Inside Apple Arcade
- Some studios now wait up to six months to get paid, which almost put one indie dev out of business
- The Apple Arcade team do not respond to routine emails for weeks or even months, if they respond at all
- One developer who had semi-regular meetings with the tech giant said that “half the Apple team won’t turn up and when they do they have no idea what’s going on and can’t answer our questions”
- Apple’s tech support was also described as “miserable” and “the worst I have seen anywhere”
- Vision Pro struggles to run “complex games” and developing for it is “like going back in time 10 years” due to the lack of tech support
- Apple engineers are “unable to offer any insights” into how Vision Pro’s hardware or software works, or “how essential middleware is meant to work with it”
- Discoverability on Arcade is so poor that one person said it was like their game “was in a morgue”
One particularly frustrated developer spoke out against Apple Arcade, saying, “It’s like an abusive relationship where the abused stays in the relationship hoping the other partner will change and become the person you know they could be.”
In April, Apple executive Alex Rofman said Apple Arcade was not set up to make the company money, but also insisted that game developers were getting fairly compensated.
Developers also pointed out issues with quality assurance and updates, claiming that a prolonged discussion with Apple over a single update cost their team two months of work. “Submitting updates is so painful our developers started trying to avoid it,” they said.
Absolutely brutal. This is a microcosm of Apple’s developer relations in the modern era.
Apple does not get games. Apple does not respect developers. Apple ships a dictionary defining the word “symbiosis”, but chances are the many Apple employees who understand it are not in a position to effect it.
[…]
These reports are particularly interesting, since the perennial defense of app store-encumbered platforms are to refer to them as game consoles but for apps. Apple Arcade games are headliners flying closer to the Apple brand than other games; they should be getting ultra deluxe treatment compared to App Store apps, and yet it doesn’t measure up to the levels delivered by game consoles or independent storefronts like Steam.
It’s important to take the complaints of unnamed sources with a grain of salt. However, it’s impossible to look at what’s going on with Arcade and App Store gaming in general – which Brendon and I discussed on NPC: Next Portable Console this week – and not conclude that Apple needs to shake up its approach to videogames.
I never thought I’d say that Netflix understands videogames more than Apple ever did, yet here we are.
Previously:
- Apple Arcade’s Uncertain Future
- Apple’s Mac Gaming Push
- The Trouble With Mac Gaming
- Canceling Apple Arcade Games
- The Business Side of Apple Arcade
- Apple Arcade
Update (2024-08-13): See also: Hacker News.
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The author of this article used to work at Apple, iirc in the games editorial team - so very close to Apple Arcade itself. I worked in a physically nearby team at the same time. I guess they burned him even more than they burned me. X)
WRT VR games I think Apple are doing the right thing in not making them the main focus of their facemask. Oculus have tried that for I don't know how long and the market just isn't there. Focusing on general productivity is the only way to make headsets mainstream.
@Kristoffer
But is it? For most industries, it seems hideously expensive and not particularly useful. I'm kind of flabbergasted by the focus Apple is pouring into it.
The only gaming Apple understands is gambling style gacha crap games that tricks people's lizard brains into pouring money into them. So pretty much the entire app store really.
@Kristoffer meanwhile Beat Saber is one of the most well-known VR games and continues to be very popular.
Perhaps a focus on "games for the sake of games" is bad, but "games that make VR useful" is a very good strategy IMO. Not to mention that the Quest 3 also supports 2D productivity apps as well, so it's nominally more versatile than the Vision Pro.
