Even though Apple Arcade was confirmed some time ago, there were many questions that still needed answering. Thankfully, the recent September event has cleared up some of those important questions. Prior to now we didn’t know when Apple Arcade would be released, or how much it would cost, which is pretty important when it comes to subscription services. Thankfully, those questions have now been answered, courtesy of Apple itself.
Apple Arcade will be released on September 19th, at a price of $4.99 a month. There will also be a one month free trial, so you won’t have to spend any money to determine if you would like to even bother with the service down the line. Furthermore, just one subscription will allow the whole family to download and play the games in Apple Arcade. Along with this, Apple Arcade will supposedly have over 100 exclusive titles at launch, more than any other service has possessed in their own launches. New games will be added monthly as well.
The presentation in which all of this news was revealed also allowed us to see three of the exclusive games Apple Arcade will have, from Annapurna Interactive, Konami, and Capcom. Konami is resurrecting Frogger for Apple Arcade, though the game itself will be developed by Q-Games. The addition of items for Frogger to use will spice up this classic game. Capcom’s addition to the arcade library was Shinsekai into the Depths, an underwater exploration title. As for Annapurna, they announced a game called Sayonara Wild Hearts would be exclusive to Apple Arcade.
If Apple holds true to having 100 exclusive titles or more at the launch of their service, they could well and truly be onto something very profitable here. No one is going to pay for a service to play games they could play on devices or subscriptions they already own. The only real reason to invest in services like these is if you can play games there that you can’t play anywhere else. And while most platforms have their own exclusive titles, there’s rarely 100 games worth of exclusive content to enjoy if you go out of your way to get a competing platform or service.
If there really are 100 games with Apple Arcade that you can’t play anywhere else, and if they do maintain a steady stream of updates that add new games to the arcade, then $4.99 isn’t at all a bad deal. However, we’ll have to wait until September 19th to see if Apple will really deliver on these pretty large promises.
