Apple Arcade, while offering a platform for mobile game developers, has encountered significant issues that have led to widespread frustration among its creators. According to a detailed report by Mobilegamer.biz, the challenges faced by developers on this subscription service are numerous and severe.

Though Several Game Devs Credit Apple for Their Studios' Sustainability

Numerous studios have reported long delays in receiving responses from the Apple Arcade team. An indie developer shared a harrowing experience of waiting up to six months for payment, which nearly led to the collapse of their business. "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," the developer lamented.

Another developer highlighted similar communication issues, stating, "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." They added that inquiries about product, technical, and commercial matters often receive vague or unhelpful responses, often due to a lack of knowledge or confidentiality restrictions.

Discoverability remains a significant concern for developers. One creator felt their game was essentially buried, saying, "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." The quality assurance (QA) process also drew criticism, with one developer describing it as "submitting 1000 screenshots all at once to show you have every device aspect ratio and language covered," which they found excessively burdensome.

Despite these challenges, some developers noted that Apple Arcade has become more focused over time. "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," one developer remarked. "If they can build a business on family games, good for them and good for the devs who can chase that opportunity."

Additionally, some developers acknowledged the positive impact of Apple’s financial support. "We were able to sign a good deal for our titles which covered our whole development budget," one developer noted, adding that without Apple’s funding, their studio might not exist today.

Dev says Apple does not understand gamers

The report suggests that Apple Arcade lacks a clear direction and feels disconnected from the broader Apple ecosystem. "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," one developer stated. "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."

The overarching sentiment among developers is that Apple views them as a "necessary evil." One developer elaborated, "Given their status as a huge tech company, it feels as if they treat developers as a necessary evil, and that we will do everything we can to please them for little in return, in the hope that they grace us with another project – and a chance for them to screw us over again."