“Apple’s new TV streaming service, Apple TV Plus, might have made the biggest splash during the company’s March 25 event, but its gaming service, Apple Arcade, could turn out to be a sleeper hit for the tech giant,” Daniel Howley writes for Yahoo Finance.
“Available this fall for a price that has yet to be announced, Apple Arcade promises more than 100 premium, or pre-paid, games that will be playable across iOS, Apple TV and macOS devices,” Howley writes. “The company’s approach could prove instrumental in winning over customers, thanks to Apple’s decision to only offer premium titles without the need to make in-app purchases.”
“Arcade could turn out to be a solid revenue driver for the company, with Nomura Instinet estimating the service could add $1 billion to Apple’s bottom line,” Howley writes. “Arcade is also leaning on some of the biggest names in gaming to attract hardcore gamers including creators like Hironobu Sakaguchi, who helped craft some of the most influential console games in history including the ‘Final Fantasy’ series; Ken Wong, lead designer of ‘Monument Valley’ and Will Wright who helped create ‘SimCity’ and ‘The Sims.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It certainly has all of the elements of success – if it’s priced attractvely. We’re withholding judgment, though, as we obviously need to see the price first.
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Apple introduces Apple Arcade – world’s first game subscription service for mobile, desktop and the living room – March 25, 2019
Nothing Apple offered was seen as a clear-cut benefit for the company and I find that really odd. Apple is a fairly shrewd company and should have thought a lot of this stuff over as being to their advantage. I still think that any additional revenue streams are good for Apple, even if they’re not huge revenue streams.
Apple should update iPod touch as fast as they are able and send it to market with a new, aggressive price at ten rainbow colours. Then offer 90 days of free Arcade access with the purchase of a new Touch device — they will sew up the North American and European tween market who will be buying iPhones in a couple of years.
Given that the iPhone sans phone functions is essentially the iPod Touch, how much of a discount do you expect Apple to have on them? If it’s insignificant, the on-the-fence consumer will just buy the phone and it would simply be a wasted ‘extra’ product SKU they would have to deal with.
An updated iPod is long overdue. It should hold 2 TB of music. Some people don’t want to have to be on the internet or within cell phone range to hear the same boring overproduced Apple curated compressed streaming music.