Google takes on Apple Arcade with its own $4.99 subscription service

Just days after the debut of Apple Arcade, Google has also revealed a new subscription service for mobile games.

It’s called Google Play Pass, and it’s available to Android users in the United States now for $4.99 a month, the same price as Apple’s monthly offering. (Google is also offering the first year of the service for a promotional price of $1.99 a month for a limited time to new sign-ups.)

Notably, Google is taking its subscriptions a step further than Apple. Though Google Play Pass doesn’t have any exclusive titles, it will include apps that aren’t mobile games. Popular apps like AccuWeather and selfie-editing app FaceTune will also be offered as part of the service. 

Play Pass also includes popular games like Monument Valley and Terraria, as well as titles from indie publishers. Google says it plans to add new apps to the Play Pass catalog each month. As with Apple Arcade, apps that are part of Play pass won’t have in-app purchases or advertising. 

The addition of popular non-game services could make Google Play Pass appealing to more than just gamers. It could also help non-game developers generate revenue from Android apps, which has long been a struggle for the platform.

Despite Google’s global market share dominance, Apple’s App Store has always been much more lucrative for app makers. Revenue from Apple’s App Store topped $25.5 billion during the first half of 2019, compared with $14.2 billion in Google’s Play Store, according to recent data from analytics firm Sensor Tower. That’s despite the fact that the Play Store far outpaces Apple in terms of overall app downloads globally. 

By offering a single low-cost subscription that includes a range of popular games and apps, Google could help boost Play Store revenue, while incentivizing developers to invest in high-quality Android apps. (The company has not disclosed how it plans to share revenue with developers who are part of Play Pass.) 

Elsewhere, Google is working on another subscription-based gaming service, Stadia. Stadia, which is launching in November, is a cloud-based game streaming service for console-level games, like Destiny 2. 

But while Stadia is aimed at serious gamers, Play Pass will be more of an entry point into casual mobile games and other subscription-based apps. At $4.99 a month (or less for the first year if you’re an early adopter) and the fact that Google enables families to share a single subscription, it certainly makes Play Pass an appealing option for Android users, who are not known as big spenders in the app market.