Apple Arcade is sort of the forgotten stepchild of gaming subscription services. Whereas Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus offer a variety of current console (and even PC for Xbox) games, Apple Arcade just has whatever you can get on your iPhone for $4.99 per month. And even though the price easily beats both Microsoft and Sony’s offerings, five bucks doesn’t really get you a whole lot on Apple Arcade.
It’s a problem that Apple Arcade has suffered from since day one. People are fine with going for a one-month free trial, but afterward, most let their subscription lapse and just buy the game that they liked rather than continue to pay for 120+ games they’ll never actually play.
Apple knows that to fix Apple Arcade they need not just one, but a whole bunch of compelling games to make that five bucks a month seem worthwhile. And now, Apple has decided to get serious by investing "BIG money" into their platform.
"There are currently titles in the works that are aiming to rival the likes of Breath of the Wild," reported Apple insider and Twitter user @choco_bit, "which is why new A12X/Z AppleTV, "A14X-like" AppleTV, and Controller are in the works."
And unlike most games that are currently on Apple Arcade, these next-gen Apple games will require an "A13 and up to run," which basically means that people on older iPhones won't be able to play whatever these new games turn out to be.
Frankly, there's really only one Apple game that seems even remotely worthy of comparison with Breath of the Wild, and that's Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm. The game came out last year and over the summer got a Golden Edition that added new content, but it's also set to come out for the Nintendo Switch before the end of the year. Without that exclusivity, Apple Arcade becomes a tough sell once again.
We’ll have to see what Apple can come up with in order to keep Apple Arcade relevant in the face of Android getting things like Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud.
Source: Twitter