A dedicated place to discuss the Apple Arcade games and service, so as not to spam up other threads.
Personally, I like the model, and have subscriptions for plenty of games like WoW and FF14, so this does not bother me.
I have only played the MiniMetro sequal so far, and it seems fun so far.
I like it for the kiddos. There’s a lot in there to help them find other genres, games they may like, and no crazy IAP schemes.
I’ve started Cat Quest 2 and Oceanhorn 2, and I’m looking at a bunch of others 
I like owning games permanently. This new trend of monthly dues and ephemeral access gives me a rash.
Could we (well, I) have a brief explainer as to how it works? From what I can gather, if I sign up with the free month offer, I can then download everything I want before cancelling my subscription and leaving with a hat full of shiny new games.
That doesn’t feel right, does it?
I haven’t tried it yet, but I don’t think that is right. I think Apple Arcade is required to play the games. Sony’s PS+ is probably a good corollary; you “own” the game only as long as you’re subscribed.
Yes yes. You don’t like the service. Between you and @Mirefox it’s been beaten to death. You haven’t really owned a digital game for the past decade if you buy from any digital store front other than GoG (and even half of the physical media that requires a day 1 patch to be downloaded from the Developer/Publisher servers), but now it’s completely terrible. I’d avoid threads that are focused solely on the service because there might be people that, golly gee, actually don’t mind the service if it brings better games and I, for one, am tired of all the threadcrapping.
@cgareth - @Mirefox is correct. On start up, it does a check, via Gamecenter (if I read the docs right), to see if you have a sub. If you don’t, it won’t start up. XB Games Pass, Sony’s PSN+, and Switch NSO/SNSO are good examples.
Does it have to do an internet check every time? If, for example, I put it on my kids’ iPads could they play while out and about without Wi-Fi?
And what games are people enjoying? If I grab this I will likely go straight for the Square Enix RPG.
I haven’t tested it so I have no idea. I tend to restrict based on app, not internet access for my oldest. The youngest isn’t there yet for most games (though he’s trying hard) so internet isn’t a concern either way.
My assumption is that it uses a GC token which gives an exact timeframe based on an initial update via internet. At the end of that timeframe, it’ll likely require a quick connection to update everything. That’s all a guess though. I don’t see a lot of testing being done yet - and I’m not in a position to actually try it (my dev account expired)
Game wise, Cat Quest 2 and Oceanhorn 2 are great. I pulled down Spaceland, Various Daylife (SE Rpg?) and Spelldrifter last night to mess with today, just to get a feel for other game types that Apple is pulling in. Spaceland and Spelldrifter are both labeled strategy, and Various Daylife is labeled RPG.
That’s why I buy physical whenever possible. And at least I still have my Games With Gold even after finally ditching Live.
Also, I don’t really know who you are or why you’ve got so much vitriol about someone daring to share a dissenting opinion. I won’t apologize for being unenthused about seeing a lot of great premium games become basically impossible to own. Games that you can access as long as Apple deigns to let you, and after that you can suck it.
@Hustlertwo I’m nobody, just a voice on the internet who was with PT and now SP. Most of the discussion in the Journalism thread was shut down by people who hate the service, and subscription services. God forbid people who actually like the service try to make a thread where they can actually discuss it without people who do nothing but shit on the service trying to drown out the discussion.
h/t for the thread start- great idea - and pointing me towards a Mini Metro sequel, as I didn’t realize there was one planned nor released!
I grabbed Overland, which tbh was one of my main Apple Arcade (AA?) motivators. It’s pretty good so far, but definitely deserves a more thoughtful approach than I was giving it. I’ll sit down with it this weekend if I can find some time.
Well, I think that’s a bit of a stretch, personally, and I disagree with your hostile aggressive assessment. In fact, I thought the discussion was diverted by a snarky comment by someone who likes Apple Arcade, so rather than contribute to the discussion they decided to do the “Internet thing” and post how they wished folks would shut up instead of either contributing to the discussion, or allowing others to. IMHO.
Anyway, back to the intent of the thread, the discussion in the Journalism thread started due to Cat Quest II being diverted from the published iOS and Android releases into the exclusive arms of Apple Arcade. So, it was “Journalism” in that it not only was Cat Quest II coming out on Apple Arcade, but that it was no longer arriving in the App Store or Android, as had been planned. Has anyone yet heard of the length of these exclusivity contracts?
I was unaware, as well! That’s of interest to me, too. 
I like what I’m seeing so far–downloaded about 15 games I’d like to try. Started with Card of Darkness, the new Zach Gage game, which I like quite a bit.
As far as exclusivity, my understanding is Arcade games will only be available on iOS with a subscription. You’ll never be able to buy them separately.
I saw elsewhere that you won’t need a connection to play games–downloaded games are playable offline.
Well, is this thread for discussing all facets of the service, or worshipping the same corporation that helped end sites like PT even as they insure that the games you love will remain unable to be played in perpetuity?
Interesting … so, if I understand your understanding 
it’s that they will appear on Android once the exclusivity contract expires, but not released into the Apple App Store for purchase?
I think that last part’s right–at the very least, there are no plans to make Arcade games eventually available in the Apple App Store.
Not sure about Android, though. I’ll admit to having a blind spot about that platform, since I own no Android devices. Anyone else have any insight into that point?
This is not contributing to the discussion, nor have your followups been, thus my responses @Hustlertwo.
I accept your disagreement @Falkenstein , and I posted late to the thread after being turned off from all of the circlejerking on “Screw subscription services.” It also looks like multiple replies have been deleted on that thread - there are several chunks now missing that I was initially responding to, so it now looks like my response was completely irrational.
Based on what I’ve seen thus far @Falkenstein, it looks like the Mobile Exclusivity will be iOS specific - no android releases, but home consoles and PC will be available at a later date. I’m still hunting for contract language myself.
I’ll just piggyback on this to add that point’s very game-dependent–I know, for example, that Overland released on consoles and PC yesterday alongside the Arcade release.
As far as insight, some of my understanding is, once again, due to Cat Quest II. They still have Android listed in their online presskit, https://thegentlebros.com/catquest2/presskit/, and the attributed tweet from them in the reddit thread had it that “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to release Android at this time. We are deeply sorry about this! But we feel with Apple Arcade, we can bring the game to many more people than if we were by ourselves!”
I was taking the "at this time" to mean that once their exclusivity agreement was over that they would release the Android version into the Google Play store.