A Lot of New Services With Names That Start With Apple: Here Is What You Need To Know
At the special event held on March 25, Apple unveiled several new services that will be rolled out through out the year. Here is a short overview:
- Apple News+, a new magazine subscription app
- Apple Card, a digital-first credit card for your iPhone
- Apple TV+, TV subscription service revealed with some serious star power to back it up: Steven Spielberg, Oprah, Reese Witherspoon, etc
- Apple Arcade touted as “Netflix of games” (talk about the phrase of the year) – more details in the article below
Read the full summary by Endgadget.
Apple Arcade – More Details
Of course, of the biggest interest for us is Apple Arcade service that was announced during Cupertino event. Here are the important pieces:
- Apple Arcade (even before launch, while still speculated about) was referred to as “Netflix of games”. This subscription service will give access to a big number of games on Apple’s App Store
- The service will launch in autumn 2019. with more than 100 new games which will be exclusive to Apple Arcade. This means these games will not be available on any other platform or subscription service. These are brand new games and new games are going to be added on the go.
- The business model for developers is not publicly stated, although it’s widely speculated that developers will be paid depending on how much time their games are played. Apple also didn’t announce price for its end users, although some articles speculate that it could be anywhere from $9.99 to $14.99 a month (and $99.99 a year)
- Games will contain no in-app purchases or ads.
- The service will be available in ~150 countries
- There will be family sharing option (up to six family members & friends) and the games can be played across Apple devices – iPhones, Apple TV, Mac and will be available for play offline.
- The service will be added under separate App Store tab so the tab order will be: Today | Games | Apps | Arcade | Search, at least according to screenshots from the presentation
- Some of the developers that are known working with Apple and will have their games in Arcade this fall include Sega, Konami, ustwo games, LEGO, Cartoon Network, etc.
- Apple also promises privacy to its users as no personal data will be collected without consent
Here is the official page on Apple’s website with all the info they officially released. The whole industry has been writing, reading, talking and speculating about it so you won’t have any trouble finding the news elsewhere: Apple Arcade vs. Google Stadia (Pocketgamer.biz)
GDC 2019 Recap
This year’s edition of world’s largest and longest-running event dedicated to the art and science behind making games, GDC 2019, is now behind us. The 33rd edition of the event had record-breaking attendance, and if you are interested about what happens when 29,000+ industry professionals get together, here is a few articles to keep you in the loop:
- Gamasutra summary
- Top 7 trends in mobile gaming by c|net
- Pocketgamer’s round-up of all top news from the event
Why Game Publisher N3twork Will Spend Millions Scaling Other Developers’ Mobile Games
“The studio behind Legendary: Game of Heroes is offering its sophisticated in-house user acquisition platform to other game developers to help them grow their games. Along with the tools, N3twork is also planning to invest tens of millions of dollars in scaling other publishers’ apps that meet their partnership criteria … without taking an ownership position or equity. The offering is a suite of four products that address what they see as the core challenges of scaling mobile apps: marketing data management, ad creative creation, ad campaign management, and ongoing optimization of campaigns. The suite includes predictive analytics for performance modeling, automated video ad building, programmatic ad campaign creation and optimization, plus real-time ROI tracking.” Read more about the growth platform in the Forbes interview with N3twork’s Head of Platform Eric Seufert.
Interview with Mobile Game Product Manager Victor Wang
Victor Wang, mobile game product manager of NBCUniversal, working on their hit game Jurassic World Alive was interviewed by Joseph Kim. You can watch the video here and they cover several different topics on product management.
Genres, Publishers, Brands and Features: All You Need to Know About the Chinese Mobile Games Market
In this article published on GameRefinery blog you read an overview of Chinese Mobile Game Market. Brief summary of the post is:
- MMOs and ARPGs are still showing robust performance in China but unconventional success stories do exist as well, e.g. sausage battle royale Sausage Man and Ninja Must Die 3.
- China’s deep history with PC gaming has helped numerous PC brands make a shift to mobile, and manga/anime brands are performing well.
- Tencent and NetEase own a combined share of almost 40% of the top 200 grossing market, talk about dominance.
- Many features originating from China have been little utilized in Western markets. Chinese games, on the other hand, have been quick to experiment with Western features like Battle Pass.
News around the globe
- N3twork partners with Lionsgate and Millennium Media to bring Hellboy to its fantasy puzzle RPG, Legendary: Game of Heroes. This special in-game event and overall marketing campaign comes just in time for Hellboy premier, scheduled for this April. Details. N3twork will also run a competition to bring the biggest fans to the movie premier. You can read the official rules of the competition here.
- EA lays off 350 people (nearly 4% of its workforce) in marketing, publishing and operations. According to press release, EA will also “ramp down” presence in Japan (news about studio closure later confirmed) and Russia.
- PUBG Corp and NetEase have both moved to settle a suit and countersuit between the two companies relating to NetEase’s alleged copyright infringement of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds with its games Knives Out and Rules of Survival. Details.
- Blizzard is removing the choice to spend real money on loot boxes in Heroes of the Storm. More here.
- Valve adds soft currency gambling to Dota Plus subscription. As Valve described, the app uses a currency called “Shards,” and that currency can now be used to place bets on Dota Pro Circuit matches. “You’ll be able to wager your personal stash of Plus Shards to predict the winners of DPC matches, with winnings added to your in-game total,” Valve said. More.
- Mobile came out on top in 2018 revenue when compared to other gaming markets. App Annie’s Gaming Spotlight 2018 Review Report claims that mobile gaming revenue was at least 20 per cent higher than physical and digital spending on all other forms of gaming. Source
- According to the WSJ, Nintendo might be releasing two new versions of its Switch console later this year. Source.
Notable new releases
Mobile Industry News 