users can't run games under Windows on their machines anymore. Economy abhors a vacuum. Someone will pick up the money on the table, and while the ruckus with Epic is unfortunate, it's not as if Mac users won't be able to while away their lifetime times ten playing games on their Macs regardless, should they so desire.
 
I'm simply saying that given the nature of the games on Apple Arcade, the impact to the service will be modest either way. When it comes to Apples backwards compatibility, they are quite upfront with guidelines to help future compatibility, and generally keep backwards compatibility for several years after a transition. Games are rather transient in terms of sales, and typically use, so unless you ignore their guidelines your product should be good for a decade or so with minor or no touching up. YMMV.

The impact might be modest now but given how Apple keeps touting their how powerful their machines are getting overtime, how will developers in the future be able to make meaningful advantage of these gains when they have one less tool available to them in public ?

The games market on MacOS is set to grow, both because the new machines are attractive, but also because Mac users can't run games under Windows on their machines anymore. Economy abhors a vacuum. Someone will pick up the money on the table, and while the ruckus with Epic is unfortunate, it's not as if Mac users won't be able to while away their lifetime times ten playing games on their Macs regardless, should they so desire.

I wonder if macOS will even have a market at all in the future since it'll be harder than ever to develop on a platform where software rot is an egregious issue. What existing macOS software is even going to work after the ARM transition ? Will developers even bother with macOS anymore where their code only works for ~5 years from the date they wrote it. Can developers ever finish developing macOS software or is it supposed to be a never ending project ? I imagine most developers don't like the idea of being stuck on a project forever and they eventually want to either stop updating or patching their software ...
 
The software business model have moved to subscriptions these days, so devs will support the product as long as it is profitable.
 

FANTASIAN a JRPG by Mistwalker on Apple Arcade
This is very Apple Arcadey.
As I said earlier in the thread, "it's like some kind of indie playground, where not so mainstream ideas get equal space". This one has a unique and appealing look, that’s for sure! We’ll find out whether there’s a good game to be played as well.
Personally I appreciate this aspect of Apple Arcade.
 
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