After revealing earlier this week that some games are going to be leaving Apple Arcade, the company has now confirmed exactly what will happen to those titles and how you can continue to play them once they're gone.
It follows news from earlier this week that Apple Arcade titles are going to start leaving the platform as initial deals signed with developers start to expire. Apple has added a 'Leaving Apple Arcade Soon' tag to Apple Arcade, with 15 games set to depart in the coming weeks.
In a new document published this week, Apple has now revealed exactly what happens when a game's time on Apple Arcade is up.
What happens when a game leaves Apple Arcade?
"If you download a game before it leaves Arcade, you can play the game for at least two weeks after," Apple stated this week. The company says that if you try to launch an Arcade game that is no longer playable you'll be greeted with a 'No Longer Available message'. Seems pretty straightforward.
As expected, Apple has confirmed that titles leaving Apple Arcade may well return to the App Store should the developer choose to make them available, but that these titles "might vary from the Arcade version." Apple has also stated that you might be able to pick up where you left off and keep your saved progress in the App Store version of a game, but that this is up to the developer as well.
Apple Arcade has blossomed into a fantastic and relatively cheap way to game on iOS, with a library of more than 200 curated titles free of adverts and in-app purchases, a welcome change from the microtransaction-riddled titles that usually plague the App Store's top charts. The first 15 games leaving the platform are:
- ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree
- Dead End Job
- Dread Nautical
- Cardpocalypse
- Spidersaurs
- BattleSky Brigade: Harpooner
- Lifeslide
- Explottens
- EarthNight
- Don’t Bug Me!
- Projection: First Light
- Spelldrifter
- Over the Alps
- VARIOUS DAYLIFE
- Towaga: Among Shadows
The move puts Apple's gaming subscription service in line with similar offerings from Netflix and Xbox, where titles are regularly circulated in and out of the subscription libraries.
Unlimited games, one price
Apple Arcade has over a hundred premium games with more added regularly each week. There is something here for everyone, and it only costs $5 a month for all you can game!
