Rumor: Apple Arcade to cost $4.99 per month

According to 9to5Mac, Apple’s upcoming Apple Arcade game streaming service may cost $4.99 per month. 

The Sellers Research Group (that’s me) hopes the rumor is true. I was anticipating $6.99 per month. The game subscription service will feature over 100 new and exclusive games, including original releases from creators Hironobu Sakaguchi, Ken Wong, Will Wright and more. 

The games can be played on Macs (yes, Macs!), iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs. You can start a game on one device and continue it on another.

Apple Arcade will give customers the freedom to try any game from its handpicked collection of titles that are all-you-can-play, have no ads, ad tracking or additional purchases, and respect user privacy, according to Ann Tai, senior product manager, App Store (I may have her name wrong; if so, I apologize and will correct it ASAP).

Apple is spending around $500 million on more than 100 games to debut this fall with its Apple Arcade game service, reports the Financial Times  (a subscription is required to read the article). The article says that the tech giant is offering game publishers extra incentives if they agree to exclusivity windows, restricting new releases to Arcade for a few months before wide distribution on rival platforms. The strategy should continue once Arcade launches, as Apple promised the platform will net new and exclusive games on a regular basis.