A Financial Times report highlights that Apple is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to secure new games for its Arcade gaming subscription service. Apple had unveiled Arcade at its March ‘Show Time’ event, with the service slated to launch later this year.

Apple Arcade is slated to launch with over 100 games and Apple will likely spend over $500 million on them. The advance given by Apple to game title developers is more than enough to cover their game development cost.

Apple is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to secure new video games for its forthcoming Arcade subscription service, according to several people familiar with the deals.

The company is also offering developers extra incentives if they keep their game exclusive to Arcade and don’t release it on any other platform like Google Play or Xbox Game Pass. The exclusivity will only be for a few months though and after that, they will be free to release their games on any platform they want.

With Apple Arcade, the Cupertino company wants to offer a subscription-based gaming service to its iPhone, iPad, and macOS customers. These high-quality games will have a rich storyline and will be completely devoid of IAPs and ads. These games will also work be compatible with all devices within Apple’s ecosystem and sync their progress across devices meaning one can start playing a game on their iPhone and then resume it on their iPad or Mac.

Our Take

While Apple unveiled Arcade at its Showtime event, it did not mention anything about its pricing. The gaming subscription service is likely to cost anywhere around $7.99 to $9.99/month. With hardware sales slowing down, Apple is heavily focusing on the services sector. Apple Arcade will get its own tab in the iOS App Store which means it should catch the eyesight of millions of people around the world.

[Via FT]

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