Apple reportedly working on new game-focused App Store

Apple is allegedly working on an entirely new App Store-type application made specifically for games, in an effort to make its products more appealing to gamers.

Currently, iPhone games can only be downloaded from the existing App Store, or through Apple Arcade, which is the company's subscription-only approach to mobile gaming.

Apple's new application is said to combine aspects of the existing App Store and Game Center in one place. Specific details about the alleged application as well as its content, layout, and features were all revealed via a dedicated report.

The report from 9to5mac claims Apple's new game-focused app store will feature a "Play Now" tab, along with a tab for the user's friends. The "Play Now" tab will supposedly contain content hand-picked by the app's editorial staff, while the application will also feature challenges, leaderboards, and achievements.

Both Apple Arcade games as well as those from the existing App Store will reportedly be available. FaceTime and iMessage integration are also rumored for this potential app, which would allow users to communicate with each other during games. Developers will be able to use App Clips for game demos.

The report credits anonymous people familiar with the matter, and there is no information as to when this rumored app might be released. There is no way to confirm the accuracy of the rumor since the sources cannot be verified, but the move isn't outside the realm of possibility, so it is rated as possible.

3 Comments

humbug1873 2 Years · 172 comments

About 1 month ago

So add a function that enables you to filter out any games requiring subscription and any game that uses in-game currency, that you have to pay with real money for. Getting that info without three extra clicks would be really helpful - as I won't even download that crap anyway,
Oh wait, that store would be almost empty. So why bother then?

9secondkox2 8 Years · 3148 comments

Call it Apple Arcade and get some AAA console level games in there. And buy star citizen when it’s ready to launch.

Marvin 18 Years · 15355 comments

AppleInsider said:

Apple's new game-focused app store will feature a "Play Now" tab, along with a tab for the user's friends. The "Play Now" tab will supposedly contain content hand-picked by the app's editorial staff, while the application will also feature challenges, leaderboards, and achievements.

It would probably be good to have an app solely for game content, it would be like Steam for mobile.

Apple's staff recommendations are rarely helpful in the App Store and discovery is still really difficult when there are millions of apps with the same ones showing every time.

A game feed that can be tuned to preferred game types would be easier to find good apps like how dating apps or news feeds work. Have a discover tab and just load game pages that people can swipe through and reject. If people reject a game or app or already have it installed, hide it everywhere in the store like how Steam does.

Game Center only really needs to do one thing well, which is cross-save, even across devices with different Apple IDs or different operating systems. The achievements UI could do with being less obtrusive, most achievement notification systems have a subtle corner notification, not like an incoming email that has to be swiped out of the way.

Gaming is such a huge part of the App Store revenue, it makes sense to give it a dedicated app like they do for music.

9secondkox2 said:

Call it Apple Arcade and get some AAA console level games in there. And buy star citizen when it’s ready to launch.

Star Citizen will be over 12 years in development and $700m budget, they'd want over $1b for the game rights. They have over 4m players, if they can get over 10m recurring players and charge at least $60 each, it could be worth the investment but it would only get to that level by being multi-platform and it would be difficult to get $60 on mobile. Squadron 42 is now delayed to 2026, they just keep pushing the release dates further and further out and still overworking their staff.

AAA game development inherently takes a long time but Apple would be better with a company that can release a game sooner than once every 14 years.