Apple Arcade is a nice subscription that lets you play a lot of games each month without having to worry about additional fees. However, those games obviously never remain available within the service forever. What happens when the Cupertino-based company deletes games? We now know more about that.
Apple published an article about this, on the support section of the official website. There you can read everything about Arcade: how to find new games and how to update them. But now also what happens when the games disappear from the service. Can you still play them if you installed them before?
What if games disappear from Apple Arcade?
If you are a subscriber with an active subscription and downloaded a game that is no longer available thereafter, you can still play that game for a very short time. This is possible until at least two weeks after the removal date, but in some cases longer. This way you may be able to finish that one adventure.
Should you launch a game after those two weeks, you may also get a notification that the game is “no longer available.” It may be that you can then purchase the game separately in the App Store. But then you have to take into account that you might download a different version.
Then again, with digital purchases?
When you play a game through Apple Arcade, that game must not offer digital purchases. So the game must be complete and playable. But when they are available separately on the App Store, then you may encounter subscriptions or digital purchases. After all, a developer has to make money too.
Furthermore, you should keep in mind that you may not be able to take your progression with you after the Apple Arcade period. This is something that developers have to take care of. If this is not the case, you may have to start all over again within a certain game.