Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; The good and evil

Abos for mobile games are finally here. Apple Arcade has been introduced worldwide on iPhones (and also on the iPad when using our guide), and Google Play Pass is indeed available worldwide. Both subscriptions have a similar price, but definitely offer some great differences in relation to the library.

For the most part, I see Apple Arcade and the upcoming Google Play pass very positively for several reasons, but I also have some extreme doubts, although I finally managed to touch Apple Arcade for myself.

I'm pretty much convinced that Apple Arcade is a great offer for consumers at this time, and I will explain why, but I do not think that subscription is suitable for everyone, yet I think it will be the savior From mobile game, and I will explain why ...

Mobile Mecca

Here at Pocket Gamer we play many mobile games, often dozens within one month. If you have done this for several years, get used to the usual features for mobile phones, to the monetization of free games, to wild advertising for others, in inferior blade articles ... We have certainly seen everything. But from now on on Apple Arcade.

It should be a matter of course, but with Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass we pay a small fee for premium mobile games that offer enormous added value. No interruptions by advertising, no frustrations through free game mechanisms that slow down the pace of the games to crawling, nothing of it.

A curated library with high-quality mobile titles is really amazing, especially as it can be so difficult on the supersaturated game markets to find the mobile game for you.

And I am pleased to tell you that I have played only high-quality games on Apple Arcade, which I can only find difficult. In contrast to many mobile games, which I have played in the past, it can often be difficult to motivate me to continue playing. Alone mini highways, Grindstone and Sayonara Wild Hearts make a subscription more than worthwhile for a month.

This also addresses the difficult mobile value promise. People are often not ready to pay even small amounts for a cell phone game, if there are so many that you can try free of charge, and half of the challenge in the free play of mobile phones often seems like it's the best of his Get the playing time if you do not invest anything.

With Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass, users can experience mobile quality games at unbelievably low monthly buy-in costs. Honestly, I have paid more for lunch than this services demand, and I have already spent in Grindone longer than I would need for lunch.

This affordable availability is incredible. Wonderful for the consumer. But I wonder how it starts in the long run for the developers.

Way too much

With Google Play Pass you have access to more than 350 apps. The subscription price is probably only worthwhile for Stardew Valley, but 350? That is much. Maybe too much.

I have already mentioned that the marketplaces for mobile games are overloaded and a curated list of quality titles is wonderful. But three hundred and fifty? That's a bit a supersaturated library, and it just started.

It is clear to me that absolutely sounds like I would complain about that I have too much choice, but I would prefer less titles and a much higher bar for the quality as ... 350.

But not only that, I'm worried that mobile games are devalued. Some games appear on mobile devices that are worth the full price. This is just a fact, and when you publish a game through a subscription service, you have automatically devalued it, as well as Blu-ray publications fall in the price as soon as a movie appears on Netflix.

Sayonara Wild Hearts, for example, has already been highly praised by the criticism and still has not really crushed into the top ten charts of the Nintendo Switch eShop. I checked it with 13 and seen what is a tremendous improvement of what I saw when publishing. Mouthpropaganda clearly makes his work, but I wonder if the simultaneous start of this game on Apple Arcade has devalued in the heads of the fans consumers.

Not only, but will take these subscription services to the Indie developers who want to publish their games directly in the App Store and Google Play, rather than subscriptions? If you already have 350 apps to choose from, why should you then give the time for a new version, which costs an additional 10 euros, regardless of how well it is? And 5 € for a single game if you get access to dozens of dozens for a month at the same price? The value in these scenarios suddenly feels incredibly distorted.

This is not what consumers have to worry about, at least not yet. As long as mobile developers have incentives to create high quality titles for the platforms, consumers should be satisfied. But if this deviates developers from developing something great, original and perhaps more expensive for mobile devices, this is a net loss for the industry.

Mobile madness

At the moment everything is a bit too superior to superior, honest. Each of the subscription services has its pluses and at the moment very few disadvantages, but I wonder how this will affect the industry in the long term.

I can not argue with the value promise of 350 apps for a fiffer a month, especially if these apps are either great games or really useful productivity apps. But I wonder how I will be able to view all options to find what I want.

Under the stroke but? Currently, Apple Arcade offers some incredible mobile phone titles at a reasonable price. Provided the Google Play Pass offers the same quality, then it is a very exciting time for mobile gamers everywhere.