Last Updated on July 18, 2022 by srinivas
Did you think Apple Arcade games would last forever? We also! When the service launched several years ago, Apple really made no mention of limited availability or that games would ever leave the service. One could assume that only when games get really old and not updated to support new mandatory iOS requirements would they be removed from the Apple Arcade service.
It turns out that’s not the case. Apple has added a “Leaving Arcade Soon” section to the Apple Arcade tab in the App Store. It lists 15 games that will apparently be leaving the service in the near future, though no exact date is given:
- Projection: first light
- life slide
- Diverse daylife
- EarthNight
- Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree
- About the Alps
- Dread Nautical
- Cardpocalypse
- Towaga: Under the Shadows
- Dead end job
- Do not bother me!
- spell drifter
- spider saurs
- Explots
- BattleSky Brigade: Harpooner
MacRumors spoke to an “inside source” who explained what’s going on: When Apple Arcade launched in September 2019, Apple apparently signed three-year deals with some developers. Not all of those contracts will be renewed, and so the games will leave the service (presumably in September this year). Macrumors does not say whether the decisions to leave the store were made by Apple or the developers.
Developers are free to release the games on the App Store once they leave Apple Arcade, according to the MacRumors source, which they presumably will, but they will have a new bundle ID. It’s not clear if saved progress will be transferred, or if developers can perform some sort of save transfer process.
We assume that more games will be added to the “Leaving Arcade Soon” list in the coming weeks and months as more contracts meet their three-year commitment. Apple Arcade costs $4.99 per month and offers over 200 games.