When most people think of Apple, video games are not the first thing to think about. Photo or video editing, of course, as some kind of creative work, but not gaming. That’s because of the way Apple designs and markets its products.
We’ve been able to play games on macOS and iOS for a long time, but until Apple Arcade debuted last year, macOS and iOS were just platforms where developers designed their games to play on. In the last year, we’re starting to see how Apple’s exclusion practices are failing when it comes to what games and gaming platforms it will and will not give access to its users. (This also applies to non-gaming apps!) The gaming industry in general has slowly begun to move away from platform exclusivity, yet Apple is pushing to keep its walled garden too high to climb for even some of the biggest tech companies, and is firmly setting the course for an anti-trust disaster.
Apple and Microsoft both started out as computer companies, but the two tech giants name very different paths as they expanded and evolved of decades. At the turn of the millennium, Microsoft jumped in the gaming arena when it released its Xbox in 2001, competed with Nintendo consoles, Sony’s Playstation, and even the Sega Dreamcast, to the company already had a good grip on the PC gaming market. Apple went another route, especially with the iPhone in 2007. It was not the first touchscreen phone ever (that honor goes to the LG Prada), but it paved the way for the mobile gaming boom. The iPhone and Android phones remain an integral part of the gaming landscape today, and companies like Microsoft and Google are brave new territory with cloud gaming. Bfrom Apple refuses further his own legacy as we do enter a new era of mobile gaming.
No matter what you feel about cloud games and them inherent limitations, be able to play a graphically demanding game such as Metro Exodus on your phone is impressive. Via a mobile data connection or wifi you connect to a remote data center where the game is stored. The game is streamed to your phone, your input is then sent back to the data center, and then everything you told the game to do now appears on your screen. With a good connection, the lag is minimal, which means no more limited to games like Candy Crush like other simple puzzle games that you can play with your fingertips. Gamers do not need to own a PC, laptop, or even a console to play Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes out, thanks to Microsoft’s cloud gaming service Project xCloud.
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But Apple’s own App Store rules prevail iOS users of it can play games like that on their iPhones or iPads. Apple will only approve a cloud game service for the App Store if the app connects to a host device owned by a user, which is a personal computer or a special game console owned by the user, and both the host device and client must be connected to a local and LAN-based network. ”
Google Stadiums, Nvidia’s GeForce Now, and Microsoft’s xCloud requires all users to remotely connect to their non-user-owned servers, and all three of these platforms allow their users to play games over a mobile network. Google had to disable the ability for users to connect to Stadiums servers so the app could be offered in from the App Store. Nvidia and Microsoft just be, screw it—What is the point of offering an iOS app if people can not use it to play games on iOS?
Interestingly, Stadia and GeForce Now are compatible with macOS. Users just need to install the Chrome browser to play games through Stadia, and GeForce Now has its own macOS version of its launcher. Sa why all this hostility to gaming on iOS? We can search Apple Arcade for some answers: iIt seems that Apple is keeping all major gaming competitors away from iOS because they want to funnel users to their own gaming service. It’s almost as logical as my parents refusing to show me The Simpsons as a child, but show me Ren and Stimpy. That’s the kind of movement you take with you children, non-paying customers.
Apple Arcade is technically a digital storefront, but instead of buying games individually as you would on Steam, Epic, or Microsoft’s Xbox website, users pay $ 5 a month in front of access to 100+ games. They do not have any of the games they play, as long as they keep an active subscription, they can continue playing. (It’s kind of like renting games from Gamefly.) The problem with this model is that most gamers want the games thet play, do not rent them, especially when it comes to larger titles as well as Skyrim, Fallout 4, en Red Dead Redemption 2. They have a lot of replay value because of how much content is in them. No. date I have spent almost 200 hours Skyrim, and that’s on the leech ein compared to others.
Many Apple Arcade games are available individually on Steam and Epic, but unless you have an Apple device, you will not know what they are – unless you want to view the thumbnail roll on the website and note down any titles that seem interesting based on art. But if you have an Apple device, look at all the games that are offered. Many of them look together towards children as are casual puzzle games. There are a few adventure games, as well Beyond a Steel Sky, which seems more adult-oriented, but the atmosphere of the offered games is completely different from what Stadia or Microsoft offers. It seems that Apple wants to carefully curate its brand image in all aspects, even if it does to the games as well as gaming services it offers in the App Store.
Apple recently came under fire for the 30% revenue share it requires from developers offering premium apps as in-app purchases in the App Store. That includes games. But with now xCloud and GeForce, Apple can not take a cut of the games available on those services, because users buy their games from Steam, Epic, or anywhere else. Microsoft, Google and Nvidia have made their xCloud, Stadia and GeForce Now apps available for free, with free tiers to play on the last two – no way would iOS users pay for a game that Android and other device users can get for free .
It’s likely that Apple is taking a cut from Google, because iOS users can make in-app purchases from the Stadia app. Apple’s guidelines may allow in-app purchases, but if the game service can be used across multiple devices, the same way Apple Arcade can, the developer “should not directly or indirectly target iOS users on a different method of purchase than in-app purchases , ”According to the guidelines. Stadia does not do that, but because of Apple’s rules about remote desktop clients, which exclude that Stadia could allow its users to play games on their iOS devices … but the app must be in the App Store, to ‘ There’s no other way for Stadia users to sync the Stadia controller wirelessly with their computer as Google Chromecast.
Converting short models, Apple does not understand the gaming landscape, either the flexibility and accessibility that gamers want to play the latest and greatest. Apple sold 41 million iPhones worldwide in the first quarter of 2020, despite a global pandemic. That is a lot of people who could play Stadia or Xbox games on their phones Apple Arcade games.
When it comes to cross-platform interoperability, Microsoft and Google have always been freer than Apple. What works on a Samsung will work on an LG, and what works on an Asus will work on a Dell. That is why they are popular with gamers. Tastean csound gaming services to provide streaming games on iOS would give Apple a chance to become more relevant in the gaming world, beyond the self-contained walls of Apple Arcade. Gaming has become more accessible than ever before, and Apple played an enormous role in that with mobile gaming on the iPhone. Now is the time to cut back on the wall garden – or maybe just prune a bit – to give people even more opportunities.
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