‘Apple canceled games for Arcade that yielded too few subscribers’

Apple has canceled agreements with several development studios for its Arcade game service because their games failed to retain subscribers enough. That is according to Bloomberg based on sources.

It would be the agreements for several games that were already in development. It is not clear which development studios and numbers are involved. The tearing of the contracts would have happened at the beginning of this year. For some developers, that would have immediately led to financial problems, although Apple would have paid the developers based on the achieved development milestones. Bloomberg says it bases this on sources that are familiar with the matter.

In mid-April, an Apple Arcade creative producer reportedly informed some developers that their games aren’t eliciting the level of “engagement” Apple is looking for. The Cupertino-based company is said to be increasingly looking for titles that keep players, meaning players stick around after the one-month free trial and become paying subscribers. According to Bloomberg, this move represents a shift in Apple’s strategy. There is some information about the games that Apple reportedly likes to see. An Apple employee would have mentioned Grindstone as an example, a puzzle action game from developer Capybara Games that has many levels.

Commenting on Bloomberg, Apple said it has always had a vision to grow and evolve the Apple Arcade catalog. The company also says it has always planned to make changes to the catalog based on subscriber feedback.

Apple Arcade came out in September last year. It is a subscription service for games that can only be used on iOS, iPadOS, tvOS and macOS. The games are therefore playable on smartphones, tablets, PCs and laptops, and TVs. These are mostly titles that have been created exclusively for the service. Users get access to more than 120 games for five euros per month. The games contain no ads or in-app purchases.

To date, Apple has not disclosed how the service is doing. Recently, the company started offering a second free month to try Arcade, which could be an indication that too few users are lingering.