Apple Arcade Fails Gamers, Developers Frustrated

While Apple Arcade has offered a path to mobile game developers, the platform's challenges have left many deeply frustrated. That's according to a report by Mobilegamer.biz. Read on to learn more about devs' perspectives on Apple Arcade.

Apple Arcade Mobile Game Developers Frustrated with Platform ProblemsThough Several Game Devs Credit Apple for Their Studios' Viability

According to a new "Inside Apple Arcade" report by Mobilegamer.biz, developers working on Apple Arcade, the tech giant's video game subscription service, are disappointed and discouraged with their experience developing mobile games for Apple Arcade. The report detailed various issues, including overdue payments, insufficient tech support, and challenges with game discoverability.

Several studios reported extended waiting periods for responses from the Apple Arcade team. One independent developer claimed they had to wait up to six months for payment, nearly causing their company to fail. The developer said, "It’s a very difficult and lengthy process to sign a deal with Apple these days. The lack of vision and clear direction of the platform is frustrating and if there is any objective, it keeps changing every year or so. Also, technical support is quite poor."

Another developer shared similar sentiments, stating, "We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all, and their typical response time to emails is three weeks, if they reply at all." They added that attempts to ask product, technical, and commercial questions often result in inadequate answers or unhelpful responses due to a lack of expertise or confidentiality restrictions.

Discoverability challenges were another significant concern. One developer felt their game had "been in a morgue for the last two years" because Apple declined to feature it. "It’s like we don’t exist. So as a developer you think, well, they’ve given us this money for exclusivity… I don’t want to give them the money back, but I do want people to play my game. It’s like we’re invisible," they said. The quality assurance (QA) process also faced criticism. One developer described the QA and localization process as "submitting 1000 screenshots all at once to show you have every device aspect ratio and language covered," which they found excessively burdensome.

Despite these critiques, some developers acknowledged that Apple Arcade has become more focused over time. "I think Arcade understands its audience much better today than at the outset. If that doesn’t turn out to be high concept artful indie games, that’s not Apple’s fault," one developer commented. "If they can build a business on family games, good for them and good for the devs who can pursue that opportunity."

Additionally, some developers recognized the positive impact of Apple’s financial support and backing. "We were able to secure a favorable deal for our titles which covered our whole development budget," one developer noted, adding that without Apple’s funding, their studio might not exist today.

Dev says Apple does not understand gamers

The report suggested that Apple Arcade seems directionless and lacks support from the wider Apple ecosystem. "Arcade has no clear strategy and feels like an add-on to the Apple company ecosystem rather than being truly supported within the company," one developer said. "Apple 100% does not understand gamers – they have little to no data on who plays their games that they can share with developers, or how they interact with games on the platform already."

However, the general sentiment remained that Apple views game developers as a "necessary evil." One developer elaborated, "Given their status as a major tech company, it feels as if they treat developers as a necessary evil, and that we will do everything we can to appease them for little in return, in the hope that they grant us another project – and a chance for them to disappoint us again."