Malcolm Owen
A rumor suggests Apple is in the early planning stages of creating a gaming subscription service, one that would provide access to a selection of titles for a monthly fee, in what could be a bid to further expand its growing Services revenue.
Gaming is a major contributor of revenue to the App Store, with billions spent on games and in-app purchases by millions of users. Even so, it is suggested Apple may be looking for other ways to boost its game-related revenue, by encouraging ongoing monthly payments.
Five sources of Cheddar claim Apple is working on some sort of game subscription service, and started to enter discussions with game developers late in 2018 about such an opportunity. As it is early in its planning stages, the project can potentially be abandoned before Apple applies significant resources to the effort.
It is unclear exactly how the service would work, if it would include in-app purchase bonuses, and the kind of games it would offer.
Two sources suggest Apple is also examining the possibility of working with developers directly as a publisher, a move which could allow Apple to earn a bigger cut of app purchase revenue above its existing 30 percent fee. A move like this would also make it easier for Apple to form a subscription-style offering.
While a subscription would offer some merit, if customers wanted to play some from a large roster of paid-for titles, the enterprise would be seemingly the opposite of the current App Store revenue sources. Most revenue stems from free-to-play titles that rely on in-app purchases, such as the popular Fortnite which reached $100 million in in-app purchases within 90 days of shipping on iOS.
A games subscription could potentially be a good fit alongside other content subscriptions from the company. Apple already offers Apple Music as a monthly subscription, and has been tipped to create an all-in-one subscription covering Apple Music, News, and its original video content project.
Apple is seemingly not the first to consider offering mobile gaming as a subscription. In October, reports circulated about a possible "Play Pass" subscription for the Google Play Store that would permit Android users access to games and other apps for a monthly charge.
Marko Zivkovic
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
Amber Neely
13 Comments
Steamed Apple?
I’m not saying subscriptions don’t have benefits, but for software it is depressing. Most software that has moved to subscription did so to get more money from customers, not to provide them better service. So the same software costs more money in the long term. If developers offered a subscription and a reasonable one time purchase, like some do, that would make things a lot better.
With that said, a game subscription does make a lot more consumer sense than most app subscriptions.
Get ready for more and more subscription services:
I still strongly feel that Apple should splash some of that original TV money at also funding original, exclusive games that really show the performance of their chips.
The ATV 4K would have made for a nifty microconsole with a controller and actively cooled A10X, if they took it seriously.