Apple Arcade exclusive means not on Android, consoles are a fair game

With the launch of Apple Arcade later this month, the service caught the attention of the general public, which will be available for $ 4.99 per month with a free one-month trial. However, there has been some confusion about what it means to be exclusive to Apple Arcade.

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Apple Arcade gives you unlimited access to over 100 games available in the service, with no additional purchase or ad in-app. You can play online or offline, and the games are available on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac. With Family Sharing, up to 6 people can play with a single monthly payment of $ 4.99. Apple will add new games to the Arcade library every month. You can get an idea of ​​what's available in Apple's 100-second presentation video.

However, the company has also touted the fact that the games are "exclusive" to Arcade. This has caused confusion, as many of the games presented will be available on other platforms, such as PC or video consoles.

Here's what "exclusive to Apple Arcade" means. The game is a mobile exclusive and can not be published on any other mobile operating systems. It basically means that the games will not be available on Android.

Video game consoles are not considered mobile as defined by Apple. Thus, Arcade games can still be launched on Nintendo Switch, although, technically, this could be considered a portable platform.

Many arcade games will be multi-platform. Apple did a demonstration of Sayonara: Wild Hearts at Tuesday's event. It will be launched on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Apple Arcade. In Apple Arcade, this is part of your subscription. For the console version, the game is sold for $ 13.

The other restriction for game developers is that games can not be included in other subscription services. This means that games will not be available in the normal sections of the App Store, whether it is free or paid titles. They are only available in the Apple Arcade tab of the iOS 13 App Store.

Apple Arcade will be launched from next week. You can update iOS 13 on your iPhone on September 19th and sign up for the Arcade Evaluation version. Arcade will be launched on iPad with the release iPadOS public September 30. The new tvOS update will also be released on September 30, with support for Arcade. Apple Arcade for Mac requires macOS Catalina. Apple has not given a specific date for the release of Catalina, but it will be for October.