110 Industries & Yu Suzuki

That's almost certainly what happened. They of all companies can afford to do this. 500 million dollars/euro every month from game service subscribers. :) Their audience is probably mainly casual phone gamers and kids on home devices. Not much love for arcade games I guess... Maybe that's the idea, to expand a little and get some news coverage by funding a legendary figure from the arcade scene. Pure advertising. Even if the profit from Air Twister went mainly to office rent and equipment, that's still fine. :) If it's more, even better.


I can't wait to see if Wanted Dead does well in February. I think this will be crucial for funding new game series in the future.
 
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I guess that's a way to look at it, but I'd rather the game had sold, that way Yu would've had more leverage to stand on if he ever wanted to approach Apple for more work in the future. Companies as big as Apple take little losses just to promote things all the time, so it very well could be the case that they just wanted to draw eyes to Apple Arcade and weren't expecting the game to do gangbusters; but if drawing eyes to the App was the goal I can't say it's been a smashing success at least in the sells department lol.
I do wonder if it will come over to other platforms when exclusivity ends. Could be a nice little top-up in cash. Self-publish it on the relevant stores and maybe do a LRG version.
 
We need to be patient and see what rumblings begin once 110 has released Wanted, which is just a little under a month away.

They seem keen on keeping the series alive..rumors are swirling of a Sony state of play with third party titles coming soon.

One could hope, but I think it'd probably be at a Showcase, but I've only heard that may be in June around E3 time.

Not going to lie, I'm growing very impatient for news. None of us are getting younger, especially Yu Suzuki. We don't have time to go through another waiting phase like we did with Shenmue 3. Especially since we have about 2-3 Shenmue games before the story is completed. I really really really hope we get something on Shenmue 4 this year or I'm about to start losing hope again.
 
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Various sources mention that Apple Arcade has 100 million subscribers.
Apple Arcade doesn’t have 100 million active subscribers. If you look into it, these “various sources” are all quoting the same game dev, who said something to the extent of “I heard that there were more than 100m subscribers but I have no idea if that’s true.” It most certainly isn’t.

It’s difficult to gauge how many people actually subscribe to AA as it is part of Apple One (effectively meaning that it’s given away for free to those who subscribe to both Apple Music and Apple TV). Most subscribers barely touch the thing and those that do use it for a few days and then dip because 95% of the games on there are garbage. Apple has repeatedly dodged questions on how many people subscribe outside of Apple One, suggesting that it’s not all that many.

The fact that most gaming-centric sites pretty much ignore Apple Arcade would also suggest that not too many people are reading about the service (new releases, best games, etc), which wouldn’t be the case if there were 100m+ active subs (or even a small fraction of that). Compare that with the number of monthly articles written about PS Plus, Game Pass, or even the Epic Game Store and you’ll see that the idea that AA outperforms any of those services is pure fantasy.
 
I don’t think anything on Apple Arcade is a “big hit,” honestly. Not a lot of subscribers compared to other platforms.I actually just canceled my subscription!

Let’s be honest, though. It’s a fun game with limited replay ability. It’s just a little too short and repetitive to hold long term interest. Challenging, but in a very aggravating repetitive way.
 
The Apple Arcade 100 million 'subscribers' phrase is very much corporate speech and usually includes things like free trial memberships which everybody with an Apple device gets. It's probably also a way rounded up number that doesn't even necessarily mean concurrently, but rather 'since its inception up to this point'.

Actual paid subscriptions with members that actively use the service are probably just a fraction of those 100 million.

30.000 may not sound like gangbusters, but do we have anything to compare it to? Are any numbers available for the top 10 or so games on Apple Arcade?

Also like spud mentioned, if YS got paid beforehand - which I suspect he did at least for (temporary) exclusivity - the user stats may not matter too much at this point.

Just noticed that Games Radar has Air Twister in its top 25 Apple Arcade games, which is nice.
 
Is it confirmed that Air Twister only has temporary exclusivity? AFAIK, Apple Arcade exclusives are permanent.
However, I did find this on the matter: Apple Arcade Exclusive Does Not Mean What You Think
As one of the dozens of people with an Android, I would love to be able to give money to YS Net, so I hope that apple money was worth it lol.
Also, I wonder if they got any money from Shenmue 3 being a free game on the egs for Christmas 2021?
 
Is it confirmed that Air Twister only has temporary exclusivity? AFAIK, Apple Arcade exclusives are permanent.
However, I did find this on the matter: Apple Arcade Exclusive Does Not Mean What You Think
As one of the dozens of people with an Android, I would love to be able to give money to YS Net, so I hope that apple money was worth it lol.
Also, I wonder if they got any money from Shenmue 3 being a free game on the egs for Christmas 2021?
Apple exclusivity often seems to last for a long time at the very least. I've seen multiple games escape out of Apple Arcade jail at around the 3 year mark.
 

A taste of Shenmue 4's mini games? 🤯😁
Honestly, these guys are clearly the best placed to take over the Shenmue IP while respecting the old-school vibe of the game. Other publishers would likely transform the license into a modern open world with mini-maps and micro-transactions everywhere, etc...
 
Honestly, these guys are clearly the best placed to take over the Shenmue IP while respecting the old-school vibe of the game. Other publishers would likely transform the license into a modern open world with mini-maps and micro-transactions everywhere, etc...
This seems very, very Shenmue. Combined with all their teasing on social media…
 
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