We know all about Apple Music, and rumours have been rife for some time that Apple is preparing to launch a Netflix-style video-streaming service to complement it. And now games too? “Apple is planning a subscription service for games, according to five people familiar with the matter,” reported tech-news site Cheddar.
“The service would function like Netflix for games, allowing users who pay a subscription fee to access a bundled list of titles.” Caveat alert: “It’s unclear how much the subscription will cost or what kind of games Apple will offer. The service is still in the early stages of development, and Apple could ultimately decide to abandon it.” But the story suggests that Apple could even become the publisher for certain games, fulfilling a similar ‘first-party’ role to the way Sony and Microsoft publish games from some PlayStation and Xbox developers.
Two thoughts. One: a gaming subscription service could fuel further growth for Apple’s services business – a big priority for the company. Two: if and when it has music, video AND games subscriptions up and running, the potential to offer a unified (discounted?) bundle of them all will be clear. That’s a scenario where music wouldn’t just be competing with other media for attention, but for its share of subscription revenues.
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