Product test
Apple Arcade: makes even an Android user like myself jealous
by Philipp Rüegg
Google Play Pass: 350 subscription-based games and applications
24.9.2019
Translation: machine translated
The giant Google is launching its subscription service for games and applications, Play Pass. But for the same price as Apple's Arcade - i.e. the competition - you should get more for your money.
As Google has just announced, Play Pass - a subscription service giving access to hundreds of games and apps for a monthly fee - has just landed.
Play Pass is currently only available in the US and on Android. Other countries will soon follow suit.
Cost, Family Pass, number of players...
According to Google, Play Pass will cost $4.99 a month after a 10-day free trial. If you take out your subscription before 10 October, you'll get an early discount of $1.99 per month for the first 12 months. The subscription can be cancelled at any time. The underlying strategy? Google wants to crush Apple's competition as soon as possible. Indeed, Cupertino's smartphone developers have just launched their own games subscription service, Apple Arcade.
A Play Pass subscription can be shared with up to five family members. Each member has their own "cockpit": each other's downloads remain invisible. Google does not make it clear whether the members have to live under the same roof or whether it is enough to simply be "related" to the other users of the subscription to benefit.
The Play Pass catalogue - which will include more than 350 top-of-the-range games and apps as standard - will be free of all advertising and integrated purchases, the famous in-app purchases. You see - unlike Apple - Google is banking not just on games, but also on apps such as 'AccuWeather', 'Facetune' and 'Pic Stitch'. In its Play Pass, Google is expected to offer exclusive and cross-platform games as well as existing titles.
No details have been provided by either Google or Apple about the incentives for game developers to distribute their titles exclusively - or not - on the platforms in question. According to the Google blog quoted earlier in the article, "the more subscribers enjoy a game from a certain developer, the more revenue that developer generates."
That sounds pretty appealing, doesn't it?
Luca Fontana
Senior Editor
Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.chI'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.»
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