Posted Jun 5, 2025 at 10:57 AM EDT
The tower defense game is headed to Apple Arcade on July 3rd, along with the spinoff Angry Birds Bounce, which swaps the classic slingshot gameplay for arcade-style brick-breaking.
As previously announced, What the Car? for the Apple Vision Pro and Uno: Arcade Edition are available starting today.
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The Verge
3 days ago
- The Verge
Netflix and Apple are backing away from great games
For the last few years, subscription gaming services like Apple Arcade and Netflix have offered mobile game developers something of a haven for high-quality, premium mobile games: a type of game that had become vanishingly rare following the rise of the microtransaction-stuffed free-to-play model. But as these services' once enviable lineup of indie games dwindles, that haven appears to be shrinking. In 2021, Netflix announced a new gaming initiative, offering users a chance to play games through the streaming service's mobile app. Apple launched a similar program with Apple Arcade just two years before that. Both services offered an interesting value proposition: Pay a monthly subscription fee to get access to a library of premium games, with some of those games available as mobile exclusives. Those games would have no ads or in-app purchases, and the money paid to studios would ostensibly be used to fund the development of more games. The games themselves covered an interesting range of genres and topics, from strategy games featuring depression and dodgeball to finding one's place by literally rearranging the space around you. Netflix funding something like Harmonium: The Musical, a game about a Deaf girl's love of music, signaled that the platform was taking its gaming initiative seriously, bringing titles from off the beaten path to the platform. But now that game appears to have been pulled from Netflix's lineup. In addition to serving as a publisher, Netflix took the additional step of outright purchasing game studios like Oxenfree developer Night School Studio and Cozy Grove studio Spry Fox to make bespoke games for the service. But late last year, Netflix closed down the studio it spun up to produce what was going to be the service's first blockbuster AAA game. Then, just this month, it announced it was going to delist some of its most notable third-party titles, including indie darlings like Hades and the Monument Valley series. Netflix is increasingly focused on games tied to its own content. In its most recent quarterly earnings report, the platform briefly extolled its continued investment in titles like Squid Game: Unleashed and Thronglets — games tied to Netflix-produced Squid Game and Black Mirror, respectively. This focus, though, seems to come at the expense of adding existing original games from independent developers. It's easy to understand this shift. While these services don't share much about hard numbers, third-party reporting suggested that the majority of Netflix users never engaged with the platform's gaming offerings. And the games they were playing, in however limited amounts, were familiar titles. It's no surprise that GTA had Netflix's biggest game launch. At GDC 2025, Netflix's president of games, Alain Tascan, spoke to The Verge about the platform refocusing its gaming efforts, saying of indie games, 'We will continue supporting some of them, but I feel that indie gamers are not really coming to Netflix to find indie games.' So far Apple has only purchased a single game studio to make content for Apple Arcade, though its retreat to more casual offerings follows a similar pattern as Netflix. Original or indie games appear less frequently in favor of those attached to big, family-friendly IP like Uno, Angry Birds, and Bluey, all three of which are featured in Apple Arcade's July update. Payouts from Apple Arcade have reportedly been shrinking while developers have complained that it's hard to get their games noticed on the platform. The free-to-play model has conditioned users that spending money for gaming content can be optional. Casual games like Monopoly Go make money through in-game advertisements or opt-in consumer spending on microtransactions, and few traditional paid games outside of Minecraft are now able to break through that mindset. Subscription services were viewed as a kind of equalizer. With investment from Apple and Netflix and elsewhere, quality games could be brought to a platform not generally associated with quality gaming experiences. Developers could fund their vision and not have to worry about monetization, while consumers could access those games with a monthly subscription and no added costs. But a few years in, the aim of these services has been adjusted, and casual games designed to keep eyeballs on an app for as long as possible, or promote the latest streaming series, have won out. Despite strong lineups of indie games, neither Netflix nor Apple could really cut through the noise, and their offerings are no longer unique. Worse still, the unique games they did have now have fewer places to go. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Ash Parrish Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Analysis Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Apple Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Entertainment Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Netflix Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Streaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Tech
Gizmodo
7 days ago
- Gizmodo
This Dock Is the Only Way to Play the Switch 2 in AR. It Was a Very Awkward Experience.
I should be used to sticking odd contraptions on my head during plane flights. I've planted a Meta Quest 3S and Apple Vision Pro over my eyes as my in-flight entertainment and tried not to get motion sick while imagining what other passengers think of my sci-fi asshattery. On my latest six-hour, cross-country flight, I took my Nintendo Switch 2 out of my bag, then dug in for a USB cable, two pairs of augmented reality (AR) glasses, and finally a large power brick that was supposed to make this entire tedious experience work together. Two players can indeed play multiplayer with two AR glasses on one system, and it was a wild ride in my sardine can-sized seat. Getting to that point just requires a rainforest's worth of cables and gadgets thick enough to choke any constrained space—let alone the three inches of legroom airlines grant you for economy these days. See Nintendo Switch 2 at Amazon Viture Mobile Dock If we're trying to figure out new use cases for AR Glasses, multiplayer gaming is the oddest one yet. Pros Cons The $130 Viture Pro Mobile Dock may be the weirdest way I've ever used to play on handhelds. It's a device that takes the screen output from devices like the Steam Deck, Switch 2, a smartphone, or even an HDMI TV stick and pushes out duplicated pictures for up to two AR glasses at once. It can prove very useful for using AR glasses with more devices, or if you need to replace a screen with AR glasses. For example, Nintendo's handhelds don't natively support AR glasses via their USB-C port, but the Switch 2 and the original Switch can thanks to the dock. Viture even sells a $20 mount to hook the dock to the Switch 2, which also operates as a limited external battery. In very specific use cases, the dock can ensure you and a friend can play split-screen multiplayer together without an extra screen. It's nominally useful for when you're on a long plane flight where you and a partner want to play the same game side-by-side without needing to squint at an 8-inch screen propped up precariously on a rumbling tray table. It will also make you question just how close your friends are willing to get to you. See Viture Pro Mobile Dock at Amazon The dock also supports 3D content, but I was mainly interested in how it could change how I play on the go. I've messed around with the dock by myself and alongside a buddy, and it's an odd experience either way. The dock itself includes an incredibly short USB-C charging cable that also allows video passthrough. There are two other ports that hook up any working pair of AR glasses. For review, Viture gave me two pairs of its $500 Luma Pro XR glasses. Each has a magnetically attached 3-foot cable that is normally fine for playing with a device right in front of you but is not nearly enough for the Pro Mobile Dock. At least setup is dead simple. All you need to do is plug each device into the other, and the dock will split the image so both players see the same screen at once. There's no lag or latency I could perceive, enough that I couldn't blame the glasses as a friend kicked my keister in Street Fighter II Turbo. For gaming, this entire apparatus seems best used on Switch 2, a handheld built for multiplayer thanks to its Joy-Con 2 that can each act as independent controllers. It also has the capability to make a Steam Deck into a multiplayer-friendly device. Playing the few local multiplayer games on my Steam account, like Hellish Quart, works perfectly well. You just need to be willing to sit very close to your friend when futzing about on the same system. I know you're already screaming at me: why would I bother with this when I can just plug it into a TV? Hey, random citizen, you're perfectly correct. This dock and glasses combo is for the few edge cases where you don't have an HDMI dock for passthrough and you still want to play with friends. The problems mount when you're using it for too long. The dock promotes that it can extend the device's battery life since it doubles as an external battery pack. The problem with that is that it needs to power both the handheld and up to two glasses at once. On a plane, I squeezed out two more hours from my Switch 2 before the Pro Mobile Dock died. Nintendo's handheld will normally last a little more than two hours, so all in all, I doubled my system's battery life, but half of that lacked the AR glasses. The dock only has one port for USB charging, meaning you can't daisy chain your outlet through to your device, either. For those of you confused why you would use a pair of glasses above the Switch 2's native screen, it's for the sake of your spine. Glasses mean you're not hunched over like Gollum, treating your handheld display as your latest 'precious.' The Luma Pro aren't the 'Beast' glasses with '4K-like' 1200p screens that are coming in October, but they have a pair of bright panels with a 52-degree field of view. Images looked crisp, though only after I found the right size of nosepiece that didn't cut off parts of the screen and didn't screw up the automatic PPD—or pixels per degree, which help clarify the displayed image based on your pupillary distance, or PD. The glasses lack the Xreal One Pro's ability to resize the screen in your field of view, which also reduces eye strain. These glasses take what is already the excellent 720p organic light-emitting diode display of the Steam Deck OLED and replace it with a fairly good-looking micro-OLED screen with a higher brightness. When compared to a Switch 2's 1080p IPS LCD, it offers better contrast and deeper blacks, though it lacks the HDR qualities of Nintendo's handheld. It's not the type of device you should get just to have a nice display, especially at the $570 sticker price. The audio from the glasses' built-in speakers could offer a fine experience with some spatial capabilities for pseudo surround sound, but it would not replace a quality pair of headphones. Viture also sent along its $80 mobile controller it made in conjunction with 8BitDo. The device is essentially the same thing as the $50 8BitDo Ultimate Mobile Gaming Controller, with its Hall effect sticks and triggers to avoid future stick drift issues, but this version comes with a USB-C port specific for these glasses. The device feels great—perhaps even more comfortable than the $170 Backbone Pro controller (a device that includes Bluetooth connectivity to act as a regular controller as well). But again, it asks for more money for a very specific case. I could use it to make sure nosy neighbors don't see what I'm playing on my screen. If the plan was to avoid scrutiny for your gaming habits, the mess of cables and ginormous spectacles won't attract any less attention. See Viture x 8BitDo Controller at Amazon The glasses are still the star of the show. That is, they are still very expensive considering the cost of the devices you're meant to use them with. It greatly broadens what you can do with your AR glasses, but perhaps there's a reason we're not thinking of glasses first for handhelds. It may be handy for those few times you don't have or don't want a screen, but it's not as if you're not carrying around more gear. I'm loaded down with enough stuff when I travel as it is, and if I had to leave anything behind, it would be the dock first.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Yahoo
Apple releases visionOS 26 beta 3 with these new features
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. As the test cycle follows, Apple has just released visionOS 26 beta 3 to Apple Vision Pro. The second major software update since its release last year helps to mature the company's latest new marketing product. With lots of rumors regarding Apple Vision Pro roadmap through 2028 and the new features presented during the WWDC 2025 keynote, the company's spatial computer is surely getting a lot better this fall. Today's Top Deals XGIMI Prime Day deals feature the new MoGo 4 and up to 42% off smart projectors Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals For example, Apple is taking the Personas feature out of the beta with visionOS. The company says the 'all-new Personas now have striking expressivity and sharpness, offering a full side profile view, and remarkably accurate hair, lashes, and complexion.' However, visionOS 26 beta 3 is not just about the new Personas. There are improved spatial experiences. These are the top three: Spatial Widgets: With them, you can place widgets in the real world. Every time you turn your Apple Vision Pro on, they'll remain where you placed them,. More interestingly, you can customize the widgets with different frames, width, color, and depth. Spatial Scenes: Combining a generative AI algorithm and computation depth, Spatial Scenes makes photos 3D, making even more immersive how you see your favorite pictures. Spatial Browsing: With Safari, visionOS 26 beta 3 lets users read articles by hiding distractions while even revealing spatial scenes from the photos of newspapers, in addition to native playback of 180 and 360-degree recordings. Shared Spatial Experiences: When two people are together with their own Vision Pro, they can watch a movie in 3D in the same digital space, play games, join a FaceTime call, and collaborate at work. Besides these features, visionOS 26 beta 3 also brings support for third-party accessories, including the PlayStation VR2 Sense controller. Alongside visionOS 26 beta 3, Apple also released the third test versions of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe, watchOS 26, and tvOS 26. BGR will let you know if we find anything different with these builds. Don't Miss: Today's deals: Nintendo Switch games, $5 smart plugs, $150 Vizio soundbar, $100 Beats Pill speaker, more More Top Deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 See the
