Apple Arcade: Narrowing or widening the gap?

Not sure on the "accessible" front, but look at video games for the mainstream consoles (PS4, Xbox) that can be played, without sighted assist figure audio cues, etc. I'd say that maybe some games will work with workarounds, but don't know.

I hope apple can help or ask the developers to make their games accessible.

if we have someone who are working closely to apple. maybe we can ask apple to make sure that every games on apple arcade should be accessible.

While I understand some people's reluctance about Apple Arcade, it's important to realize who we're dealing with here. This is Apple, a company who has demonstrated time and time again that they care deeply about accessibility. I'm not talking about software releases where there were lots of bugs at launch, because all software has bugs. I'm talking about products and services that have been released with accessibility from day one. Cast your mind back to the release of iPad… VoiceOver from day one. Apple Watch? VoiceOver from day one. HomePod? also VoiceOver from day one. You want to talk about services? OK, Apple Music? VoiceOver. News+? That was accessible as well, all be it with some bugs because of a few publishers not wanting to adopt Apple’s format for news. I remember when the Apple Watch first launched, we were having a very similar conversation, and we were proved wrong. Am I 100% positive that Apple Arcade will have accessibility at launch? Absolutely not, but I fail to understand why Apple would describe all of their gameplay trailers for the service if they didn't intend for them to be playable by everyone. I saw a video relatively recently by Renee Richie talking about Apple Arcade, and he specifically mentioned accessibility. I will find a link and post it later. In short, I think everyone just needs to have an open mind about the service, because on the 19th, you might just be surprised.

It's a nice thought, but it's both unrealistic and impractical to expect developers to make all games accessible. Granted there are a lot of games which an be made accessible. Some types would take very little effort overall, but there are a lot of games which would be pretty difficult to make accessible. Then again, who knows what's possible these days.

Console game menus were scroll-based and we played with buttons. On here, I can't even play Street fighter.

I somehow managed to figure out a classic soul callibur game on iOS years ago and had a blast with it. Sure it wasn't that blind friendly, but it worked. Was it perfectly accessible/usable/whatever you wanna call it? no, but it worked. They had a mortal combat game a long time ago that worked. Don't remember it now, but I managed to play it. I think apple arcade will work, eventually. I'd put the money down on it.

The menu is messing things up.

well, after IOS 13 it can support PS4 controler and the XBox controler.
and the fighting games series like street fighters, the king of fighters and Mortal kombat should be more easier to play!
but, I still the developers can work with apple closely and make it more accessible.
hope when the arcade released. some of you guys will demonstrate some of the great games in the podcast!

Thanks for that. I will investigate the matter of the PS for controller.

If you can't make a game accessible, if you aren't willing to take the time to ensure it's enjoyable for those with varying abilities, then don't bother.
I'm sorry if my views seem harsh but...
Recently I went through the entire AppleVis game directory and only a handful of games on that list ever caught my attention in the first place. Of those, I've gotten bored of all but two games.
The lack of diversity in the games we have access to is painful, and the quality of what we can play is, in my opinion, mostly laughable.

wow! when it is really released I would like to see anyone can find any good game and playable one! if not.
we can forget about it!
but, apple have done a good job in their accessibility in their service.
I hope this one also can make it accessible too.
even it is difficult to ask their developers to think about it!

Hi.

I think people should remember that it#s not apple who programs and releases those games, these games are specially advertised in apple arcade and come from different developers. We are not a big margine of there market, making your game accessible requires work hours and possibly people who know how to make a game accessible wich is costing money.It's always a question if the money spend on such a project will later mean more revenue for these companies. We're living ina capitalistic system people, only a plus counts for those companies in the end.

Greetings Moritz.

I think. We live in a sighted world. As far as accessibility, we have to do things by trial and error. If a game isn't accessiwith I won't get it. But I won't know that unless I try it first. Apple has really come through as far as Accessibility. Having worked with both Jaws, NVDA and VoiceOver, VoiceOver is the most responsive. I'm not sure about the Apple Arcade. I'm going to wait and see and read the reviews on here when it comes out. Give Appe a chance. As far as third-part developers, we will have to theait and see. I'm willing to give the thing a chance. But I will wait for the reviews and then decide. Everybody has their own preference. Think positive, folks!

Hello,
I am going to come at this topic from the perspective of one who has played IOS games, and also console games.
I, for a very short time, worked for electronic arts, the makers of the popular Madden NFL franchise. If you visit my youtube channel, you will see just how accessible Madden 20 actually is.
I'll post a link to that channel, and I"ll also say that you should subscribe.
Now, moving on.
The problem is, is that even in the console world, developers who agree to make there games accessible for the most part are only complying with CVAA. What the CVAA says is that all players should be able to communicate online with other players, and that those menus that are used to access online features should be made accessible.
What this means is that a game developer could only make, and is only required to make online features accessible. So for example, if a person wanted to play through a mode where you could manage a team for example, if it was not online, the developer does not have to make that mode accessible, cutting blind and visually impaired players out of a critical mode of the game.
The reason for that is the wording of the act, wich says that anything outside communications, is not required.
I could list other ways in wich this act does not help us, but instead, I'll turn to the new apple service.
Most likely, the developers of these games who will be in apple arkade, have never heard of blind people using smart phones, much less playing games. While apple does give guidelines for making there games accessible, they have never in any way tried to make accessibility mandatory.
If the folks at Sony, Apple, and Microsoft did that, it could believe it or not, hurt them financially.
It is highly unlikely for that reason, that any of these games will be accessible, and if they are, I will be pleasantly surprised.
The link to my youtube channel is below.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5ePlHcHC1w5XF-NjRCQOdg?view_as=subscriber
Enjoy, and do subscribe

The thing that people don't seem to be realizing about Arcade is that Apple is directly involved with the development of these games. They aren't just saying to developers "hey make some games and will put them on our platform,” they are hand picking and curating the games and are directly involved with helping developers make them. I'm pretty sure that they would've thought about accessibility for at least some of these titles. I would be shocked if on the 19th we aren't able to use this service at all. It's very unlike Apple to make something that not everyone can use. Whenever Apple designs a product or service, they think about how people with different abilities will be able to use that product or service from the very beginning. In addition to this, Apple has their own SDK for Arcade. I'm pretty sure this SDK has accessibility APIs to use with VoiceOver and other accessibility features like Switch Control.

hy, can I use apple arcade with iOS 12.4.1?
or I hav tu update to iOS 13.

thanks and advance.

sadly it may not available in Hong Kong yet!
because the page is not available :
http://www.apple.com/hk/apple-arcade

I was just about to post here to see if anyone had tried the Beta.

Apparently if you are in the Apple Beta program and have IOS 13 Beta on your device, you can try this out early. I didn't really want to go through the hoops to do this on my phone. Hopefully some other people have tried.

But from the sounds of the last poster ... maybe I should deflate my hopes a bit? (I was not expecting 100% of the games to be accessible, as it is impossible to make every single type of game work feasibly with Voice Over, but I was hoping at least a small percentage would be useable.)

I've tried nearly all 75 or so games, with and without a game controller. None are accessible. This is the first, and probably now won't be the last, thing with Apple's name on it that isn't accessible. Ah well, Microsoft is now taking video game accessibility more seriously than Apple, lol. Imagine that. But only Apple takes the time to have something complete, so when the Apple accessibility team open their eyes to possibility a bit more and strength their legs and get conversation going about maybe, possibly, adding a note to games that are not accessible, and those that are, then things will change. Companies want to look good, so if their games can be played by disabled people, the most disadvantaged minority, then maybe they'll pay more attention. If not, at least we can go around telling people how Apple isn't "woke" enough to curate games that are accessible to everyone, lol. That'll surely get their... Oh, even better, get the NFB on them, they'll definitely notice that... right? /sarcasm

At the end of the day, though, Apple Arcade is an entire tab in the App Store with games that we cannot play. It's almost a slap in the face that their videos on Apple's Arcade site are have audio description. I really wanted to play "the pathless", too. Instead, I'm stuck with, admittedly great games like Six Ages and Dice World, but it would have been good if Apple stuck to accessibility in *everything* they do, in *every* product, and now service, that they put the Apple logo on. I sincerely hope this isn't a sign of things to come, other services, or worse, products, released without accessibility. Because if its released without accessibility, it'll be that much harder to build it in.

While I do agree that it feels a little bit like a slap in the face, remember that game accessibility is tricky, and the fact that Apple is working with third-party developers for this platform probably only makes it more difficult to implement everything correctly. I bet that accessibility for these titles is probably being worked on right now or soon will be. When iOS 13 officially drops, I would definitely right to be accessibility team and inquire about this. I personally would like an explanation from Apple directly as to why an entire section of the population is being locked out of this service.

Yes, I to would like an explanation as to why we are being left out. But if you think the NFB is going to get on the band wagon about accessible games, Well, Wild bores will start singing the blews before that happens.
They won't even deal with accessibility and equality in the job market so...

So how about a bit of brain storming.

How would you make some of these games playable by us.

I'll use that game where you play as a turtle as an example, I hear that's like an endless runner, pan a bit of the sounds, add a few sounds for the various obstacles and it should be playable.

Now, there is another game called lego brawlers where you build characters out of lego then get them to duke it out, sounds like fun I know, but how would you even make something like that accessible?

Lego have different types of bricks, some have 2 studs, some have up to 8.

So, can anyone come up with a way to make a game where you need to build things out of lego accessible?

I don't think we're anywhere near having a virtual tactile screen, one that's in 3d, because that's what you would need to pull off something like this.

Maybe I'm over complicating things, I use to love lego and trainsets as a kid, especially the sets that would just let you build whatever your imagination could come up with.

What really helps is if you know how something looks on the screen and find a way if at all possible to adapt it.

I think you will find, with a bit of considering, that most things can be adapted.

We just have to show them how it could be done.

do you think using ps4 or xbox controller can make the game a little bit easier to play.?
like some of the fighting games series!