I’ve been keeping a close eye on responses to Apple Arcade. Beyond a hardcore that wouldn’t cross the road to pee on an iPhone if it was on fire, and those that don’t believe anything can be ‘proper gaming’ unless it’s an ultra–4K sequel to an almost identical grey/brown game, it seems to have gone down very well.

What surprises me most, though, is the amount of grading on a curve. Having so far played at least some of 68 of the 71 games on Apple Arcade (It’s a living! Sort of.), my personal take is they split right down the middle in terms of what’s good and what’s merely mediocre or outright crap. That in itself is not a bad hit rate, note, but I’m often seeing people championing the entire package – and even games that are objectively a bit shit.

It increasingly feels like people didn’t fall out of love with mobile gaming – they fell out of love with user-hostile freemium mechanics of the like Nintendo welded to Super Mario Tour. In fact, it’s interesting to contrast Nintendo’s mobile efforts (from a company that usually prides itself on top-tier fun-first gaming experiences) and Apple’s (the company that everyone argued needed to get Nintendo on board to get gaming right).

Now the cruft has gone, people are enjoying fleeting but beautiful creations (Assemble with Care), painstakingly crafted slices of artistry (Mutazione), bite-sized puzzlers (Grindstone), and slices of rampant absurdity (Sneaky Sasquatch), many of which would struggle to exist anywhere else – and certainly not with this kind of premium user experience.