Citing at least five people familiar with the company’s plans, a report by Cheddar is claiming that Apple is planning to introduce a subscription service for games that would allow users who pay a subscription fee to access a bundled list of titles.
Sources claim that Apple’s upcoming subscription service would function like Netflix for games, although it is not yet known how much the service will cost per month or what kind of games Apple will offer to subscribers.
The report adds that Apple has been “privately discussing” a subscription service with a handful of game developers since the second half of last year. The service is, however, is still in very early stages of development and Apple may eventually decide to abandon the idea:
The company has also discussed partnering with developers as a publisher, according to two people familiar with the talks, which could signal Apple’s ambition to assume distribution, marketing, and other related costs for select games.
“The vast majority of revenue coming out of the App Store is games,” said Brandon Ross, an analyst at BTIG that covers the video game industry. “Subscription has proven to be a successful way of monetizing on mobile. It is completely unproven in games except for some minor success from Microsoft, Sony, and Electronic Arts.”
A recent study gaming and esports intelligence firm Newzoo suggested that mobile gaming is expected to become a $100 billion industry by 2021.
