Apple Arcade is launching before Google Stadia and is competitively priced — but it has a huge disadvantage

• Apple launched its new game subscription service, Apple Arcade, during the September Special Event.
  
• Apple’s claims that is the first gaming service to sync games across mobile, TV, and desktop.
  
• But that might not be enough to give an edge over Google since its user pool is much smaller and Apple Arcade is restricted to iOS users.
  

Apple’s September launch took off with Apple CEO, Tim Cook, announcing Apple Arcade — the company’s gaming subscription service.

Apple claims that this is the world’s first gaming service to sync games across mobile, TV and desktop. In Apple’s case, that means that you will be able to play the same games through a common subscription on your iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV.

Apple Arcade will be live immediately across 150 countries. And, in India, the subscription will cost only ₹99 per month whereas, in the US, the cost for Apple Arcade is $4.99 (₹358.57).

The company is also offering a month free trial for users who would like the test the service before officially subscribing.

Google also plans to launch their own gaming subscription service, Google Stadia, sometime next year. Even though Apple has launched ahead of the Alphabet-owned company, it might not be enough to give an edge.


Apple Arcade vs Google Stadia

The games being released on the platform are exclusive to Apple. They have a 100 games ready to go live with the promise of adding new games in the months to come.

The company demoed games by Konami, Capcom and Annapurna Interactive at the launch to showcase their catalogue.

Google Stadia, on the other hand, will offer casual gaming as well as heavy gaming titles like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Doom (2016).

The draw here is that Apple Arcade will not be able to offer graphic intensive games.

The explanation is simple. Apple wants you to be able to play games online and offline where the speed of your internet connection is not a determinant so graphic heavy games would take up too much space. It’s based on how you normally play games by downloading them onto your device first.

Stadia doesn’t need you to download the game. It is a cloud based gaming service. The aim is to allow users to play games online that would normally require expensive hardware within Google Chrome, provided they have a good internet connection.

According to the company, users will need at least 25 mbps of speed to play a game at 60 frames per second in Full HD resolution.

Google’s edge

Google Stadia may require a better internet connection in order for you to play its games but it can be accessed by anyone who has access to a Chrome browser. As of August 2019, Google Chrome dominates in the web browser market share with over 50% market share, according to W3Counter.

Apple Arcade will be available to smaller pool of users since its restricted to users with Apple devices.

So, even though Apple Arcade has launched ahead of Google Stadia, it’s unlikely to accumulate the same level of interest. According to StatCounter, Android has 76.23% market share whereas iOS only has 22.17% market share worldwide.
In India, that disparity is even more pronounced with Android dominating with 93.02% market share and iOS limited to 2.65%.

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