The world turns to WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) each year to see the latest innovations from the world of Apple (yes, the name is much like the MLB, one country’s baseball league, holding a “World Series”), and boy oh boy, did they come out swinging this year! Apple is introducing a new gaming platform app, and it’s called... Apple Games!
You might well be wondering, um, surely that exists already? But no, somehow, Apple has stuck with muddling games in with every other app type until now. The idea — and yes, it really has taken until 2025 to think of this — is to have a single destination on your iPhone or iPad for gaming.
The developer page for the new app, which is currently in beta and will role out worldwide with iOS 26, suggests this offers a new way for games to be discovered by potential customers, with “personalized recommendations based on the games they play.” So kinda like Google Play has done on Android for years, I guess? (Let’s be fair: this sounds like a much better version of what Google currently offers, and will hopefully force Android’s OS to up its offering too.)
Also seemingly playing catch-up, the new app will track achievements and leaderboards between devices or reinstallations, as well as highlight all these alongside in-game events within the app page.
Apple Arcade will be a tab within the new Apple Games app, alongside Play Together, where you can see what games friends are playing and join multiplayer games. And, frankly, good! It’s weird it’s not been a thing until now, but it’ll be a boon to anyone gaming on their mobile devices, which is everyone on planet Earth.
Apple Games will be automatically installed with iOS 26 when that roles out “later this year.”
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