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- Apple is in talks with game developers to create a subscription bundle for games, Cheddar reports.
- Subscriptions are seen as a key growth area for Apple as iPhone sales slow.
Apple is speaking to game developers about creating a subscription service that could bundle a bunch of games together, Cheddar reported on Monday, citing unnamed sources.
Cheddar's report doesn't include many details on which games would be included or how much such a service would cost, but it does mention that Apple has also shown interest in acting as a publisher for certain titles, which means that it would assume distribution and marketing costs for certain games. Cheddar notes the talks around an Apple games subscription service are early and could change.
Apple has been emphasizing subscriptions as one of its new growth engines. Apple's 15%-30% cut of subscriptions are seen as one of the company's big growth areas as the company places additional emphasis on sales from recurring services, instead of just hardware sales.
Apple said it booked nearly $40 billion in services revenue by last year, and Apple has a public goal that it should be a $50 billion per year business by 2020.
Games frequently represent about 70% of App Store spending, although a lot of that revenue comes from games that offer addictive in-app purchases.
Apple isn't the only tech giant considering a games subscription service. Microsoft, Amazon, Verizon, Google, and Sony all have various game subscriptions in development or on the market. Apple is also rumored to be working on a subscription content bundle for movies and TV shows.