Introducing Apple Arcade – a new offline game subscription service

It seems that just about ever tech company out there suddenly wants to jump into the video games industry these days. Less than a week after Google announced its upcoming Stadia platform, Apple has thrown its hat into the ring with the announcement of Apple Arcade. While Apple Arcade is most definitely a subscription service, it is actually quite different than what you might expect from a mobile game plan. “We want to make gaming even better,” said Tim Cook – CEO of Apple.

For one thing, unlike PlayStation Now, Project xCloud or Google Stadia, Apple Arcade is not a streaming service. This is a plan that allows you to download games and even play them offline. Games included in the service do not contain adds or microtransactions; your subscription fee covers your access to the entire game. Apple promises that over 100 titles will be available at launch and some of them will be exclusive to the service. Here is a video showing some of the games that will be available and the developers behind them expressing their thoughts of Apple’s latest offering:

https://youtu.be/67umVefSXnY

Apple Arcade will work across all of your Apple devices. Your save orogress will carry over from iOS mobile devices to MacOS and even Apple TV. A single subscription covers up to six joined accounts via family sharing.

As you can see from the image above, over 50 studios have signed on to develop games for Apple’s new platform. There are some familiar names up there like Sumo Digital, Sega, WayForward and Mistwalker. SkyBound is up there too so expect some titles from telltale Games to appear on the service.

Here is a sizzle reel of some games that are headed to Apple Arcade. Worth noting that Sonic the Hedgehog makes an appearance here.

https://youtu.be/95FuVib8mcY

Apple Arcade will launch in over 150 markets later this year. Pricing information is unavailable as of this writing.

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