What is Apple Arcade? Everything you need to know

There are so many subscription-based gaming platforms available now that it can be difficult to choose one. However, Apple device owners are naturally going to gravitate towards Apple Arcade. It’s built into the App Store and only costs a few dollars a month. But is it any good and what kind of games can you get on it? This article takes a look at these questions and a whole lot more.

Read more: Google Play Pass vs Apple Arcade

Apple Arcade is a monthly subscription service that enables Apple device users to download participating games onto their devices for as long as the subscription is being paid for. Paying a subscription guarantees that you don’t have to pay anything extra to play that game, such as in-app purchases. You also won’t encounter any annoying ads holding up your playing. However, if you stop paying the monthly subscription, all Arcade games are automatically wiped from your devices.

How much is Apple Arcade?

For some strange reason, there is no discounted annual plan for Apple Arcade. Instead, you pay $4.99 monthly (or EUR 4.99 if you’re in Europe.) This is after your first month’s free trial or your first three months if you buy a new Apple device.

You can save money though if you are already paying for other Apple services. Apple One gives you services such as iCloud+, TV, Music, and Arcade (also Fitness if you’re on the Family Plan) for $14.95 a month. If you are subscribing to the other ones in Apple One, you’re more or less getting Arcade for free.

What games are on Apple Arcade?

Apple Arcade is split up into various gaming categories:

• Action
• Adventure
• Casual
• Family
• Puzzle
• Racing
• Role-playing
• Sports
• Strategy

When you select a game, you are taken to its download page where you get some stats about the game.

As you can see, there are multiplayer games as well as single-player games. Some games are controller supported as well.

So what is there? Leaving aside the really obscure and stupid-sounding games, there are also some really good ones. All of the Angry Birds games are on there for example. There’s also Super Mario and Sonic. Plenty of racing games, card games, and other popular games such as Lego Star Wars, Star Trek, Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, and countless more.

There are also games that are specially optimized for the macBook M1 chip, such as pinball and racing titles.

• The one-month free trial is followed by an extremely low monthly price.
• The fact you can cancel anytime — no minimum contracts.
• A large number of games are available, and the fact that Apple is adding more new ones every month. Although, in the grand scheme of things, Apple is still lagging behind some other gaming platforms in this regard.
• It runs on macOS as well as iOS. This can also be seen as a downside as well though if you’re not an Apple device user.
• You can play without any intrusive ads, paywalls, and demands for in-app purchases.
• If you don’t like playing games with touchscreens, macOS and iOS support third-party controllers.
• Apple Arcade hooks up to Apple’s Games Center, where you can share scores with your friends and compete against one another.

Is Apple Arcade worth it?

With so many other companies jumping on the subscription gaming bandwagon, you’d think the market was too crowded for any other players. But this is Apple we’re talking about here and they start out of the gate with a huge built-in advantage. For a start, they already have a deep well of loyal users ready to pay. They also have very deep pockets to pay for lots of games licenses and build up an impressive library (although don’t expect anything along the lines of Call of Duty — it’s got ‘Arcade’ in the name for a reason.) However, they do have Super Mario and Sonic, so it isn’t all bad.

The third reason is that Apple has priced the monthly subscription so low that it becomes a no-brainer to sign up (if you get it bundled into Apple One, it’s virtually given away for free). With a one-month free trial — and three months free with a new Apple device — they’re truly making it a “can’t say no” offer. Finally, it’s built into the App Store so using it is also extremely easy. There’s no learning curve to getting started.

So, is it worth it? At the end of the day, it all depends on what you’re looking for in terms of games. You’re not going to find really big game titles on here, but if all you want is a nice little arcade-type game to kill a few minutes in your day, then yes it’s well worth it.

Read more: What is Apple One? Here’s everything you need to know

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