Several games that were previously available as part of the Apple Arcade subscription service have been removed.
Fifteen titles have been discontinued and all of them are games that were introduced at the beginning of the service. Since mid-July, these games had appeared in the “Leaving Arcade Soon” section of the Apple Arcade tab of the App Store. This section is gone, suggesting that these are the only games that will be removed for the foreseeable future.
Apple revealed that these games would leave Arcade in this section, so subscribers had just over two weeks notice. But there is a little more time for those currently playing.
A supporting piece released by Apple clarifies that the games will be playable for an additional two weeks for users who have previously downloaded the games. Once the games are no longer playable, users will see a popup explaining that they are not available.
The games are leaving the service because agreements have been reached between the developers and Apple, but these agreements do not prevent the developers from making these games available as direct purchases or downloads through the App Store outside of the Arcade Now subscription. .
In some cases, the games on the open App Store may be nearly identical to their Arcade counterparts, but in others there may be differences. And sometimes developers can choose not to re-introduce their games to the App Store.
Apple provides the infrastructure for players to import their saved progress from Arcade builds to App Store builds, but developers must choose to support this, which is not always possible.
As with subscription TV services like Netflix, the deals developers sign with subscription services aren’t usually permanent, so expect the Arcade library to mix up over time, as we’ve seen with Xbox Game Pass.
There’s no clear path for long-term preservation of games removed from the service, but Apple and app developers can extend expiring deals in some cases.
Here is a full list of games that have not been renewed:
- Atonement: Elderheart
- BattleSky Brigade: Harpooner
- card apocalypse
- Final work
- Don’t bother me!
- Nautical Redoubt
- EarthNight
- holdings
- slide of life
- above the alps
- Projection: First Light
- Spell out
- spidersaurs
- Towaga: In the Shadows
- Varied daily life
–
