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Apple Will Spend $500 Million or More on Games for Apple Arcade (No Android Allowed)

posted by chromas on Monday April 15 2019, @12:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the epic dept.

takyon writes:

Apple reportedly spending $500 million to fund development of 100+ games for its Apple Arcade subscription service

The Financial Times says the company is spending 'several million dollars each' on more than 100 games, putting Apple Arcade's budget in excess of $500 million dollars. At its March event, Apple announced that Arcade would launch in the fall but did not announce pricing.

The report also says that Apple is offering an 'extra incentive' to a developer if their game remains exclusive to Apple Arcade.

Our sources indicate that all Apple Arcade games will not be offered on Google Play Store. The deal is essentially 'mobile exclusive', so developers will be allowed to launch on games consoles like PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch — just no Android. Arcade games will not be sold in the App Store as normal downloads.

The customer pitch for Apple Arcade is an alternative offering to the countless freemium games that dominate the App Store charts. For one monthly fee, users can play any game in the Arcade catalog. An Apple Arcade game will have no additional purchases or upsell, no limited levels, and no ads. Arcade games will also not be able to share any data with publishers unless the customer provides explicit consent.

Also at Engadget.

Previously: Apple News+ and Apple Arcade Announced

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @01:18PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @01:18PM (#829795)

    Of course. But still legal because Apple doesn't have market dominance. Like Steam supporting "Steam OS only game" or something. Only difference is Apple is much larger and richer.

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday April 15 2019, @01:29PM

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Monday April 15 2019, @01:29PM (#829803) Journal

    The relevant example is not Steam, but the recent Epic Games exclusivity agreements that are a big deal right now. Epic is throwing around big bucks to get 1 year long exclusivity agreements (6 months for Borderlands 3 [wccftech.com]).

    Legal challenge to this? Unlikely. Although it will be interesting to see whether Apple crushes Spotify et al., or gets slammed for the Apple News thing (don't forget the EU link tax and Google News).

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