Arcade will be a subscription service giving you access to around 100 games that you can’t get anywhere else and will exist as a tab within the App Store when it goes live on 19 September.
It’ll cost £4.99 / $4.99 per month for a family subscription after a month free trial. In the context of mobile games, this is a decent price given many mobile games cost more than that outright, or employ an annoying in-app purchase model that stunts the game unless you pay up.
Apple Arcade will let you play saved games across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV, has no ads and will let you download games to play then when offline.
On stage at the event Konami reps showed off, oddly, the flagship game Frogger in Toy Town, a jarring way for Apple to open its major presentation. Frogger isn’t exactly at the forefront of modern gaming.
Shinsekai: Into the Depths was also shown by Capcom. Like Frogger it’s a platform-style game like you’d expect to see on an iPhone – in this case it was displayed on stage via an iPad Pro. Annapurna then showed Sayonara Wild Hearts, which was described as “playable music video.”
All three games are exclusive to Apple Arcade but, Apple said, are only three examples of the many developers working on titles. Many more similar titles will be ready at launch for Apple’s first proper foray into becoming a gaming platform.
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.
