This was an excellent post by Dan Masters on how Apple messed up gaming on iOS. At the time the App Store came out, I remember that pundits were questioning if Nintendo had a future and not only that, if even dedicated portable consoles had a future.
The success of the Switch has put that to bed, but it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Apple had really shown an interest in gaming. They had huge advantages e.g. hardware, iOS, account system but threw it away by not executing on those advantages.
The App Store for games has devolved into a two-bit fremium store which seems really strange compared to the high quality which they pride themselves on in their hardware. I understand that this is a strategy - commoditize your complements but that seems shortsighted. Their brand is a premium one and they are happy for it to be associated with junk apps. Nintendo has a high quality brand in software and will be able to sell Mario and other games for 50-60 euro each for some time to come.
→ posted on October 3, 2017gaming