Companies large and small--mostly large--agree: they would like you to pay a monthly subscription service for entertainment. We're reaching saturation with these new services here in the gaming world, where everyone from Microsoft and Sony to EA, Ubisoft, and Apple want you to know that they have a whole lot of content on offer for one low monthly price. Apple wants you to do it with TV, and they want you to do it with games. The company had more details on its soon-to-launch Apple Arcade, which is a mobile game subscription service that offers you access to a large library of exclusive, premium games for one low cost. And, to the company's credit, the cost actually is pretty low. Apple announced the price at its event today, and it comes in at $4.99 a month after a one month trial.
Apple Arcade launches on September 19, and we'll have a full launch lineup soon. Today the company showed off new titles from industry stalwarts Konami and Capcom along with indie darlings Annapurna Interactive.
Apple Arcade still feels like it's swimming against the tide, which is sort of ironic considering how much Apple helped to create this particular tide to being with. The mobile market is dominated by a handful of free-to-play games, but Apple has always used its editorial platform to push quirkier premium experiences like Monument Valley. Getting Konami on stage to advertise a new Frogger game really underlines this: Crossy Road has been a giant free-to-play hit for years, and Apple is betting that people will be even more interested in a premium version without microtransactions.
We'll see. I'm skeptical of the service as a whole, not because I don't think it's a good idea but mostly because I think it's going to have a hard time cracking up what is at this point a very well-established mobile development market. Free-to-play games aren't just hits because they're free to play, they're hits because they work with established development tropes that mobile gamers like and want to keep playing. Assuming those iPhone gamers will want to totally shift that perspective and move to premium games seems dicey.
But it's that price that might make all the difference. $4.99 is just low enough that people are likely to sign up and then sort of forget about it, which is the holy grail for any subscription service. I could also see this being a huge boon for exasperated parents who are tired of having to shell out for microtransactions in their kid's games. It's a one-size-fits-all solution to a bunch of things that people might not even consider problems, and that's sort of its biggest weakness and greatest strength. Especially at that price.
