Support NeoGAF

[Shin]

The company is reportedly spending billions of dollars a year on Apple TV+ original content, will pay about $480 million for the Texture acquisition which ultimately became News+, and is reportedly also spending several million dollars per game in Apple Arcade.

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.

These games will be available across iPad, iPhone, Apple TV and the Mac, with iCloud cross-platform sync to save progress. Games are downloaded to the device, not streamed, so they can be played offline.

Credit: 9to5MAC

 

[Quixz]

Meanwhile Microsoft spending that much on a single Halo game..

 

[cryptoadam]

Interesting.

So develop for Android and IOS with MTX crap, or no MTX + future revenue and exclusive to apple arcade.

I dont see why mobile developers will flock to it and who knows how much per download they get.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Hmm, I guess this lays to rest the question of how committed they are. That's a solid investment in a platform.

 

[MightySquirrel]

They could have funded 5 AAA games for 500m.

Oh well, I'm sure papple fans will love those regardless.

 

[juliotendo]

Don’t see it catching on unless they release a dedicated “game console” for it.

 

[SonGoku]

They could have funded 5 AAA games for 500m.

Oh well, I'm sure papple fans will love those regardless.

isn't the average budget for AAA exclusives around 60 to 70 million?

Don’t see it catching on unless they release a dedicated “game console” for it.

iphone and ipad are already quite powerful, maybe an apple tv upgrade
What's more important is they release a universal gamepad that's works with all systems and devs can code as a baseline

 

[Domisto]

I'm not an iOS user so wasn't initially interested in this, buuut that's a pretty big chunk of change and I would hope they put some emphasis on the mac crowd, so I'm gonna keep an eye on this. They are making the right noises with the no mtx etc. Could this end up being a sleeper hit? Best not get my hopes up.

What's more important is they release a universal gamepad that's works with all systems and devs can code as a baseline

They should just expand support of Playstation controllers to iOS. It's frequently the go-to controller for Mac users. If they bring out a new controller everyone will hate it. Everyone always hates new controllers [/hyperbole].

 

[demigod]

What if.......Capcom's arcade games are coming to Apple?

 

[synchronicity]

So, 200 or so $25K mobile quality titles?

 

[magnumpy]

wow after all these years apple finally gets into gaming.

 

[Mistershine.]

Genuine question, what level of game does a budget of 5m pay for? While obviously not COD or RDR2, are we talking Hellblade/Nier or closer to #IDARB?

 

[CyberPanda]

I wish they gave me that $500,000,000. Damn you Tim Cook.

 

[Ballthyrm]

So, 200 or so $25K mobile quality titles?

If you think a mobile game cost 25K you are deluded.
IT doesn't even pay for a single dev.

 

[JCK75]

Let's be honest, this is little more than what Amazon already does for parents with it's freetime unlimited for $3 a month your kid has access to all of the tablet games their little heart desires... it's not going to shake the industry but parents who are foolish enough with their money to buy their children Apple devices instead of cheap/disposable tablets will be happy to at least save a few bucks on the cost of games (as if 90% of kids play anything other than Fortnite)

 

[ResilientBanana]

So 100 games costing $5,000,000 or lower a piece? If the dev teams are small, I could see that going a long way for some, pretty OK-ish content.

 

[SonGoku]

They should just expand support of Playstation controllers to iOS. It's frequently the go-to controller for Mac users. If they bring out a new controller everyone will hate it. Everyone always hates new controllers [/hyperbole].

Just make a standard controller and support ds4 if need be

 

[VAVA Mk2]

Meh mobile gaming is mobile gaming. XCloud and Stadia are way more interesting.

 

[synchronicity]

If you think a mobile game cost 25K you are deluded.
IT doesn't even pay for a single dev.

It was not meant to be taken seriously. I know nothing about costs of game development. If anything it was just meant to be taken in jest at the expense of mobile games - which I don't like. (I'm sure there are some good ones out there.)

 

[Afro Republican]

Old news, already posted in one of those many streaming/games on demand threads.

But to be fair, $500 million is a pitiful amount since the goal is to create more AA-AAA level games on mobile with no f2p or in-app purchase model. It probably takes more than half of that just to get partnerships, pay off devs to make all games on it exclusive, and to run the program itself.

 

[Solarstrike]

Smh...500 million to develop 100 mediocre games. An average "AAA" game cost hundreds of millions to make. Prepare for massive influx of cellphone ports.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

"yay" is not the first thing that came to mind