Early gameplay preview shows off Apple Arcade games on a Mac
- aug
- 20
What you need to know
- Early gameplay preview of Apple Arcade shows off how the new service will work.
- 9to5Mac got access to the employee-only preview and tested it out on a Mac.
- So far, there are only six games available to play.
This is how Apple's new gaming service works on the Mac.
Apple Arcade won't launch until the fall, but Apple is already showing off some of its capabilities with early previews. The first to get a preview was 9to5Mac, who got access to an early internal program for Apple employees and that shows off the service on a Mac. Unfortunately, regular folks will not get access to the preview.
When Apple Arcade launches in the fall, it'll be as a $4.99 monthly subscription, but for now, testers are being charged a small fee of $0.49. The early preview of Apple Arcade is running on the latest version of the macOS beta.
Within the Mac App Store, there is now an Arcade tab that presents you the available games. To try one out, just click the "Try It Free" button and it'll begin downloading the game.
Each game page has a nice video showing off gameplay. It's really intuitive and shows users what they can expect from the games. You'll also get important information such as age rating, category, developer, controller support, language and download size.
So far, only six games are available to play during the initial access period: Way of the Turtle, Down in Bermuda, Hot Lava, Kings of the Castle, Sneaky Sasquatch, and Frogger in Toy Town. The games themselves are "early in-development builds," so they're not fully fleshed out. The experience users get from these games will be much different when the games are officially released in the fall.
Judging from the early preview, Apple Arcade looks promising. Some of the games look pretty fun and should provide a new experience for people looking for quality games on the go or at home.
When Apple Arcade launches in the fall, it'll be available for the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Mac.