Some game developers say there is a “smell of death” around the Apple Arcade games subscription service, claims a new report from mobilegamer.biz.
“At the very top of the company there needs to be a passion and respect for games, and there just isn’t,” one developer said. “It all depends on how much buy-in there is from those guys at the top, and I don’t think they really value Arcade or invest in it the same way you see them invest in music or TV.”
The service initially paid out generous upfront payments to developers, providing a lifeline to developers. “Despite its imperfections, we’re very very happy Arcade exists. It has made premium games viable on mobile,” one games studio executive said, explaining that their company would not exist without Apple’s support.
The report claims that Apple Arcade’s payouts to developers have been falling for several years, noticeably starting in October 2020. “They have this opaque metric that they call a qualifying session, and bonus pool payments are made based on that,” one source said. “But no one knows what a qualifying session actually is – it has something to do with if the game was launched, how long the player played for, and how often they return. But it’s a black box, really.”
Although some developers spoke about their relationship positively, others described the company as “vindictive” or “spiteful” in its dealings. “I got the sense they didn’t really know where they were going with it all – almost like they weren’t sure if they’d have jobs at the end of it,” one studio representative said.
“We have to basically beg for featuring from Apple. Getting that banner featuring at the top is like squeezing blood from a stone,” one developer added.