Not entirely sure what this even is honestly. It’s supposed to be some sort of gaming service? A Netflix for games? But I’m wondering what its implications are on the state of Vainglory because Apple seems to have been always supportive of VG ever since its release.
Apple Arcade is really two things under the same name:
- an incubator to help selected studios bring their games to market exclusively on Apple Arcade
- a subscription gaming service available across all of Apple’s platforms: iPhone, iPad, and Mac
To me, there are lots of impressive features of Apple Arcade:
- it’s all-you-can play: every game on Apple Arcade is available to subscribers
- games on the service are selected specifically because they deliver a unique and high-quality experience
- there are no IAPs and no upgrade fees
- all games are playable without an internet connection
- no data about what you play, how much you play, etc. is collected
- only one subscription is required for everyone in your family
There’s not a chance in hell of SEMC getting on Apple Arcade – for starters, SEMC are pushing cross-platform, and Apple Arcade games must be exclusive to the service.
So the answer to the question posed in the title of this thread is … not a damn thing. 
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it didn’t say exclusive in the video ? , what is apple in the equation , are they the producer or the marketing company or both , and are they making it exclusive for certain iPhones and iPads or for all .
Yes it did.
As I said in my post just above yours, they are acting as an incubator (finding and funding select studios that are working on games that Apple thinks will benefit their Arcade service) and as a distribution platform (think Steam).
They’ve released no information on device or OS requirements at this point. The service itself won’t arrive until fall, so it’s fairly logical to assume that Arcade will require iOS 13 or whatever Apple decides to call the next version of MacOS.
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This looks pretty promising…
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Yep precisely. Looks neat and will hopefully spur the creation of some more great original games for IOS.
Will have limited impact on VG because its an entirely different business model.
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This, vainglory will never be in that service. If the price is right, the service itself is impressive… high quality gaming without ripoffs and games destroyed (and build around) by microtransactions.
Drop that for a moment, they did say NO in app purchases, microtransactions bs and so on. How exactly you think VG will give all the skins and whatnot for free? VG is full of monetisation and will never release in service like the one apple creates (as even in it’s bad state I am sure it will make more money from whales that will otherwise pay for the apple service a lot less and SEMC will receive a lot less).
At this point, it’s not clear how the Apple Arcade service will pay its participants, but it seems obvious that Apple intends to disrupt the current (player-hostile) “freemium” model by eliminating P2W systems and lottery-style mechanics. I’ve heard that studios who are selected to participate may be paid based on engagement: the more people play their game, the more money the studio receives. If true, that’s a fantastic way to encourage quality games, imo.
My concern is that Apple’s track record with games is not great. (Remember Game Center?) In the past, they haven’t really seemed to understand what gamers want. But it sounds to me like they’re on the right path with this new service, and I’m looking forward to giving it a try this fall.
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Now this sounds friggin awesome. Nothing that I don’t want in a single player experience, offline focus, a basic subscription, and knowing apple’s taste in games hopefully they will be quality indie titles? Now we just need an apple arcade…for android.
@hazeleyes Apple has been aloof in the past but I think they’ll do right this time. They have a good idea of what kinda ga mes appeal to a certain sect of the gaming audience that would subscribe long term. Their ‘editors choice’ titles reflect that, and their support of early vg is a testament to that aesthetic and quality as well.
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Zero chance of Apple ever doing that. And Google seems to have placed its bet on Stadia, which is basically the complete opposite of Arcade.
A guy can dream can’t he? 
And ugh I kinda don’t even want Stadia to take off. I mean I’m all for streaming games and the like but unless Google is gonna commit to hosting those games on its servers forever as long as there is no objection from the publishers, I don’t like the implications of what streaming will do to game availability. What hurts is that Android has lots of great lower quality indie games and it’s so hard for them to shine anymore.
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This is a good summary of what Apple has announced so far.
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