Amber Neely
More mobile game developers have stepped forward to talk about their strained relationship with Apple, including new complaints about designing for the Apple Vision Pro.
In February, game developers began expressing frustration over Apple Arcade. They pointed out that while the service was initially profitable, Apple had begun decreasing upfront payments and the per-play "bonus pool."
Additionally, the tech giant began to axe projects with little to no warning.
According to Mobilegamer.biz, developers continue to be unhappy with how Apple's running its "pay once, play all you want" game subscription service. Developers point out how Apple has delayed payments — sometimes up to six months — which has put smaller studios in precarious situations.
Devs are also unhappy with Apple's communication — or lack thereof.
"We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all and their general response time to emails is three weeks, if they reply at all," one developer told Mobilegamer.biz.
Some have even called Apple's tech support "miserable" and the worst they'd seen anywhere. Even the QA and update process is frustrating, prompting some developers to avoid updating their games altogether.
And now, with the release of the Apple Vision Pro, many game developers are growing increasingly frustrated as the headset struggles to run complex games. Apple engineers don't seem to be able to offer any insight into how the Apple Vision Pro's hardware or software works or "how essential middleware is meant to work with it."
"We're supposed to be able to ask product, technical and commercial questions, but often half the Apple team won't turn up and when they do they have no idea what's going on and can't answer our questions, either because they don't have any knowledge on how to answer it, or are not able to share that info for confidentiality reasons," a developer said.
While Apple expects indie developers to create new games for the Apple Vision Pro, the company does not provide compensation or make any promises to promote or market the game once it is finished.
It wasn't always this way, though. Many developers said that Apple Arcade used to be significantly more profitable. Some developers point out that they wouldn't exist without Apple Arcade.
Many developers note this is likely because the tech giant sees mobile games and game developers as a "necessary evil." The company understands that gaming accounts for a significant portion of its profits under its services umbrella but isn't sure what direction to head.
"Honestly, I think Apple doesn't understand games and gamers," says one developer. "I believe Apple Arcade is a good idea in general, but they need a clear goal for where it should go and what it is for. That's a question they need to answer and then act accordingly."
One particularly frustrated developer spoke out against Apple Arcade, saying, "It's like an abusive relationship where the abused stays in the relationship hoping the other partner will change and become the person you know they could be."
In April, Apple executive Alex Rofman said Apple Arcade was not set up to make the company money, but also insisted that game developers were getting fairly compensated.
Wesley Hilliard
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
10 Comments
Theres really no substance or facts here. Just a lot of words without proof. Many citations and sources needed.
“some have even called” “
One particularly frustrated developer”
“often half the Apple team won't turn up and when they do they have no idea what's going on”
”I think Apple doesn't understand games and gamers”
“We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all”
A few examples that have no backing or proof. Anyone can go on twitter or reddit and some .biz domain nobody ever heard from unverified accounts and throw this together but until these claims are backed it’s all hearsay and non factual.
Before copying and pasting an article from another website, this is a lot of baseless information here. The original article does not allow for people to leave comments so it's basically a lot one sided "he said, she said". And that "journalist" has clear bias in hating Apple (who hurt that guy?). So Apple Insider loses credibility by regurgitating that article here. So maybe a developer had outstanding payments - do we know why? Did they do something wrong? a developer felt like Apple was not communicative - cool, maybe there is a change in plans. what large deal takes a week or two to finish? yes, my deal with them took forever but I'm happy with what I've gotten out of it. Click baity and controversal articles will get you the clicks and impressions but you lose credibility and lose big companies wanting to work with you.
The terms of the Apple Developer Agreement prohibit all public statements on the relationship with Apple. We and developers rely on media like Appleinsider to report on these topics. Apple did in fact reply earlier this year that titles that used to be on Arcade are likely to get paid less now that titles with a broad family focus have entered. Stories about Apple paying late and AVP being a developer toolkit have been told before.
The interview from April with Alex Rofman from Apple is here:
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/apr/23/apple-arcade-future-alex-rofman-interview
I find it very easy to believe that game developers have legitimate complaints with Apple, given the long history of developers having such complaints.
at the end of the day the proof is in the games