A new report quotes anonymous developers who have worked with us apple arcade Claims the subscription gaming service has no real goals, has little communication with the studio, and treats the team poorly, making them jump through hoops and wait months to get paid. One developer even claimed that working with Apple Arcade was like being in “an abusive relationship.”
Apple Arcade launches in 2019 An ad-free premium subscription service for exclusive games. Every game on the service has no in-app purchases or annoying mobile gaming nonsense. Apple Arcade’s game library has grown considerably since its launch in 2019, with over 200 games added to the service, including some truly great titles such as millstone, fantasythe Oregon Trail , chess really sucks , and What car? But a new report says that for many developers making Apple Arcade games, working with Apple has been a frustrating and annoying experience.
In a July 30 report mobile gaming network, many developers spoke to the media on condition of anonymity. They shared various questions and concerns about Apple Arcade, the tech giant’s lack of vision, and how it treats game studios.
Apple makes developers wait for money and rarely responds
A big problem is that some developers have to spend months chasing Apple’s money. The way Apple Arcade works is that developers get a lot of money up front to make their games and then collect royalties from Apple as more players download and play their games. Developers say that in the early stages of the service, these payments would arrive in a timely manner, but now these royalties can take months to arrive. One developer claimed they had to wait six months to get paid, which nearly destroyed their studio.
“We can go weeks without hearing anything from Apple, and their typical response time for emails is three weeks, if they respond at all,” one developer told MobileGamer.biz. “We should Able to ask product, technical, and business questions, but often half the Apple team doesn’t show up, and even if they do show up, they don’t know what’s going on and can’t answer our questions because they don’t know how to answer the question, or out of This information cannot be shared for confidentiality reasons.
mobile gaming network Apple was contacted for comment but did not receive a response.
Another issue is discoverability and promotion on Apple Arcade, with one developer telling the outlet that it feels like their game has been “in the morgue for the past two years.”
“No matter what content we add to the game, Apple will not feature us as if we don’t exist,” the developers claimed. “So as a developer you think, okay, they gave us this money to get exclusivity… I don’t want to give the money back to them, but I do want people to play my game. It’s like we’re As invisible.
Apple Arcade is difficult to use and lacks vision
The developer described a horrific QA and update process, saying an update could require multiple back-and-forth meetings apple.
“Submitting updates was so painful that our developers started trying to avoid it,” they said.
an interviewee mobile gaming network It claims a QA and localization process involves submitting 1,000 screenshots at a time to show that the game runs properly on all devices and in all languages. “My team’s reaction was: ‘There’s no way we can do this.'” A source told the media.
Another common complaint from developers is Apple’s lack of vision or planning, with some believing the company is just working for developers because it’s a “necessary evil” since games are so popular on Apple devices.
“Given their status as a large tech company, it feels like they view developers as a necessary evil,” one developer explained. “We’re going to do whatever it takes to please them, but get very little in return, and hopefully they’ll bring us another project – and give them a chance to screw us over again.”
“It’s like an abusive relationship where the abused person stays in the relationship hoping that the other person will change and become the person you know they can be.”
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