Apple considered making a cloud gaming service alongside Apple Arcade

Posted:
in General Discussion edited October 2021
A new report claims that Apple considered launching its own cloud-based gaming service in parallel with Apple Arcade, similar to Nvidia's GeForce Now and Google's Stadia.




Cloud-gaming services provide gamers with a way to play games with a high level of graphical quality, by rendering gameplay in the cloud and streaming a live video feed to the user's devices. It seems that, at one point, Apple considered joining the roster of companies providing the services to users.

In Sunday's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg, Mark Gurman was asked if Apple was working on such a service. In response, Gurman suggested that Apple thought about it, but hasn't gone through with the project.

Apple Arcade is "unique, relying on games that run on its device natively rather than from the cloud," Gurman writes, pointing out the all-you-can-eat Apple gaming service's main differentiator from other cloud-gaming services.

While Microsoft, Nvidia, Google, and others use cloud gaming to provide "support for a wider range of games" due to handling graphics processing on behalf of the host device, it's not entirely a fair playing field. Though Apple Arcade games are available in the App Store, Apple's policies effectively get in the way of services operating in a typical a-la-carte manner in the App Store itself.

To get around this, some services take advantage of hooks in Safari to offer effectively the same service via the browser, bypassing the App Store's restrictions.

Even taking into account Apple's preference for on-device processing over cloud-based streaming, Gurman still offers hope a service could eventually launch down the line. "The company in the past has internally discussed the prospects of launching such a service, I'm told," Gurman writes.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,278member
    Apple really ought to have an in-house game studio. 
    InspiredCodewatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 14
    So…….. Gurman is guessing and AppleInsider is spreading the guesswork as news.
    gregoriusmwatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 14
    canukstormcanukstorm Posts: 2,700member
    blastdoor said:
    Apple really ought to have an in-house game studio. 
    Agreed.
    InspiredCodegenovellewatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 14
    So, Gurman had this exclusive info, but didn’t break a story about it, and instead waited for the off-chance that a reader would ask him a question about it so he could mention it in an email newsletter?

    Okay. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 14
    blastdoor said:
    Apple really ought to have an in-house game studio. 
    Why reinvent the wheel?

    Apple should just pay big-time game developers to release Mac versions of popular games, like the Call of Duty series, for instance.


    watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 14
    blastdoor said:
    Apple really ought to have an in-house game studio. 
    Why reinvent the wheel?

    Apple should just pay big-time game developers to release Mac versions of popular games, like the Call of Duty series, for instance.
    Why reinvent the wheel? The Call of Duty series does have Mac versions. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 14
    blastdoor said:
    Apple really ought to have an in-house game studio. 
    Why? What difference would that make over paying game studios for exclusive titles?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 14
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,913member
    Buy Epic so you get multiplayer game,studio and streaming game market plus no court fight.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 14
    wood1208 said:
    Buy Epic so you get multiplayer game,studio and streaming game market plus no court fight.
    All you would do is make people richer and then they go and make another studio as equal. I don’t think that would go down well with anyone.  But I bet that was put in the apple table at some time if other.
    Epic is just a minor diversion for the apple juggernaut. 
    williamlondonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 10 of 14
    genovellegenovelle Posts: 1,480member
    blastdoor said:
    Apple really ought to have an in-house game studio. 
    Why reinvent the wheel?

    Apple should just pay big-time game developers to release Mac versions of popular games, like the Call of Duty series, for instance.

    Because it has never been in their best interest to be dependent on outside developers for anything significant. They have gotten burned every time until they decide to make their own and suddenly they get focused. To late. 
  • Reply 11 of 14
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    genovelle said:
    blastdoor said:
    Apple really ought to have an in-house game studio. 
    Why reinvent the wheel?

    Apple should just pay big-time game developers to release Mac versions of popular games, like the Call of Duty series, for instance.

    Because it has never been in their best interest to be dependent on outside developers for anything significant. They have gotten burned every time until they decide to make their own and suddenly they get focused. To late. 
    You talk as if there isn't a third party software community for the Mac.  

    Apple don't do everything and they don't have to do everything.  And given how clueless they have been about games in the past, I'd suggest that it would require a huge cultural upheaval within Apple to get an in-house game studio up and running.
    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 12 of 14
    wood1208 said:
    Buy Epic so you get multiplayer game,studio and streaming game market plus no court fight.
    That makes zero sense. Do you know what Epic even does?
    williamlondonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 13 of 14
    Can imagine playing Fortnite on my MacBook pro. No way!! it's too sacred for that. lol
    williamlondonwatto_cobra
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