Some developers continue to be unhappy working with Apple's subscription-based mobile gaming service Apple Arcade, mobilegamer.biz reports.
Talking to the website, some developers said that studios have to wait up to six months to receive payments from Apple Arcade. They also pointed out difficulties getting responses to routine emails, unsatisfactory technical support, and poor discoverability. One developer said:
We were able to sign a good deal for our titles which covered our whole development budget. Things have changed since the early times, it's a very difficult and long process to sign a deal with Apple these days. The lack of vision and clear focus of the platform is frustrating and if there is any goal, it keeps changing every year or so. Also technical support is pretty miserable.
Most developers pointed out that Apple Arcade pays well, particularly during its first few years:
Whatever anyone else says, the advances were fantastic. They were off the charts compared to what we're used to being paid. And you got royalties on top of that.
While initially developers benefited from prompt monthly payments from the Bonus Pool of ongoing royalty payments, there is now a five month backlog. One developer claims to have almost gone out of business as a result of the slow payments, while others have had to chase for payments for months.
Developers also pointed out general communication issues, and when they do receive a response, the results are often disappointing. One developer shared:
We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all and their general response time to emails is three weeks, if they reply at all. We're supposed to be able to ask product, technical and commercial questions, but often half the Apple team won't turn up and when they do they have no idea what's going on and can't answer our questions, either because they don't have any knowledge on how to answer it, or are not able to share that info for confidentiality reasons.
There are also apparently significant issues with developing Apple Arcade games for the Vision Pro headset. Developers expressed their frustration with Apple's technical support for the Vision Pro, which they described as inadequate and unhelpful. One developer said:
The technical support is awful – the worst I have seen anywhere. They are unable to offer any insights into how the hardware and the software it runs on works, or how essential middleware is meant to work with it.
Developing for Vision Pro is like going back in time 10 years because despite the advertised power – and the cost – it is not a machine built for gaming. Getting any complex games working on the platform is difficult.
Other sources told mobilegamer.biz that while they had been approached by Apple to make a game for the Vision Pro, they were offered no financial incentives and no guarantees of promotion. This contrasts with competitors like Meta, which offers generous financial incentives and marketing guarantees to developers creating content for its platforms.
Developers also pointed out issues with quality assurance and updates, claiming that a prolonged discussion with Apple over a single update cost their team two months of work. "Submitting updates is so painful our developers started trying to avoid it," they said. Likewise, there are apparently issues with discoverability. Other developers shared their frustration, stating:
It feels like the game's been in a morgue for the last two years. It doesn't matter what we put in the game, Apple won't feature us, it's like we don't exist. So as a developer you think, well, they've given us this money for exclusivity… I don't want to give them the money back, but I do want people to play my game. It's like we're invisible.
One developer concluded with a broader critique of Apple Arcade's strategic direction:
Arcade has no clear strategy and feels like a bolt-on to the Apple company ecosystem rather than like it is truly supported inside the company. Apple 100% does not understand gamers – they have little to no info on who plays their games that they can share with developers, or how they interact with games on the platform already.
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I believe Apple Arcade is a good idea in general, but they need a clear goal for where it should go and what it is for. That's a question they need to answer and then act accordingly.
Another developer offered a slightly more positive perspective:
I think Arcade knows who its audience is much more today than at the outset. If that doesn't turn out to be high concept artful indie games, that's not Apple's fault. If they can build a business on family games, good for them and good for the devs who can chase that opportunity.
Apple Arcade launched in September 2019, giving users access to a large library of games for a monthly fee of $6.99. Apple Arcade is also available as part of the Apple One subscription bundle, which combines multiple Apple services into a single monthly plan.
