Happy Canada Day everyone! Here are a few things that interested me over the last couple days.
Apple Reportedly Shifting Strategy on Apple Arcade
There are several reports from reliable sources that are saying that Apple has shifted its strategy on the Apple Arcade gaming service, cancelling several contracts for new games. I don’t usually like to talk about unconfirmed stories and rumours, but this one really caught my eye.
The reports indicate that as Apple is cancelling the contracts for some games, it is investing more resources in games that are designed to keep players engaged for a long period of time. Why does this matter? Apple Arcade is a subscription service that costs $6/month, and it is in Apple’s interest to keep people subscribed to this service. What concerns me about this is that when Apple launched Arcade, it touted it as a service with games people would want to play, and this is a shift. Instead of putting money into good games, regardless of what they are, a shifting focus to games that intentionally try to keep people subscribed skews the games that will be developed for the service. Mobile games already skew towards these kind of addictive gameplay elements, meant to hook users and get them to keep playing. For free games, it is geared towards in app purchases. At least with Apple Arcade there are no in app purchases beyond the $6/month subscription for the service, but I fear this could have a real negative impact on the types of games that are developed for mobile devices.
Spotify launches Premium Duo Plan
Spotify launched a new plan to compliment the individual and family plans it already offers. While an individual can sign up for the service for $10/month and a family account with up to 6 users can sign up for $15/month, the new Duo plan is, as the name suggests, aimed at two people. The Duo plan allows for two accounts and costs $13/month, or $6.50/person. This offers a savings vs two individual accounts, but the family account is still a better deal if there are more than two people in a household using the service. Still, it is good to see more options and flexibility in the service.
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 4100 Processor Line for Smartwatches
In the world of smart watches, power efficiency and battery is even more important than it is on phones. The physical size limitations of a watch mean they contain tiny batteries, and they must be very efficient to ensure the battery life is something approaching acceptable. While Apple and Samsung have their own custom processors designed for smartwatches, Google does not. This forces them to rely on a 3rd party to make the processors. Qualcomm has traditionally made the processor found in these watches, but they have not been highly regarded. The Snapdragon Wear 2100 and the more recent Wear 3100 platforms have been based on processor designs from 2011, which is ancient in processor terms. This has resulted in slower processors with worse battery life than the competition, and these limitations have caused Wear OS to fall out of favour as a smartwatch platform. Fossil is the only manufacturer of note that continues to make Wear OS watches, and they are doing the best they can with a limited platform.
The Wear 4100 platform promises to have 85% better performance and 25% better battery life. On a smartwatch, those margins could make a huge difference in usability. The performance metric should reduce lag and increase responsiveness, and the battery life increases could mean the difference between the watch dying at 8pm and making it through the day.
I don’t believe this will be enough to save the Wear OS platform by itself, Google has really left that to stagnate for years at this point, but every little bit will help.
Amazon’s First Big Foray Into Video Games Bombed So Bad The Company is Unreleasing it
Here’s a new one. In late May a game development studio owned by Amazon released Crucible, a video game attempting to combine various elements of other styles of games. It includes elements of Battle Royale games like Fortnite, MOBA games like League of Legends, and hero shooter games like Overwatch.
The game was poorly reviewed at launch, and shortly after release the developers actually removed most of the games modes in an attempt to refocus on one core mode. That appears to also have failed as the company is taking the unprecedented step of “unreleasing” the game, and moving back into a closed beta program. As of July 1 the game is no longer listed on Steam, and no new players can join. Players who have already downloaded and played the game will continue to have access, but the game will not run normally, and instead will have periods of time where developers will be in the game with players soliciting feedback.
We see many examples of games launching to less than stellar reviews, often because they launch before they are truly ready for release to make a certain date, and slowly improve over time. But to completely pull a game from the virtual shelves is unheard of, and shows just how much of a failure this game has been.