Game developers are losing patience with Apple and its Apple Arcade subscription offering

The Apple Arcade game subscription service has been around since 2019 and it gives gamers the chance to play games on their iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV without any additional fees. That means that all of the games are free to download while there are also no ads or in-app purchases to contend with, either. However, while that's a pretty good deal for users it seems that those who have to actually make the games are starting to lose faith.

According to a new report by MobileGamer, developers are growing increasingly unsure about the Apple Arcade subscription and their place within it with a number of reasons cited as issues they have to deal with.

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According to the report, the lack of transparency is a key issue, specifically about how much developers are paid. It's said that payouts have been falling for years with several developers saying that payments started to decline around October 2020 and have been doing so ever since. Getting payments isn't always easy either, with Apple paying bonuses based on something it calls a "qualifying session," but developers don't know exactly what that is although it's thought to be how long people play a game for after it was launched or how often they choose to return to it.

Games being canceled is also an issue. One developer says that Apple gave it glowing feedback during the development process only to later be told that Apple had changed its strategy and that it was no longer going to be part of Apple Arcade.

It's been suggested that the recent interest in games shown by Netflix could see developers move to its platform, while it's also possible it could see Apple change its own approach - it's thought that the payments given to developers by Netflix are more generous than those offered by Apple.