3 years after its launch, Apple Arcade loses 15 games

Enlarge / Art from Various Daylife , one of the games that left Apple Arcade in August 2022. https://variousdaylife.square-enix-games.com

Several games that were previously available as part of the Apple Arcade subscription service have been removed.

Fifteen titles have been removed, and all of them are games that were introduced at the start of the service. Since mid-July, these games had appeared in a "Leaving Arcade Soon" section of the Apple Arcade tab of the App Store. This section is now gone, suggesting that these are the only games that will be removed in the immediate future.

Apple revealed that these games would be leaving Arcade in this section, so subscribers had just over two weeks notice. But there is a bit more time for those currently playing the games.

A support document released by Apple clarifies that the games will remain playable for an additional two weeks for users who have previously downloaded the games. Once the games are no longer playable, users will see a pop-up explaining that they are unavailable.

Games leave the service because agreements between the developers and Apple have been reached, but these agreements do not prevent the developers from making these games available as direct purchases or downloads through the App Store outside Arcade subscription now.< /p>

In some cases, Open App Store games may be nearly identical to their Arcade counterparts, but in others there may be differences. And sometimes developers may choose not to reintroduce their games to the App Store.

Apple provides the infrastructure for players to import their saved progress from Arcade builds to App Store builds, but developers must choose to support this, which isn't always possible.

As with TV subscription services like Netflix, agreements developers sign with subscription services are generally not permanent, so expect the Arcade library to change over time, as we saw it with Xbox Game Pass.

There is no clear path to long-term preservation of games removed from the service, but Apple and app developers may extend expiring agreements in certain cases.

Here is the full list of games that have not been renewed:

Atonement: Elderheart BattleSky Brigade: Harpooner Carpocalypse Dead end job Don't bother me! Nautical Dread EarthNight Let's explode Life Slide Beyond the Alps Screening: First Light Sorcerer Spidersaurs Towaga: Among the Shadows Varied daily life