Could Apple be developing their own game streaming platform?

The Xbox team issued a major update for xCloud streaming this week, stating that the service would be coming to all Game Pass Ultimate subscribers in 22 countries. The service is being powered by custom Series X hardware, and will now be made available on all Windows 10 and iOS/iPadOS devices, but only via a browser. No apps for you, fruit themed fanboys.

Apple has been notoriously stubborn about allowing game streaming apps on their devices. Something we covered nearly a year ago now. The company claimed that services like xCloud and Stadia could not run on their platform, since they couldn’t verify all their content to ensure a “safe and trusted place” for their users. App Store guideline 4.7 has also been cited, which bans apps from running external code. Something we rightly called BS on, as other apps are certainly running external code in the same way these streaming services do. Often malicious code, like social media apps which phone home personal data silently in the background, often without the user’s explicit consent. Granted, the lads in Cupertino has been cracking down on that recently.

When it comes to game streaming, aside from sending back button inputs, these platforms are little different than the likes of Netflix and YouTube. In that they’re simply sending back a video stream to be decoded on the device. What difference does it make if it’s coming from a file stored on a drive somewhere, or video feed coming out of the back of a gaming server? Yet video and music streaming are allowed. Even remote desktop apps are allowed. But game streaming is not.

So what’s the real reason that Apple is doing this? Well, I think it’s becoming more obvious with each passing month. At this point, I’d be genuinely shocked if the company isn’t working on their own streaming service as an extension of Apple Arcade.

Apple already charges $5.99 a month for the service, which functions a bit like vanilla Game Pass. There’s a rotating library of 180+ games that you can freely download and play on any device. Whether it be your Mac, Apple TV, iPhone, or iPad. It’s not a horrible deal if all you’re interested in is playing mobile games. It appears the company is primarily focusing on premium titles, obviously. Since nobody’s going to pay a subscription fee for microtransaction-laden F2P garbage that already clutters up the App Store. S

Now, Cupertino’s primary business model is to keep you locked into their ecosystem. This is the same reason why Google Maps was removed in iOS 6, and the Apple Watch won’t work with Android devices, even though there’s really no technical reason why it couldn’t. Especially when you consider that Google’s own Fitbit Sense works across both platforms. Fact is that if you want to use Apple’s products, Apple wants you to use Apple services, and nobody else. This is how they make their money.

Gaming is now the most profitable segment of the entertainment industry, so there’s a lot of money being left on the table. And as we know, Timmy Cook sure likes hoarding money like Smaug on his pile of gold. If they can provide a unified gaming experience across all devices, in theory that would make Apple fans less likely to purchase a console or PC. However, Apple does not currently sell any devices that can come close to matching those experiences. As powerful as the M1 is, its GPU isn’t exactly blowing the doors off any benchmark charts. And it’s not like you can just toss a RTX 3080 in your iMac and call it a day. The company isn’t even offering any discrete graphics solutions for the Macintosh anymore. So streaming would be the most logical alternative. Especially if it keeps gaming locked behind a perpetual paywall. Now that mobile data is getting faster and more affordable (unless you live in Canada), streaming to smartphones is also becoming more viable.

Much like Nintendo, Apple is notoriously tight lipped about any projects they’re currently working on. So far we’ve heard absolutely no rumours regarding an Apple Arcade streaming service. So this is all purely speculation. However, there’s enough circumstantial evidence that suggests that something is in the works. Something I expect will likely be announced within the next year. Either way, blocking streaming apps is still anti-consumer.