After a fun time playing Lego Brawls and being wowed by Projection, I decided the other day it was time to give up my Apple Arcade subscription. TL/DR: I wasn’t getting enough value out of it. However, the issue goes a little deeper.
Apple Arcade Games Are Good… But Not Good Enough
I would not decry the quality of some of the games I’ve played on Apple Arcade. Not surprisingly, Apple appears to have insisted on very high production values. However, over the last few weeks those games have been superseded by some big-name titles. The likes of Call of Duty and Mario Kart Tour are now available on iOS. For free. There is also Football Manager 2020 for $8.99. Unfortunately for the independent and smaller studios mostly backed by Apple Arcade, these games are more appealing to me, and I suspect most users.
For $4.99 a month I’d argue you need to be playing two or maybe three Apple Arcade games on a regular basis to get good value. Browsing through the list of titles available with a subscription, there was not enough that jumped out at me. Ultimately, there is only so much time (and phone memory) that users can assign for games. If there are blockbusters available elsewhere, that is surely where people will turn. I know I did.
A Noble Effort
Apple Arcade was a noble effort to work with developers to provide high-quality games at a reasonable price. There is nothing wrong with it in and of itself. However, the games currently available are not quite compelling enough to stop me, and I’m sure others, turning to the alternatives. In the end, that means the subscription just doesn’t quite provide enough value for money.
Which is the same to Apple News. Unfortunate these things tends to have a very long tail, especially Apple TV+, before Apple discover they have failed.