I pay Apple a fixed amount each month for all devices in my family to have access to a range of features, including a wide range of ad-free games I don't need to pay for. That doesn't feel to me like a cartel, that's just a bundled subscription, similar to the one that Netflix is trying to move to. Can you explain why you think that they're trying to group games studios together to maintain high pricing, when I actually end up paying much, much less than I would if I were to buy the games individually, or pay individual subscriptions to get rid of ads, or worse give up all my data and get bombarded with advertising when I just want to play a game for a few hours?
They created the problem and now they’re selling you the solution. They don’t allow you to search for paid apps. That’s an intentional design choice on their part. They also frequently change and deprecate APIs, forcing devs to constantly update their apps, necessitating the use of subscriptions. I won’t give them the credit for fixing a problem they created, and I really don’t like the idea of paying them for the privilege.
For the record, I’m happy to pay for good apps and games and services.
It's more complicated (and arguably worse) than that. Because Apple provides no way to do a trial of a game (without subscription pricing) some games will have a free tier with ads and an IAP to remove ads. These wouldn't show up under "paid apps" even though they technically qualify.
If you look at what App Store business models Apple makes easy and which ones require jumping through hoops it's pretty clear that they want you to fill your app with IAP or use a subscription model. One time purchase software is possible, but is treated as a second class citizen (no paid upgrades, no demos/trials).
You at least get 200 of the top paid games in each genre.
Personally, I prefer to use a real game system over a phone to play games. It’s not Apple’s fault that smartphones aren’t a good place to play games. A game developer targeting phones can only hope to capture a sliver of spare attention of someone who is already doing something else (like waiting in a lobby or taking a 10 minute bus ride).
That’s why iOS games rarely cost anything to buy while Nintendo has been selling $40 games on mobile devices for decades.
Without sticks and buttons phones can only hope to emulate a real game system. A developer on a more dedicated game system can expect to find players who want to spend multiple hours on a game.
Oddly, their offer is ridiculously small outside of the US. There are good games, but for example, every single one featured in Arcade's launch trailer is unavailable in Canada.
I'd have expected that with their experience (Music, TV, App Store), they would have done better there.
Dont want to let my kids loose on Apple Arcade though. I like to curate exactly what they get to play - educational games with no advertising or bullshit.
Apple Arcade is just a subsection of the App Store with a subscription fee for a curated list of games with no ads or in-app purchases. The Screen Time limits you place on the device around allowed apps or capabilities work just fine with Arcade. If anything, it would make your life easier because the games you allow can’t change course later and add in ads or IAP.
Now that I think about it, not many paid apps. There are some subscription ones that don't suck - Numberblocks and Alphablocks. The Duplo games are pretty good. Reading Eggs is old school but good.
My kid's school got him to isntall Numbots which is pretty good. Not sure how it works if you install it direclty rather than getting a login via the school.
Minecraft Education is avaiable on a 'clubs and societies' license to anyone (you dont have to be a school anymore) but they dont publicise that much. Start your own club, install Minecraft Education. You have to set up an Office365 tenant though to manage the logins and subscriptions which is a faff.
Toca Kitchen 2 is a simple paid app where you prepare food and feed it to characters, fun for little ones and really well designed.
