Apple unveils games subscription service with Apple Arcade

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Apple (AAPL) on Monday launched Apple Arcade, a monthly video game subscription service that will offer users access to over 100 original games.

Available sometime this fall in 150-plus countries for Apple portable and desktop devices, users will get access to over 100 games: a mix of original content developed exclusively for Apple Arcade, and in some instances, backed by Apple, too. The company did not disclose pricing or which titles would be available at launch.

“We think we’ve come up with a great way to bring games to more people than ever before,” explained Apple Senior Product Manager Ann Thai at the company’s event on Monday in Cupertino, California.

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During an onstage video montage, Apple showed snippets of several graphically-impressive games currently in development for Apple Arcade, which appeared to cover a large swath of different genres, from puzzles to adventure.

Credit: David Foster/Yahoo Finance
Credit: David Foster/Yahoo Finance

The service comes after Google announced it’s getting into gaming with a new cloud-based service called Stadia, set to launch sometime in 2019. Indeed, like Stadia, Apple Arcade subscribers can start playing a game on one device and instantly pick up where they left off on another Apple device. However, Apple also said Apple Arcade titles could also be played offline without an internet connection.

Apple also emphasized its commitment to privacy by stating Apple would not know which games users are playing — a message it reiterated several times on Monday during its announcements.

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