Apple’s Arcade — its game streaming service for ‘mobile, desktop and the living room’ — has just been leaked a little early.
According to 9to5Mac who gained access to an internal program, Apple will be offering a 1 month free trial for users upon launch. It currently offers employees a rate of $0.49 per month to try, but that’ll likely shoot up when it is released to the general public. Apple has yet to confirm any pricing information about this service but one can expect it to be competitive with Xbox Game Pass, Google Stadia and other game streaming services.
After a user has subscribed to Arcade, downloading any game is as easy as downloading a music album on Apple Music. The firm currently features fun games like ‘Way of the Turtle’, Down in Bermuda’ and ‘Hot Lava’ and promises a slate of over a 100 games at launch. However, any Apple Arcade enabled game would present users with a big ‘Get’ button where the buy’ button used to be. You’ll then be able to play this for as long as the system can confirm you have a subscription.
“The App Store is the world’s biggest and most successful game platform. Now we are going to take games even further with Apple Arcade, the first game subscription service for mobile, desktop and the living room,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing in March. “We are working with some of the most innovative game developers in the world to create over 100 new and exclusive games to play across iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV. Apple Arcade games will be great for families, respect user privacy and will not have ads or require any additional purchases. We think players of all ages are going to love Apple Arcade.”
Apple Arcade is expected to launch this fall to coincide with the iPhone 11 family in September. We’ll learn a bit more about it then.