A new report reveals that some developers expressed their concerns over the future of Apple Arcade.
This information was published by Mobilegamer.biz. If you are interested in the state of the video game industry, you can check out our other articles here.
The developer expresses concern over the future of Apple Arcade
Speaking with Mobilegamer.biz, several developers voiced their concerns about Apple Arcade after Apple canceled several projects, cut payments to developers, and no longer provided original games.
During the first few years after the launch of the Apple Arcade in 2019, some developers revealed that the upfront payments for Apple Arcade games were high enough that most games were profitable from day one. Unfortunately, those payments are now starting to be cut.
The bonus payouts per game were also huge at first, but these payouts started to decline at the end of 2020 and continued to decline in the following years.
“We saw that number steadily decline until it reached a very small number,” said one developer. “At that point, putting games in the Arcade starts to become less viable.”
One developer said that Apple “canceled a lot of projects and pissed off a lot of people” as part of the Apple Arcade reboot in spring 2021.
A shift in strategy is rumored to have led Apple to stop green-lighting original games for Apple Arcade. Instead, they now almost exclusively commission family-friendly licensed games based on popular IPs.
Mobilegamer.biz notes that some developers who met with Apple to discuss how to get their games into Apple Arcade revealed that they were confused by the direction of the service.
One developer said that there was a “smell of death” around it, while another told Mobilegamer.biz:
Saya merasa mereka tidak benar-benar tahu ke mana mereka akan pergi dengan semua ini – hampir seperti mereka tidak yakin apakah mereka akan memiliki pekerjaan pada akhirnya.
Mobilegamer.biz Sources
However, another source revealed to Mobilegamer.biz that Apple is considering rebooting the service in light of Netflix’s entry into the gaming subscription service.
On the other hand, some developers said that they had positive experiences working with Apple for Appel Arcade, with one saying that the service “has made premium games usable on mobile devices.
