Universal Apple Arcade underwhelming?

[HiVolt]

I got a new iPad and it came with a free Apple Arcade trial. I never bothered with the trials in the past, but I figured meh why not.

I dug up my old Xbox 360 wired controller and with a USB-C adapter it actually works, I'm surprised.

But the games, oh man, are they ever underwhelming, so simplified and dumbed down... Cannot even remap buttons on controller, some just give you a one or two preset templates. There is video tearing in some, but only a few I've seen have V-Sync option.

I like racing games, but there is literally only 10 racing games, and two that actually feature actual cars, not Mario Kart clones. And the two car games are so dumbed down.

I found Angry Birds, that is cool, so I tried on my M4 mini hooked up to TV, but its so not the same, and the control of the birds is so different than the old game...

Tried a few others, this stuff just doesn't feel right.

I know I cant expect AAA game titles, but this is very underwhelming and the selection seems kinda poor.

 

[bob_zz123]

I've had a few free trials or promos over the years (currently on a 3 months for £6.99 promo) and try and go into it with a positive mindset. There are definitely some fun little games that I enjoy playing and are good for casual dipping in and out of, for example Threes, Reigns, Angry Birds, Mini Metro, Fruit Ninja - all of which are so much better than the ad or in-app-purchase infested versions available for "free" on the App Store. In-depth games are a bit harder to come by but I quite enjoyed Beyond a Steel Sky and Return to Monkey Island but these kind of things don't have much replay value.

Ultimately I've never kept subscribing at full price just because I'm not sure £6.99 per month is worth it considering you only get 3 or 4 new games per month and not all of them would appeal to me. There is an annual discount but £50 per year isn't really worth it either. Updates to games are few and far between. I feel like it's an underdeveloped service; Apple don't put much effort into it and ergo the developers probably aren't clamouring to sign up. I think they could do with doing some more deals with bigger studios (and I wouldn't mind paying a bit more if some really good titles came along and - most importantly - they committed to a roadmap of releases say a year in advance). But I guess Apple would have to offer some serious bribes / sweeteners to the studios here because they could probably make more money with a "free" game stuffed with IAP or ads. I think with Apple Arcade the developers get paid for the amount of time (hours/minutes/whatever) a subscriber is playing the game for.

It's a shame, because it could be a lot better.

 

[martint235]

I get it as part of Apple One and just see it as some bonus free games. I’d never pay extra to subscribe to it.

 

[HiVolt]

It's a shame, because it could be a lot better.

Yeah, it could be better. I just thought after it being out for what, at least 5 years now, there would be a bit more polished games.

Yes I appreciate there are no IAP's or other junk, but i dont know how they would ever expect me to pay $8.99 CAD for that.

 

[Abazigal]

I suspect the target audience for Apple Arcade are families who want to be able to easily curate "safe" games for their children that don't entail ads or IAPs. It's less the titles available, and more the "here's the games preselected for you so you don't have to go wading through a whole bunch of dubious-sounding clones in order to find the "best" option).

Plus, if you are subscribed to Apple One, that usually translates to Apple Arcade being effectively free (assuming you are a heavy user of TV+ and Apple Music).

There's the occasional gem (sadly, titles like slay the spire and battle heart legacy don't really enthuse me because I already own the paid versions and have played the heck out of them, and you are better off just buying them once than relying on a monthly sub to access them). It would have been an excellent opportunity to bring console-quality titles to the Apple TV and iPad, but Apple seems to have given up on that even (some of their latest titles are not available for the Apple TV; cross-platform support used to be the one non-negotiable rule for Apple Arcade titles). Now I feel it's more about adding value for iPhone users (and iPhone users alone).

 

[HiVolt]

Yeah I'm not into subscription services, and I remember the initial reviews of Apple Arcade not being very convincing so I thought 6 years later maybe it would be worth a shot on the free trial.

I guess i found out its not really for me.

 

[dwrufus53]

I've had a few free trials or promos over the years (currently on a 3 months for £6.99 promo) and try and go into it with a positive mindset. There are definitely some fun little games that I enjoy playing and are good for casual dipping in and out of, for example Threes, Reigns, Angry Birds, Mini Metro, Fruit Ninja - all of which are so much better than the ad or in-app-purchase infested versions available for "free" on the App Store. In-depth games are a bit harder to come by but I quite enjoyed Beyond a Steel Sky and Return to Monkey Island but these kind of things don't have much replay value.

Ultimately I've never kept subscribing at full price just because I'm not sure £6.99 per month is worth it considering you only get 3 or 4 new games per month and not all of them would appeal to me. There is an annual discount but £50 per year isn't really worth it either. Updates to games are few and far between. I feel like it's an underdeveloped service; Apple don't put much effort into it and ergo the developers probably aren't clamouring to sign up. I think they could do with doing some more deals with bigger studios (and I wouldn't mind paying a bit more if some really good titles came along and - most importantly - they committed to a roadmap of releases say a year in advance). But I guess Apple would have to offer some serious bribes / sweeteners to the studios here because they could probably make more money with a "free" game stuffed with IAP or ads. I think with Apple Arcade the developers get paid for the amount of time (hours/minutes/whatever) a subscriber is playing the game for.

It's a shame, because it could be a lot better.

It's been that way since day one. Like you, I've tried it several times, and found it completely useless. It doesn't even make it all the way to "underwhelming", IMO.

 

[pacorob]

I've also only used the free 1-3 months which you get with a new iDevice or e.g. via another device (e.g. my Backbone One controller) or as I noticed the other day via the App Store itself I got the free offer (without a voucher code) to try it again for a month. The sneaky part of all of these free periods is that you can't cancel it now otherwise it would be active immediately while with any other subscription of e.g. apps in the App Store the subscription remains active until the end. So you have to set a reminder in your calendar to avoid it automatically becomes a paid subscription.

The Apple One (Family) subscription is not worth it for me to spend 19.95 (for myself) or 25.95 euro a month to add Apple Music, Apple Arcade and Apple TV+ to my existing iCloud+ storage that I currently am paying for.

The few games I like from Apple Arcade are these which unfortunately are not in the App Store as a paid version (Puyo Pop, Outlanders (2)) or are available as a free/ad-infested/subscription based version (Songpop I'm looking at you)

The games I like from Apple Arcade:
- Songpop Party (great with friends e.g. local multiplayer)
- Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop
- Creaks (platformer)
- The Last Campfire (platformer)
- Outlanders (2) (strategy)
- Gear.Club Stradale (racing)
- Asphalt 8: Airborne+ (racing)

 

[erihp]

The only way Apple is going to kickstart any real gaming effort is to deeply integrate or license use of a cloud streaming platform and throw a ton of bandwidth at it. Until then they’ve got way too much ground to make up.