- Apple might push further into gaming with a dedicated hub on the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV 4K
- It’ll be a showcase for new titles available directly for the platforms and through Apple Arcade.
- It’s rumored to be announced at WWDC 2025, right after the Nintendo Switch 2 launches
Between Apple Arcade on the iPhone and iPad, as well as the resurgence of game support on the Mac since the debut of Apple Silicon, the Cupertino-based tech giant is eager to drive the growth of gaming across its various platforms. The adage that you can game on the Mac has extended to nearly all its other platforms aside from the Apple Watch.
Now, a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman indicates that a dedicated app for video games will be announced soon for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV 4K streaming box.
The report teases that it’ll arrive later in 2025 and that it will serve as a one-stop shop for gaming on these devices, offering easy access to the games themselves as well as “in-game achievements, leaderboards, communications, and other activity.”
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(Image credit: Future)
The hub will serve as a home for Apple Arcade titles, Apple’s $ 6.99-per-month service offering a variety of mostly family-friendly games. These titles will reside in this new app alongside editorial content, likely from the same team that supports the App Store, and it will replace Game Center.
The latter has been a social network feature for game titles on the iPhone for quite some time, but never as a standalone app – instead, it would flash when you first open a game that supports it, or be accessible when you look for leaderboards.
Considering the Mac is included as a platform, and this dedicated gaming app is supposedly being developed for it, it aligns with Apple’s broader push for the various Macs on the market to be seen as powerful gaming devices. Baldur’s Gate 3, Lies of P, Resident Evil 4, and Death Stranding, among many others, are some AAA titles that have launched for Apple Silicon, and Cyberpunk 2077 will eventually arrive.
Given that the report states this dedicated app will also integrate with the Mac App Store, where many of these titles are sold, Apple could be positioning this as an alternative to Steam, making gaming more prominent and accessible on macOS.
The report also describes “a Mac version of the app that can tap into games downloaded outside of the App Store” – a move that could appeal to gamers, developers, and publishers alike.
It’ll be interesting to see if this dedicated app for these platforms arrives with a notable expansion of titles for Apple Arcade or some other bolstered features for the streaming services.
Maybe, it’ll be the first time a AAA title gets bundled in, or rather, it’ll be announced alongside some other major titles launching on the Mac. A day and date release with other consoles has become more common, but it’s clear that more work needs to be done to get more games launching on the Mac and more people playing.
The same could be said for the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV 4K, and even the Vision Pro – though the latter platform, visionOS, isn’t mentioned in the report as getting this dedicated app.
(Image credit: Apple/Future)
Bloomberg reports that while the gaming app will be announced at Apple’s 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference – set to kick off on June 9, 2025 – it won’t ship until September 2025, alongside the next version of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. Of course, these dates slip and Apple’s plan could change, so we’ll need to track WWDC to see what comes to fruition.
The timing of this report and the rumored announcement at WWDC 2025 places it right before and immediately after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, which is scheduled for June 5, 2025.
It won’t be the only announcement that day, though. We’re already expecting iOS 19 and iPadOS 19 as well as the next generation of visionOS, macOS, and tvOS. This report also promises a new AI-powered battery tool to help stretch runtimes, new health capabilities, a redesigned Translate app, and, maybe most exciting, a live translation feature for AirPods. The latter would continue Apple’s tradition of rolling out significant software updates and features for its earbuds at no additional cost.
If you’re keen for this dedicated gaming app or new platforms, the good news is that the opening keynote for WWDC 2025 is only 13 days away.
