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Comment by givinguflac | Hacker News Reader

This is why I’ve embraced Apple Arcade... it’s inexpensive and no games have in app purchases or ads it’s great

I would love to hear some news about how the financials for Apple Arcade break down for game developers. I've got an awesome game in development and it's tempting to apply to include it in Arcade, but typically Apple they are super-light on details.

Too bad it's not targeted towards gamers :)

There are games of just about every type on Apple Arcade. There aren't a ton of competitive or "deep" games, but there were hardly any of those on mobile anyway.

What do you mean?

I've taken a look at their launch list and it's 90% casual stuff with very simple mechanics that I'm not interested in.

My main entertainment has been video games for more than 30 years so I either need a story, complex systems i can mess with or maybe a reflex challenge.

Edit: Say, where can I find a complete list of the games they offer? I just checked their page and they seem very secretive about it. Another sign that it's targeted at parents buying something for the kids to shut them up :)

So by "not targeted at gamers" you just mean that they don't have games you are interested in?

I've really enjoyed my time with Apple Arcade. Before it launched, it was becoming difficult to find a decent mobile game that wasn't 100% supported by ad's. I haven't loved all the games they offered, but I've played about 5 so far that I would have paid full price for if they weren't offered in the service.

Most kids would have a hard time playing Card of Darkness (for example), which is a fairly tough card-roguelike thing. Grindstone is also really good. There are a ton of great games on Apple Arcade. I will completely agree that Apple is bad about promoting it though, they don't really seem to understand how to talk about games at all.

Different gaming hardware engenders different games. Strategy games for PC like Stellaris or StarCraft would work like garbage on the Switch, and games like Hyper Light Drifter are horrible to control with a keyboard/mouse.

Phone games are generally played to fill dead time, rather than someone spending hours strategizing like Civilization, by and large, so in these cases shallowness is a virtue. At the computer I like CKII, but Reigns is good if I'm waiting on lunch.

Phone games, maybe. Civ VI is pretty playable on an iPad though. Just! One! More! Turn! now available in your bed :)

All they need now is some non-throwaway games.

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