Apple Is Reportedly Working on a Dedicated App Store for Games
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Games make up over a quarter of the nearly four million apps on Apple’s App Store, and now the company may be looking at ways to move its largest department into its own store.
This comes from an exclusive report from 9to5Mac, which has heard that Apple is developing “a new gaming hub for iOS.” Citing “reliable sources familiar with the matter,” the publication notes that this will likely encompass more than merely a new front-end for Apple Arcade or even a store for games.
Instead, Apple is looking to integrate other functions, such as Game Center, to bring challenges, leaderboards, and achievements into a central storefront that would help promote games in a unique way that the existing App Store can’t realistically accomplish.
The game hub won’t necessarily replace Game Center directly. However, it will integrate with the user’s profile and could provide a new front-end to the service that’s been missing since Apple discontinued the standalone Game Center app in iOS 10 to bake the user interface more deeply into third-party games.
If so, that would be a welcome development for a feature that’s drifted into the background since then. The loss of the dedicated Game Center app eight years ago left many gaming fans without a central place to check their status across games. Although we heard rumors of a big comeback in iOS 14, that amounted to little more than an improved Game Center section in the settings app that brought back direct access to the more advanced profile and friend management capabilities we’d lost in iOS 10 when the standalone app was retired.
The new gaming hub could also provide a better place for Apple’s gaming subscription service, Apple Arcade. While the Apple TV oddly gets a standalone Arcade app, all other devices leave it awkwardly tucked away in a tab in the App Store. It’s set apart from the “Games” tab, which features all the standard free, freemium, and paid games on the App Store, but it’s still not nearly as discoverable (or marketable) as it would be in a separate app.
According to 9to5Mac’s sources, the new gaming hub will feature a Play Now tab to combine the user’s games and show them what their friends are playing, but curated editorial content and game suggestions, similar to the Today tab in the App Store, plus special gaming events and information about significant updates and in-game tournaments.
Interestingly, Apple is also said to be toying with the idea of adding FaceTime and iMessage integration directly into the new gaming hub. It’s not entirely clear what specific purpose these would serve, but they would likely help players communicate with each other. They could even tie into SharePlay for multiplayer gaming experiences. Developers may also be able to provide mini-games based on App Clips that run right in the gaming hub app with no download or installation required.
It’s unclear whether Apple plans to move games from the App Store to this new hub or use it as a unique interface to the world of App Store gaming. However, it seems more likely to be the latter, as there’s no reason it can’t sell games in more than one place. Plus, many gaming-related apps might not fit into a gaming hub but could end up being lost in an App Store focused on non-gaming apps.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
