Apple Arcade wants to kill the free monster that iOS helped create

Apple has created a monster. The free games have almost completely invaded the iOS App Store, creating a market dominated by fraudulent timers and cheap monetization systems, a system that no design, curation and promotion of quality game could fix. But now (after years of profit from this system), Apple is here with the so-called cure: Apple Arcade.

Apple Arcade promises dozens of premium high-end games that will focus solely on entertainment or art, not on the money of players – the kind of games that have struggled to find their place in the modern economy of the App Store. No advertising, no lockout time, no in-app purchases, no permanent Internet connections. Pay a monthly fee to Apple and you'll have access to hundreds of titles that will not be available anywhere else, as well as a cross-platform game that will allow you to play on your Mac, iPhone or Apple TV. And Apple invests heavily in the service, not only by paying for exclusive titles, but by contributing to development finance. This sounds like an interesting proposal on the surface – a combination of the most appealing features of Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch, with its ability to work both on the go and on the big screen.

But can Apple really give the genius of this game free in Arcade?

Before we can determine if Apple Arcade is the cure, we should first consider how things went so bad. All this goes back to October 15, 2009, when Apple sent an email to its developers and announced that from this day on, free apps would also be allowed to offer in-app purchases, opening the door to overabundance of free games. it would soon take control of the App Store. It was a quick turnaround for Apple, which initially limited in-app purchases to the feature launches in June earlier that year. Scott Forstall, then senior vice president of iOS software, told WWDC 2009: "In-app purchases only apply to paid apps: free apps stay free."

The developers were quick to react: the premium platform game Rolando 2, for example, took advantage of the new rules to offer a free demonstration of the full game, allowing players to buy more levels to the card if they enjoyed the test. But other games, like Ngmoco's first-person shooter Eliminate, switched to another free model, offering a timer system that would limit players' rewards unless you spent real money. In the case of Eliminate, the number of players who could play the game was not limited, but once they no longer had a resource allocated in the game, they could not progress or unlock new items until they had waited the timer to reset themselves or they paid. they could continue playing immediately. Obviously, one of these models has won, to the point where the headlines of today, like Harry Potter: The Hogwarts Mystery, always count on it to get money out of impatient players who want to keep playing.

In January 2011, the analysis company Flurry had estimated that free games accounted for 39% of revenue from games on iOS. In June 2011, this number reached 65%, eclipsing the premium paid titles. The following year would see the release of freemium behemoths as Candy Crush Saga (estimated to have generated over $ 3.91 billion) and Clash of clans (estimated at more than $ 6.4 billion), which would launch a rush of gold free games built around similar mechanisms.

Today, free games occupy a prominent place in the iOS charts, at least in terms of money: the list of best-selling Apple has only one paid title, Minecraft – which, as one of the most popular games in the world and owned by Microsoft, is no longer an independent darling – with the rest of the money coming from in-app purchases. App Annie estimates are more interested: of the 50 best games, 49 are free games (Minecraft is again the only exception, at 48th on the charts). And the Sensor Tower lists show only one other paid title in the 250 most lucrative games on the App Store – Bloons TD 6, at number 202.

Apple's previous game campaign in augmented reality did not help much in breaking the free lock. The best graphics are basically the same as they have ever been. And it's not that the premium titles are failing completely – due to the fact that the App Store divides the free and paid graphics, as well as the management of the Apple App Store, there are still has a place for these paid titles – but the way money circulates, they are just not a priority for big developers. Why create a paid version of your game (even if this title would be superior from a purely gameplay point of view) while you can create a free version that will bring in a lot more money? Even Apple is not immune: it cuts these IAP and showcases many free games in the App Store alongside paid games. Remember when Apple asked you to pre-register for Pokemon Go?

Some games, like Monument Valley 2, have managed to achieve unprecedented success in the face of free traffic jams. But Monument Valley 2 also had everything in its favor: it was the long-awaited sequel to a popular game, was announced and announced at Apple's keynote, and it was honored in the new iOS 11 App Store, which Apple specifically redesigned to allow highlighting new games and applications. And despite all this, Dan Gray, director of Ustwo studio, commented: The edge Last year, "I think it sort of capped," in reference to the premium market. In the end, this type of success stories are exceptions and not the rule, and there is a very different barrier with respect to success in the paid mobile space compared to the free side.

While developers are cautiously optimistic that Apple Arcade could reverse the trend of premium gaming, many questions remain unanswered about its operation, its cost, Apple's cut and revenue splitting. as. There is also concern that the service may notibrate pay game sales in the future or create a superior entry barrier for less established developers at the expense of raising established and known brands.

This poses no particular problem for Apple: it must reduce by 30% all purchases on the App Store, that it is an extra life candy Crush or full game downloads from The Alto Odyssey. But Arcade represents an idealistic approach for Apple. it's a company that wants to be recognized for encouraging creativity and art, and not for poking the pockets of its customers for quarters to complete a building Clash of clans faster. (A similar thread was also announced in the announcement of the Apple TV Plus streaming service.) And especially at the present time, with the growing concern over the free addictive mechanisms causing a real harm, it's easy to see why Apple would want to get away from these types of games.

And maybe that Apple Arcade could help, by providing a new source of revenue to the company, which would allow it to showcase the best games of its platform, and not just those that best serve to show ads and make money. If Arcade can defeat the monster created by Apple, we will have to wait until we see it in action later this year.