Apple Reportedly Spending $500M for Apple Arcade Launch

Apple Investing Big on Games

A few weeks ago, Apple announced their new Apple Arcade game service. This uses a subscription model which grants users access to hundreds of gaming titles. This is of course, not unlike Google‘s recently announced Stadia.

To ensure its launch is successful, the company is apparently spending $500 million USD. This is for securing and developing exclusive titles. Much like with what PC gamers are seeing from the EPIC Games Store, exclusivity is a big advantage, especially with high-profile titles.

According to the report, the bigger budget would allow the company to pay a lot more than what is typical of indie games. In fact, the Arcade has already secured Cartoon Network, Disney, Konami and Sega.

When Will Apple Arcade Launch?

There is no firm launch dates for the Arcade yet, but it will launch sometime in Fall 2019.

Why is the Company Investing So Much on Apple Arcade?

According to analysts at HBC, the investment completely makes sense as the game subscription market will grow significantly within the next few years. Current projections are for Apple to reap $370 million in Arcade revenue by 2020. However, this is expected to balloon up to $2.7 billion by 2022, and almost twice that by 20204.

The analysts are basing this on the presumption of the platform reaching 29 million subscribers paying $12.99 per month by 2024. They even think Arcade has a higher earning potential than the Apple TV+ subscription service.

So far, Apple did not reveal any official pricing information for Arcade yet.