Google Must Respond To Apple Arcade If It Plans To Take Mobile Gaming Seriously

Apple’s announcement of Apple Arcade is a serious warning shot aimed at. Frankly, this subscription service seems like a dream for mobile gamers.

When it comes out this fall, users will have access to hundreds of wonderful premium games, all at the cost of a small subscription fee. As long as you own an iOS device, be it an iPad, iPhone, a Mac, or an Apple TV, everything will be playable, and there won’t be any ads or IAPs.

Basically, it’s the perfect solution to the greedy free-to-play scourge that has plagued the mobile gaming scene for years. Apple Arcade is the gateway through which premium games can rise again.

While that prospect is certainly exciting for iOS users, it’s terrible news for those with an Android device. The reason is simple: Apple Arcade is only available on iOS and so far, several upcoming high-profile titles such as Oceanhorn 2, Beyond a Steel Sky, and Where Cards Fall have been announced as exclusive to this subscription service, meaning they will never come to Android now.

Sad as it is, game developers are not to blame here. Piracy is so rampant on Android that they simply have to come up with an entirely new pay model if they want to launch a premium title on the platform. That’s why Android games are generally launched as free trials on Android with an IAP to purchase the full game instead of having an upfront cost like on iOS.

So yes, this is largely our fault. It was our own reluctance to pay for a mobile game – regardless of how well-made and worth-paying-for it is – that put us in this terrible spot where we have to deal with tons of greedy, lazily-designed cashgrab games on the Google Play.

But still, with the situation being as it is, it’s now up to Google to deliver a decent alternative. Piracy is not exactly anything new. For as long as we remember it has damaged the music, movie, and TV industry, resulting in those folks now turning to streaming services.

Google itself is heading towards that as well with the upcoming Stadia, but Apple Arcade is not a Stadia competitor. It has nothing to do with streaming. You don’t need to stay online at all time to access it. Once you’ve downloaded a game, you can play them anytime even without internet connection.

So, if Google doesn’t want Apple to fully take over the mobile market, it has to make a move, and soon.