Arcade, on Mac, iPad and iPhone.
Apple
This story is part of Apple Event, our full coverage of the latest news from Apple headquarters.
Apple Arcade is coming and it will be here on September 19 for $4.99 per month the company announced at its iPhone event in California.
The new service, which will let subscribers play over 100 games across an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac, was previously announced in June at Apple’s spring event where it also debuted a new TV Plus streaming video service and News Plus news and magazine offering.
As with News Plus, there is also a one-month free trial.
Players will be able to start on one device and continue playing on another, with Apple also touting that Arcade will allow users to play games even when they are offline (with progress resyncing once a user is reconnected to the internet). With iOS 13 Apple will support PS4 and Xbox One controllers, so gamers can play with either on-screen or physical controls.
As with TV Plus and News Plus, Apple Arcade will not have ads and will allow subscriptions to be shared with up to six family members.
Apple has signed up an assortment of game publishers for its new offering, with titles ranging from established brands like Lego, Frogger and Sonic to those from smaller indie developers. There is similarly a wide assortment of games aimed at reaching a broad range of players regardless of if they are looking for a quick casual game or what a more immersive, graphics-heavy story similar to what might be found on a console.
Games available on Arcade will not be available on other mobile platforms, limiting the addition of popular third-party titles such as Candy Crush, Minecraft and Super Mario Run.
Apple’s new service comes as a number of companies redesign their efforts for mobile gaming. Google is notably launching its own cloud-based game platform called Stadia in November that will work on Android, Chromebooks, the Chrome browser and Chromecast.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has been teasing its own Project xCloud that will bring Xbox games to iOS and Android, with an October launch allowing gamers to stream games from Xbox Ones they own to play other devices. The company plans to eventually let players stream directly from the internet with having to be near their own Xbox.
