Abstract:
Apple recently further explained the development direction of its gaming business. Carson Oliver, head of Apple's global App Store, said in an interview with the media that the number of high-quality paid games landing on the App Store this year exceeds last year. At the same time, more and more works originally targeted at PC and game console platforms are entering the iPhone and iPad ecosystem.
Oliver said that the App Store game market as a whole has maintained a growth trend in recent years, and the development of high-quality paid games is particularly obvious. In addition to a large number of independent game works, more and more well-known console and PC game series are beginning to launch mobile versions, reflecting that mobile game platforms are gradually becoming an important new growth point in the game industry.
Apple believes that the development of the mobile game market is closely related to changes in player habits. Oliver pointed out that for many younger users, the first gaming device they come into contact with is not a traditional game console or a personal computer, but an iPhone equipped with a touch screen. This has made a large number of players naturally accustomed to touch operations, and has also made iPhone and iPad important platforms for independent developers to make innovative attempts.
When talking about successful cases, Oliver specifically mentioned works such as "Balatro", "Stardew Valley", "Slay the Spire" and "Bloons TD 6". He said that healing games, business simulation games and Roguelike games are currently performing particularly well on mobile platforms and have a stable and growing player base.
This statement coincides with Apple’s “Independent Game Week” event. The event highlighted a number of new games that are about to be launched on iPhone and iPad, including games such as "Master", "Vampire Crawlers", "No Man's Sky" and "Little Kitty, Big City". Apple hopes to show users that mobile platform game content is developing in a more diversified and high-quality direction.
As for the positioning of Apple Arcade in the overall game strategy, Oliver said that Apple does not regard subscription services and single-purchase models as competing business models. On the contrary, the company hopes to give developers more room for choice, allowing them to decide the most suitable distribution and profit methods based on the characteristics of different works.
He said that a work can be sold through a one-time purchase like "Balatro", or you can choose to join the Apple Arcade subscription library. Apple is more concerned about providing developers with a flexible business model and allowing users to freely choose how to obtain games based on their personal preferences.
When asked how independent developers can obtain exposure opportunities, Oliver emphasized that the App Store has been committed to creating a fair content distribution platform since its inception, so that independent works can obtain equal exposure opportunities with large game and entertainment brands. In addition to the editorial team’s recommendation mechanism, Apple has recently launched a new “Creative Assets” tool to help developers display game content and promotional materials more flexibly, thereby attracting more user attention.
In recent years, Apple has continued to strengthen the construction of the game ecosystem, including introducing hardware-level ray tracing technology, upgrading the Metal graphics framework, and launching related tools to help developers port PC and console games. As more and more high-quality games are launched on the Apple platform, the company is further strengthening its positioning as a comprehensive game platform and working hard to attract more large-scale game developers to join its ecosystem.
Comments