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Apple gaming subscription service, devs paid by hours played


crispy4000

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Sounds like it would be iOS centric:
 

Quote

Apple is also working on a premium games subscription for its App Store and discussing it with potential partners, according to people with knowledge of the plans. This service won’t take on new cloud-based streaming offerings like Google Stadia. Instead, it will focus on iPhones and iPads and bundle together paid games from different developers that consumers can access for a monthly fee. Cheddar previously reported that Apple was working on a gaming-related subscription service.
 

The company would collect these monthly fees, then divide up the revenue between developers based on how much time users spend playing their games, one of the people said. Apple is likely considering popular paid titles on the App Store and would exclude titles that are free to download but generate revenue via in-app purchases.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-23/apple-s-reinvention-as-a-services-company-starts-for-real-monday


https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-03-23-apple-reportedly-working-on-premium-games-subscription-for-the-app-store

https://9to5mac.com/2019/01/28/apple-reportedly-plans-netflix-for-games-subscription-service/


Bonus: An indie publisher from a few days ago.  Apple apparently isn't the only one doing this.

 

(he later clarified that Games Pass and PSN+ don't operate this way)

 

 

 

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I already hate how the mobile model games are creeping into the PS4 and One library. 

 

I could see a future within the next gen or two where digital, pay to win, games as service, and other horrible phrases overtake the market and I'll be clinging to my PS3 and PS4 and talking about how in my day we paid for games once and then just played them whenever we wanted, dammit.

 

5QCdvm.gif

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6 hours ago, Littleronin said:


The other 11 services mentioned don't as well. 

 

Origin Access, Discord Nitro, Google Staidia, GeForce Now, Walmart ... who else?  Maybe some we haven't heard of yet.

I wouldn't think Humble Bundle operates that way with the monthly bundles, since they can't collect play metrics.

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22 hours ago, RedSoxFan9 said:

Apple doesn’t understand video games

 

This is very true. Apple has no idea what gamers want or how to cater to them.

 

They lucked into owning one of the most popular gaming platforms of all time... but they really do suck at gaming. they always have.

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There are two ways to pay by hours played. One is good, the other is bad:

 

Good: 

I pay $10/mo, and that $10 is split between whatever games I play

 

Bad:

I pay $10/mo, and that is split between the games I play...at the same % that everyone plays. So if I play Indie Game at 50% of my rate but it's only .001% of all players, then it gets .001% of $10 (and AAA games get high %).

 

Guess which one will be the standard? The second, obviously, as it is in Spotify. Big companies lobby to have it this way because they get bigger pieces of the pie.

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20 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

There are two ways to pay by hours played. One is good, the other is bad:

 

Good: 

I pay $10/mo, and that $10 is split between whatever games I play

 

Bad:

I pay $10/mo, and that is split between the games I play...at the same % that everyone plays. So if I play Indie Game at 50% of my rate but it's only .001% of all players, then it gets .001% of $10 (and AAA games get high %).

 

Guess which one will be the standard? The second, obviously, as it is in Spotify. Big companies lobby to have it this way because they get bigger pieces of the pie.


Either way is bad.  Even the 'good' option treats time played as the principle metric of payout.  That's really shit for developers who don't (or won't) design their games to be soulless/padded time sucks.  It could also stand to benefit multiplayer games much more than single player.  Highly trending games like Apex or Fortnite in that model could end up screwing many devs over.
 

The only nice option is to be paid upfront.  But he makes a good point that even that opportunity opens the door for companies like Apple to pay out by time.

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19 minutes ago, CitizenVectron said:

There are two ways to pay by hours played. One is good, the other is bad:

 

Good: 

I pay $10/mo, and that $10 is split between whatever games I play

 

Bad:

I pay $10/mo, and that is split between the games I play...at the same % that everyone plays. So if I play Indie Game at 50% of my rate but it's only .001% of all players, then it gets .001% of $10 (and AAA games get high %).

 

Guess which one will be the standard? The second, obviously, as it is in Spotify. Big companies lobby to have it this way because they get bigger pieces of the pie.

Doesn't it work out to the same math on total?

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1 hour ago, crispy4000 said:

Either way is bad.  Even the 'good' option treats time played as the principle metric of payout.  That's really shit for developers who don't (or won't) design their games to be soulless/padded time sucks.  It could also stand to benefit multiplayer games much more than single player.  Highly trending games like Apex or Fortnite in that model could end up screwing many devs over.
 

The only nice option is to be paid upfront.  But he makes a good point that even that opportunity opens the door for companies like Apple to pay out by time.

For the Apple service at least, some of this doesn't apply. They're not supporting multiplayer games and they're not including any games with in app purchases. So they're avoiding the two most popular and profitable categories of games.

 

Apple Arcade is pretty much only for single player games that are struggling to find a business model that works. I don't know if this is a better model, but it's interesting.

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21 minutes ago, TwinIon said:

For the Apple service at least, some of this doesn't apply. They're not supporting multiplayer games and they're not including any games with in app purchases. So they're avoiding the two most popular and profitable categories of games.

 

Time played is still going to vary by genre, the portability factor, etc.  Even without those categories, it'll still reward ongoing games with addictive gameplay loops above all else.
 

 

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15 minutes ago, LaXDragon said:

All these companies are vying to be the next "netflix" of whatever. Games seems to be a big subscription battleground.

There are two things that from the Netflix model that everyone is copying: having a subscription, and locking in with exclusive content. From there the models we've seen from Google, Microsoft, EA, Sony, and Apple have all diverged quite a bit.

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