Apple Arcade developers say working with Apple is like being in an 'abusive relationship'

AppleInsider

More mobile game developers have stepped forward to talk about their strained relationship with Apple, including new complaints about designing for the Apple Vision Pro.

Apple Arcade

In February,

game developers began expressing frustration over Apple Arcade. They pointed out that while the service was initially profitable, Apple had begun decreasing upfront payments and the per-play "bonus pool."

Additionally, the tech giant began to axe projects with little to no warning.

According to Mobilegamer.biz, developers continue to be unhappy with how Apple's running its "pay once, play all you want" game subscription service. Developers point out how Apple has delayed payments -- sometimes up to six months -- which has put smaller studios in precarious situations.

Devs are also unhappy with Apple's communication -- or lack thereof.

"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," one developer told Mobilegamer.biz.

Some have even called Apple's tech support "miserable" and the worst they'd seen anywhere. Even the QA and update process is frustrating, prompting some developers to avoid updating their games altogether.

And now, with the release of the Apple Vision Pro, many game developers are growing increasingly frustrated as the headset struggles to run complex games. Apple engineers don't seem to be able to offer any insight into how the Apple Vision Pro's hardware or software works or "how essential middleware is meant to work with it."

"We're supposed to be able to ask product, technical and commercial questions, but often half the Apple team won't turn up and when they do they have no idea what's going on and can't answer our questions, either because they don't have any knowledge on how to answer it, or are not able to share that info for confidentiality reasons," a developer said.

While Apple expects indie developers to create new games for the Apple Vision Pro, the company does not provide compensation or make any promises to promote or market the game once it is finished.

It wasn't always this way, though. Many developers said that Apple Arcade used to be significantly more profitable. Some developers point out that they wouldn't exist without Apple Arcade.

Many developers note this is likely because the tech giant sees mobile games and game developers as a "necessary evil." The company understands that gaming accounts for a significant portion of its profits under its services umbrella but isn't sure what direction to head.

"Honestly, I think Apple doesn't understand games and gamers," says one developer. "I believe Apple Arcade is a good idea in general, but they need a clear goal for where it should go and what it is for. That's a question they need to answer and then act accordingly."

One particularly frustrated developer spoke out against Apple Arcade, saying, "It's like an abusive relationship where the abused stays in the relationship hoping the other partner will change and become the person you know they could be."

In April, Apple executive Alex Rofman said Apple Arcade was not set up to make the company money, but also insisted that game developers were getting fairly compensated.



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Panner_Nudding

Theres really no substance or facts here. Just a lot of words without proof. Many citations and sources needed. 

“Many developers”

“some have even called” “

One particularly frustrated developer”

“often half the Apple team won't turn up and when they do they have no idea what's going on”

”I think Apple doesn't understand games and gamers”

“We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all”

A few examples that have no backing or proof. Anyone can go on twitter or reddit and some .biz domain nobody ever heard from unverified accounts and throw this together but until these claims are backed it’s all hearsay and non factual. 

I get it writing articles is easy but journalism is hard and when quantity over quality is the goal that is when what should be news becomes fiction. 

jtisdale

Before copying and pasting an article from another website, this is a lot of baseless information here. The original article does not allow for people to leave comments so it's basically a lot one sided "he said, she said". And that "journalist" has clear bias in hating Apple (who hurt that guy?). So Apple Insider loses credibility by regurgitating that article here. So maybe a developer had outstanding payments - do we know why? Did they do something wrong? a developer felt like Apple was not communicative - cool, maybe there is a change in plans. what large deal takes a week or two to finish? yes, my deal with them took forever but I'm happy with what I've gotten out of it. Click baity and controversal articles will get you the clicks and impressions but you lose credibility and lose big companies wanting to work with you.

dewme

Panner_Nudding said:

Theres really no substance or facts here. Just a lot of words without proof. Many citations and sources needed. 

“Many developers”

“some have even called” “

One particularly frustrated developer”

“often half the Apple team won't turn up and when they do they have no idea what's going on”

”I think Apple doesn't understand games and gamers”

“We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all”

A few examples that have no backing or proof. Anyone can go on twitter or reddit and some .biz domain nobody ever heard from unverified accounts and throw this together but until these claims are backed it’s all hearsay and non factual. 

I get it writing articles is easy but journalism is hard and when quantity over quality is the goal that is when what should be news becomes fiction. 

You nailed it. With no reference to the number or percentage of disgruntled there is no way to quantify the size or scope of the problem, or even if there is a problem. This same pattern is repeated at massive scale with social media because there are no requirements for journalistic integrity or even things that are objectively considered facts. I'm not discounting the importance of individuals who are brave enough to identify a serious problem that they've encountered speaking out about it publicly. To establish a level of credibility, in my opinion, the issue should be focused on things that may be indicative of a larger or systemic problem, not simply a personal grievance. I'd like to think that people still talk to people one on one to work through personal level issues, complaints, or concerns. Going public at the internet scale with personal problems is just adding more crap to the already overflowing craposystem that is consuming way too much of the internet today, and most especially in the social media and pseudo journalism parts of it. It's like a massive toilet that cannot be flushed.

nubus

The terms of the Apple Developer Agreement prohibit all public statements on the relationship with Apple. We and developers rely on media like Appleinsider to report on these topics. Apple did in fact reply earlier this year that titles that used to be on Arcade are likely to get paid less now that titles with a broad family focus have entered. Stories about Apple paying late and AVP being a developer toolkit have been told before.

The interview from April with Alex Rofman from Apple is here:
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2024/apr/23/apple-arcade-future-alex-rofman-interview

blastdoor

I find it very easy to believe that  game developers have legitimate complaints with Apple, given the long history of developers having such complaints.

at the end of the day the proof is in the games

godofbiscuitssf

Panner_Nudding said:

Theres really no substance or facts here. Just a lot of words without proof. Many citations and sources needed. 

“Many developers”

“some have even called” “

One particularly frustrated developer”

“often half the Apple team won't turn up and when they do they have no idea what's going on”

”I think Apple doesn't understand games and gamers”

“We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all”

A few examples that have no backing or proof. Anyone can go on twitter or reddit and some .biz domain nobody ever heard from unverified accounts and throw this together but until these claims are backed it’s all hearsay and non factual. 

I get it writing articles is easy but journalism is hard and when quantity over quality is the goal that is when what should be news becomes fiction. 

You mean just stay for the sake of the kids?

elijahg

Panner_Nudding said:

Theres really no substance or facts here. Just a lot of words without proof. Many citations and sources needed. 

“Many developers”

“some have even called” “

One particularly frustrated developer”

“often half the Apple team won't turn up and when they do they have no idea what's going on”

”I think Apple doesn't understand games and gamers”

“We can go weeks without hearing from Apple at all”

A few examples that have no backing or proof. Anyone can go on twitter or reddit and some .biz domain nobody ever heard from unverified accounts and throw this together but until these claims are backed it’s all hearsay and non factual. 

I get it writing articles is easy but journalism is hard and when quantity over quality is the goal that is when what should be news becomes fiction. 

You think Apple would continue to do business with these devs if they publicly stated these things? This is why they don't. Apple is famously averse to gaming, doing the absolute minimum even for gaming companies that have been featured in keynotes. Some of which have come out publicly.

22july2013

If this article is to be believed, it still doesn't say what developers want. E.g., "It's like an abusive relationship where the abused stays in the relationship hoping the other partner will change and become the person you know they could be." - okay tell us what you want Apple to be. Be specific. Don't be silent on specifics. Say something useful. How can we be persuaded by an empty argument? I suspect that they are being silent because they want "everything" including the user's email address so they can target the users with personal data. If Apple did gave them that information, without my permission, I would stop using Apple Arcade. I would pay lots of real money for games, as long as my identity is anonymized and hidden by Apple. But I admit probably 90% of all users care nothing about privacy, until the government gets access to their data. Then they will scream and cry. But give your data to communist China, and people won't care. The only enemy they hate is their own government.

humbug1873

That matches my expectations. Apple Arcade started out as the place for mobile games to die, a chance for developers to earn some last minute income, for a game that had it's sales run some time ago. From Apples point of view: Make it 'attractive' to developers, so you get a big enough catalog.

In the end Apple Arcade is a tick-mark item for Apple to push the AppleOne subscription plan, but on the COGS side (Cost of goods sold) it shouldn't drain too much funds from Apple's income. So small/late payments, minimum efforts for dev-support. It's just the normal way Apple does business.

Also don't forget: There is some significant belt-tightening happening at Apple. They several some money drains like the Car Project, delaying (over and over again) adding more campuses to the company, etc; on the other side they spent money to move manufacturing from China; they pretty much reached the growth limits for most of the product portfolio and new products like the Vision Pro are still a long way off from actually being profitable (still a risky bet).

Tim Cook is NOT a product guy, but a penny pincher from Operations and that clearly shows. He is more focussed on 'shareholder value' by applying every trick in the book (like stock buyback financed by debt so the EPS values continues to rise) etc. Like any good locust he drains the company in favor of stock holders, lacking the risk-taking make-good-products attitude of his predecessor. Peak Apple is probably long in the past.

Johar

All you guys who arrogantly trashed this article because it doesn't live up the highest standards of scientific rigor and journalistic diligence, I bet none of you have ever been close to a game development company involved in the Apple eco-system. I have, and based on my own atricious experiences with Game Center, I can assure you that every  sentence in the article rings true. You can believe whatever you want, but nobody with any real experience will be impressed by the grandstanding.