App Store Best of 2020
Apple (list, MacStories):
The independent developer of Wakeout! brought gentle exercise to home offices and classrooms with light-hearted and inclusive movements designed for everyone. Vast fantasy worlds in games like “Genshin Impact,” “Legends of Runeterra,” “Disco Elysium,” “Dandara Trials of Fear,” and Apple Arcade’s “Sneaky Sasquatch” delivered a great escape, while Disney+ offered a sense of unlimited possibility that many craved. Whether it was to facilitate distance learning through Zoom, create daily routines with Fantastical or lull us to sleep with Endel, the App Store Best of 2020 winners helped us live our best lives at home.
We are incredibly excited and honored that Fantastical has been selected by Apple as the winner of the Best of 2020: Mac App of the Year!
[…]
In the meantime, we hope you’ll enjoy these photos of our App Store App of the Year award as much as we do!
It’s a great app.
Boo-hiss, though, for awarding Genshin Impact iPhone game of the year. It does look like a beautiful Breath of the Wild-esque game — but it’s a free-to-play gacha game financially. It’s a gambling mechanic, and I wish Apple wouldn’t hold one up as their iPhone game of the year.
Yikes, Wakeout (Winner of Best of 2020):
- Requires “Sign In with Apple” 100% just to email retarget you
- Requires a trial (oh hey Basecamp!).
- Breaks the strictly enforced “total price must be most prominent” rule.
Previously:
5 Comments RSS · Twitter
Had a look at these apps and am not impressed. Many appear to be aimed at a younger audience and I don't see one that I, as an older user would use. Maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon but having used Macs for 34 years I find it hard to find apps, especially games, that are of interest. Also, as a veteran, and seeing so many shooter games I also have to question where we are headed for entertainment. I would really like to see some games that require thinking and analyzing rather than just pointing and shooting.
Genshin Impact *is* a good game, but yeah, it's a good game whose purpose is to serve as a disguise for an online casino aimed at children. Not that Apple cares about that, given how much money they make getting children into gambling.
Zoom, which installed a backdoor web server last year, is now app of the year.
Not my original comment, @tylerhall said it first (https://twitter.com/tylerhall/status/1334006208546693120/photo/1), but I completely agree, after that Zoom is not App the of the Year material, but hey, I read that list and I only like Fantastical, so who am I to judge?
@Cesare Point taken, though in Apple’s defense, they awarded the iPad app, which didn’t do any of that, and by all accounts it works quite well. They may sell e-mail addresses, though.
Even if Genshin Impact weren't gacha, Gruber would object because it's Chinese.
