Apple Arcade Misses Mark: Gamers and Devs Frustrated

While Apple Arcade has offered a pathway to mobile game developers, the platform's challenges have left many deeply disheartened. 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 Disappointed with Platform IssuesThough Several Game Devs Credit Apple for Their Studios' Viability

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

Several studios reported extensive waiting periods for replies from the Apple Arcade team. One independent developer claimed they waited as long as six months for payment, nearly causing their company's failure. The developer stated, "It’s a very challenging and protracted process to sign a deal with Apple these days. The platform's lack of vision and clear direction is frustrating and if there is any objective, it keeps shifting annually. Also, technical support is quite inadequate."

Another developer shared similar feelings, stating, "We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all, and their typical response time to emails is three weeks, if they respond at all." They added that inquiries about product, technical, and commercial matters often receive non-responsive or unhelpful answers due to a lack of expertise or confidentiality constraints.

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 drew 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 demanding.

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."

Furthermore, some developers acknowledged the positive impact of Apple’s financial support and backing. "We were able to sign a good 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 backing 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 feeling remained that Apple views game developers as a "necessary evil." One developer elaborated, "Given their status as a huge tech company, it feels as if they treat developers as a necessary evil, and that we will do everything possible to please them for little in return, hoping that they grace us with another project – and a chance for them to disappoint us again."