In his latest edition of the Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple has considered launching a ‘cloud gaming service’ of some sort alongside Apple Arcade but has dropped these plans for now.
One of Gurman’s readers asked him whether Apple was planning a cloud-based gaming service based on Apple Arcade, that he replies by saying that the company’s current gaming service is somewhat ‘unique, relying on games that run its device natively rather than from the Cloud.’
Then, he gives a bit of context regarding other companies that focus on this new ‘Netflix for games’ like experience:
‘Microsoft Corp., Nvidia Corp., Google, and others have launched gaming services that run from the cloud. That allows support for a wider range of games and creates a “Netflix for games”-like experience. Oddly, Apple doesn’t allow those rivals to join Apple Arcade on the App Store. The company says that’s not because they’re competitors, but simply because it doesn’t allow all-you-can-eat cloud gaming services on its devices.’
What is most interesting is what Gurman says next about Apple’s plan regarding its own possible cloud gaming service:
“Despite that, the company in the past has internally discussed the prospects of launching such a service, I’m told.”
So, when Apple unveiled Apple Arcade a few years ago it could have had another approach or at least could be very different from what it is today. Recently, some sketchy rumors suggested Apple could be readying a Nintendo Switch-like device for its gaming platform, which sounds very unlikely.
As you probably know, Apple does not say how many subscribers it has on Apple Arcade. One thing we know for sure is that the company its original strategy by bringing classic games from the good old days to keep subscribers interested, which appears to be going rather well.
If Apple did decide to release a cloud gaming service, do you think it would allow competitors on the App Store?
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