[Freemium games are] designed to be fun and addictive, but to deliberately become increasingly less fun if the player doesn’t spend [virtual in-game currency via in-app purchases]. The game will always let you earn some gems, but never enough to remove the roadblocks to properly playing and enjoying the game. Rare is the game that simply lets you play a bit for free and then pay a one-time fee to “unlock” the full game, or remove ads…
We all know that this is how mobile games work by now. We’ve come to accept it… Playing Apple Arcade games is like getting hit in the face with a bucket of cold water. It’s like waking up from the Matrix and seeing the world as it really is… In just a week, I’ve come to develop an attitude that if a game isn’t in Apple Arcade, I’m just not interested.
MacDailyNews Take: Cross argues that Apple Arcade’s restrictive exclusivity requirements – games must be for Apple’s mobile platforms only and exist within Arcade only (not available in the App Store) – will hurt Arcade in the long run and that Apple should allow developers to include any games that are free of in-app purchases and ads.
That move may be planned by Apple, after the initial launch period. If not, Apple should consider the idea as it very well may help Arcade to grow into an even richer service sporting a wider library of titles.
Or even tiers like “Arcade basic” and “Arcade Ultimate” if need be
Seems like allowing Freemium games outside Apple arcade would only serve to make Apple arcade that much more enticing! I play one game, for example, which offers very minor upgrades, enhancements, gem packs, etc. for exorbitant prices ($9 – $50!). If I get hooked on a freemium game outside Apple arcade, and then see it inside Apple arcade for only $4.99 a month, I’m very likely to join.
Firstly: I love Apple arcade. BUT. It presents the same problem as Apple’s previous policy of favoring featured games through App Store recommendations – if you aren’t in Apple Arcade, will anyone in the lazy user base even try your app? It creates an artificial barrier. I understand the desire to squash free to play, but this could very easily be just as big a conundrum for developers. Unless Apple is prepared to offer their entire catalogue and let the chips fall where they may, it could actually end up hurting developers in the long run (their idiot, millennial employees seem to be incapable of taking the long run into account), and that means less quality content. They really do not think these things through, like, at all. Job’s death ended the Valley in no uncertain terms, and it’s sad. Innovation is a dead horse we keep kicking in American tech. Again, I think Apple Arcade is a great idea many years too late (this should have happened the second AirPlay became a thing), but if they screw up the implementation (again), who cares? And I don’t want to hear from millennials that think they will be 22 forever. Bite me. Surely Apple can do better than this, given they are the richest people currently on the planet (again, thanks to the deceased Jobs, not any of these modern clowns). I am not convinced. Google’s copycat maneuver is even more pathetic. Android is a venereal disease.
Or buy a PC and play real games. (And VR)
PCs are shit.
I don’t agree. I’m not impressed.