Apple announces Apple Arcade, a subscription service for games

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Apple’s subscription services event today was a strange one, to the say the least, but one nugget that could prove interesting is the inclusion of a gaming service called Apple Arcade.

While Apple didn’t go into details about pricing, the service will launch in fall 2019 and there are definitely some interesting aspects to Apple Arcade. It will feature 100+ original games from a bunch of renowned developers and newcomers to the scene and the games will be playable across iPhones, iPads, Macs, and even Apple TV. You’ll also be able to go from one device to the other without losing progress, which is nice.

Here’s Apple preview trailer showing off some the games Apple Arcade will feature

“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.

With so much talk of game streaming these days, Apple did make it clear that the service will not require an internet connection to play and that all the games on the service could be played offline. This might not seem like a huge feature, but as someone who tries to spend a fair amount of weekends away from cell service, this is actually really nice, and I’m sure there are plenty of other gamers that feel similarly.

It also looks like Apple will have a hand (at some level) in the development of these games and there are some big companies working with them to bring titles to the service. These include Disney, SEGA, and LEGO.

It will be interesting to see what Apple can do with the gaming space, and it looks pretty interesting, but the company really needed to pump the brakes on how it presented it during the Apple event today. Phrases like “because of us, people are creating games that have never been possible before,” aren’t going to fly.

What do you think? Interested in Apple Arcade? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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