Apple had apparently considered launching a cloud gaming service alongside its own gaming platform, Apple Arcade. It appears that Apple has dropped those plans.
In the post-game Q&A section of Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg (the story is behind a paywall), one of his readers asked about whether Apple had plans for a cloud gaming service. He was told, “The company in the past has internally discussed the prospects of launching such a service.”
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Gurman said that Apple had a unique position in the games space by relying on titles that could run on native devices as opposed to streaming from the cloud. Cloud-based gaming offers a wider selection of games and creates an “open buffet” Netflix-style experience, rather than the more carefully curated selection that Apple Arcade has.
This is how Apple separates itself from other players such as Nvidia’s GeForce and Google Stadia. However, Apple doesn’t allow its competitors to join Apple Arcade through the App Store. “The company says that’s not because they’re competitors, but simply because it doesn’t allow all-you-can-eat cloud gaming services on its devices,” explained Gurman.
Right now, Apple Arcade has some notable titles such as Mistwalker’s Fantasian and Platinum Games’ World of Demons. Recently, Castlevania: Grimoire of Souls returned to mobile devices as an Apple Arcade exclusive after being delisted from other storefronts for a year.