Apple’s App Store Worldwide head Carson Oliver said more premium games are launching on the App Store this year than last, and that the platform is drawing an increasing number of PC and console franchises to mobile.
“We’ve seen incredible growth of games coming to the App Store, in general, with more premium games releasing on the App Store this year than last. While many of those are indies, we’re also seeing more console and PC franchises coming to mobile, as it is a burgeoning audience for those games,” Oliver said.
Oliver singled out “Balatro,” “Stardew Valley,” “Slay the Spire,” and “Bloons TD 6” as titles finding success on mobile, and identified cozy games, management simulations, and roguelikes as particularly successful categories.
He linked part of the opportunity to a generation of players whose first gaming device was an iPhone: “For an entire generation of players, their very first gaming device wasn’t a console or a PC, it was an iPhone with a touchscreen. These users embrace direct touch as their primary controller, making iPhone and iPad the ultimate canvas for indie innovation.”
The remarks followed Apple’s Indie Games Week promotion, which highlighted seven new and upcoming iPhone and iPad games, including “Sifu,” “Vampire Crawlers,” “No Man’s Sky,” and “Little Kitty, Big City.”
Oliver also addressed how subscriptions and individual purchases fit together for developers. “We want to give developers a trusted place to reach users around the world, support them at each stage, and help them build successful businesses. To achieve that goal, we provide developers with flexible business model options. That means a breakthrough phenomenon like Balatro can thrive as a premium download, and it can also find a home as part of the Apple Arcade service. The important thing is that we give developers the flexibility to make the best choice for every game and players the freedom to play how they want.”
App Store discovery and developer tools
Oliver said Apple uses editorial curation to help smaller studios get noticed: “From day one, the App Store was built to level the playing field for discovery and distribution, so that an indie title can sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the biggest entertainment franchises.”
He pointed to new and existing tools to help developers reach players. “We also provide indie developers with tools and services to break through to new audiences and drive engagement. For example, we just launched Creative Assets. This new feature lets indie game developers tell their game’s story in a richer way by showcasing artwork of their choosing in two of the most important places players find games: search results and product page headers.”
On reducing the work of bringing games to Apple platforms, Oliver highlighted technical advances: “Technologies like Game Porting Toolkit 4, MetalFX, and our open-source Unity plug-ins dramatically cut the time, effort, and cost required for developers to bring PC and console games to Apple devices.”
