October 19, 2021

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Apple Arcade still exists and it’s still a priority – at least that’s the message we’re presenting to Apple. unexpected launch out of 20 new games on the same day aims to send.

New games include (but are not limited to) a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-branded battle game titled Shattered Fate TMNTa Disney-themed Scrabble-style game called enchanted developed in partnership with words with friends co-author, urban planner by name Cityscapes: Sim Builderand the continuation of the hit Arcade What is golf? titled what kind of car (If you haven’t played What is golf? however, you probably should – it’s now available on other platforms as well.)

There are also several remastered versions of premium classics from previous eras of iPhone gaming such as LIMBO, Kingdom of the Two Crowns, Farm Simulator 20, Octodad: the most fatherly catch, Temple Runand Bennet Foddy get over it– think of the likes of Apple, the equivalent of a TV streaming service that also offers episodes of classic TV shows like Office or Star Trek.

This is the biggest trophy we’ve seen for Arcade in quite some time. There has been more of a trickle in the service lately, with one or more games popping up here and there.

Like Apple Arcade’s recent past, the content strategy here seems to be trying to take the best ideas and talent from the open App Store and use them to prove that the idea that “mobile gaming is bad” is completely wrong. – On the one side. partly by caring about quality to counter the mobile signal-to-noise ratio issue on that front, and on the other hand, to deprive games of microtransactions – even in genres that were originally designed around this monetization model.

Apple has correctly identified that the mobile gaming reputation problem stems from the inability of users to get through a lot of bad games (whether bad because of bad content, or because monetization sabotages what would otherwise be a good experience), to find a good thing. There have always been good mobile games; users simply struggled to find them, and many gave up and gave up trying, having too many bad experiences in the process.

However, Apple Arcade’s growth has been limited, in part because the claim that “mobile gaming is bad” wasn’t true from the start. There are hundreds of outstanding mobile games for both iOS and Android, including many free games with reasonable and unobtrusive monetization – so many that it may have been difficult to sell to iPhone owners even at Arcade’s super-cheap price of $4.99 per month . Day. If there are a dozen games you already love and they’re all free, why would you pay $5 a month for others?

Essentially, Apple offers a curated service here. Arcade is like a personal mobile game shopper; you don’t have to spend hours trying out mediocre games on the App Store and googling to figure out where to start. You can just join Arcade and expect a certain minimum level of quality. But you might argue that the same people who have enough desire to have great mobile games to pay monthly fees for them are often the same people who are already willing to invest in the work themselves.

However, Apple Arcade isn’t the only game subscription service that does this. There’s also Netflix Games, which has grown rapidly over the past year and releases games from popular developers for iOS. Including some of them who hosted their new games in Arcade, for example Odyssey Alto Snowman developer launching a new game Laya skyline via Netflix this week.

Games like Laya skyline they can be played on iPhone and downloaded from the App Store, but require a Netflix subscription to play. Lately, Netflix Games has been generating more buzz among influencers and the press than Apple has released Arcade.

Of course, media hype doesn’t necessarily equate to success, and neither Apple nor Netflix have released many details about the performance of individual games.

While Apple Arcade caused some hype immediately upon launch in 2019, reports over the following months suggested that Apple struggled to gain as much ground as possible with it, and much of the noise died down. The company is probably hoping this new flurry of games will rekindle some interest, but the competition is fierce, so we’ll have to wait and see.

TThe last time the Writers Guild of America went on strike in 2007, workers opposed the nascent streaming industry in favor of higher residual payments for streamed content. Now a new technology, artificial intelligence, will once again revolutionize Hollywood as Guild strikers return to the pickets.

Streaming giants like Hulu, Netflix and Disney+ have come to dominate the industry, changing content production and distribution models and making it harder for writers to earn a steady income. And as AI technology improves rapidly, the WGA is looking to limit the use of AI in film and television scripts.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which negotiates the contract on behalf of Hollywood studios, streamers and production companies, says their priority is “the long-term health and stability of the industry” and they are committed. reaching a “fair and reasonable agreement” in accordance with Associated Press.

“AI raises difficult, important creative and legal questions for everyone…” AMPTP said in an emailed statement to TIME. “That’s something that needs a lot more discussion, which we’ve committed to doing.”

The WGA has proposed rules for using AI to create source material and write or rewrite literary material. A schedule of negotiation proposals released by the WGA on Monday shows that AMPTP instead rejected their proposal. opposition with “annual meetings to discuss advances in technology”. (The WGA had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.)

Key moment

The battle for AI is just one aspect of the union’s demand for fair compensation in the age of streaming. (The guild’s top priorities are fighting to increase rewards and residual income.) But any restrictions on AI technology, or lack thereof, could affect the future of the industry for decades to come, especially as AI-based tools become more commercialized. .

Politically, we are on the verge of [AI technology] will be institutionalized. says Alex Hanna, research director at the Distributed AI Research Institute. “Once they’re institutionalized, they’re hard to get rid of.”

Although AI technology is not new, it has quickly become popular as companies seek to adopt the technology. “[We’re seeing a] a quick push to release these systems into commercial use, often without rigorous pre-testing or evaluating whether they work as planned,” said Sarah Myers West, managing director of the AI ​​Now Institute.

Jobs pending?

Commercial deployment raises questions in all sectors about the possibility of job losses. “It’s not so much what AI will do, but what companies will use AI to justify,” says Myers West. Studios could have fewer people in the writers’ room with generative content written by AI that is later edited by the writer. “They could use AI to create the first draft and then get someone else to do the second draft. And that devalues ​​their work because they don’t do the whole process,” says Meyers West.

Experts say the technology is not yet mature enough to completely replace the writer, but it could turn creative practice into something akin to copywriting. “AI will not necessarily replace this work, but will make it more mundane,” says Meyers West.

Task in different industries

In recent months, creatives across industries have been sounding the alarm about the incursion of artificial intelligence. Many AI systems use the work of creatives to teach tools to create something similar, raising concerns about intellectual property.

Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) released statements in March, demanding a bid to use artificial intelligence to imitate acting, noting that “human creators are the backbone of the creative industries and we must ensure that their work is respected and paid.” And just a week after Universal Music Group asked services to stop AI companies from “extracting” music to create imitation, the AI-created collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd cheated the internet.

While the WGA is one of the first creative unions to take on AI, others are likely to join soon. “My guess is that we will see more of this in areas like journalism or graphic design, positions that can be automated with heavy human correction following,” Hanna says.

Write Simmon Shah: simmone.shah@time.com.