Is Apple Cornering Itself Out of the High-End Gaming Market?

Hey everyone!

Following the discussion in today live session I came across a very short article on Slashgear.com regarding game streaming. For some background information, Microsoft launched the beta of its mobile game streaming service, which I believe was referred to as Project xCloud, just recently in September. With a compatible controller, it enables users to play over 100 Xbox games on Android devices directly from the cloud. The article essentially just announces that Microsoft is working on bringing that service to Xbox consoles and PC. If you want to read it yourself you can find it here.

While short in length and substantive content, I thought this would be worth sharing based on an observation and comment from the author of the article, Eric Abent. Eric notes that “even though game streaming is part of the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate package, it’s only available on Android devices. Given Apple’s rules regarding App Store distribution, it’s safe to say that game streaming won’t be coming to iOS anytime soon”.

I think ties into what we’ve talking about from time to time regarding Apple’s disputes with Epic games pretty well and with this, I have to wonder: Is Apple cornering itself out of the high-end gaming market (i.e., premium, full scale, 80-90$ games like Call of Duty)?

Through its iPhone/iPads/etc. its probably safe to assume that Apple has strong hold on cheap, small purchase mobile games. If a company wants to release a typical .99 cent mobile game, its probably safe to assume that they wont get too far without access to Apple’s app store. But what about when it comes to the other big players like Microsoft or Sony that not only have their own distribution networks and hardware, but the power and means to go around Apple? Will Apple finally have to back off on its positions or will it miss out on this market?

Some things to think about.

Colton W.

full link: https://www.slashgear.com/microsoft-says-xcloud-game-streaming-for-console-and-pc-is-on-the-to-do-list-07641443/