Last week, Apple's two initiatives generated a lot of discussion in the industry.
One is to make a series of adjustments to iOS, Safari and the App Store to comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act.
It is understood that the adjustment will allow users to use other payment systems from applications other than the App Store. And the previous 30% commission will be reduced to 10% (for most developers and subscriptions after the first year) or 17%.
In addition, two additional fees have been introduced, namely the payment processing fee and the core technology usage fee. However, Apple says that less than 1% of developers in the EU pay additional fees to install apps.
For the majority of developers, this is undoubtedly a major concession from Apple. It is worth noting that this series of adjustments currently only applies to the European Union. For more domestic practitioners, it should be worth paying more attention to Apple's new support for cloud games and mini games in the iOS ecosystem.
On January 26, Apple's new statement read: Developers can now submit an app that can play all the games available in their catalog. And the games under the app can also get extra**. To put it simply, cloud games and mini games will be able to access a single app, just like today's major **, stream** platforms, users only need a single platform, and they can directly choose and play from the catalog.
As early as 2020, Apple has softened its attitude towards cloud gaming, allowing cloud gaming to log in to iOS. Still, the regulations weren't very user-friendly for businesses and users at the time. Each cloud game must be submitted to the App Store as a separate app, and the cloud gaming platform cannot be put on the shelves, and users have to have several apps if they want to play multiple cloud games. This mode of operation is contrary to the core concept of cloud gaming click-to-play.
Apple's new regulations this time can be said to further embrace cloud games and mini games, and accelerate the enrichment of the game ecology of the App Store. This new rule may also make it easier to play triple-a titles on mobile phones. After Apple's announcement, a number of well-known cloud gaming companies, including Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming and Nvidia's GeForce Now, said they would launch iPhone and iPad versions as soon as possible. It can also be seen from Tencent's START cloud game official website that the iOS version has now shown that it can be "reserved now". It is foreseeable that in the future, a new game platform ecology will be born on iOS.
The announcement also mentioned that in order to support the launch of cloud gaming apps, Apple will support the introduction of mini programs and mini games into Apple's in-app purchase system for the first time to provide users with paid digital content or services. It will also enable mini games to no longer be limited to advertising revenue on the iOS platform, and develop more payment channels.
In addition, all apps listed on the App Store must comply with the App Store Review Guidelines, and the rating of the app will be based on the "highest age rated content" included in the cloud game.
In 2024, cloud gaming and mini games are expected to grow further with the support of new regulations. At the recent Massive Engine Game Conference, they said that in 2023, significant breakthroughs have been made in both the mini game and cloud gaming tracks, and the click-to-play game experience is loved by more and more players. In the case of market saturation, mini games and cloud games are considered to be new growth points in the future.
According to the statistics of the giant engine, the market size of mini games is expected to be about 45 billion yuan in 2023, and the market size of cloud games is expected to be 14.6 billion yuan.
In view of the current development trend, Giant Engine believes that today's game lightweight has brought new growth points to the industry, and it is expected that there will still be a large-scale growth expectation in the future. And the market size of these two tracks in 2024.
It is estimated that in 2024, the mini game track will exceed 60 billion yuan, bringing nearly 20 billion yuan of market increment to the game industry. For the cloud gaming track, it is expected that there will still be a rapid growth of more than 60% by 2024, reaching a market size of 23.5 billion.
In any case, Apple's new regulations have breathed new life into the entire gaming industry. In the future, cloud gaming and mini games will usher in more changes and developments. For players, this also means that there will be a richer and more convenient gaming experience waiting for them.