Product2 publishersIndependently confirmed2 min readPublished
Crossy Road Rush puts four-player online racing behind Apple Arcade's $6.99 subscription
Hipster Whale's Crossy Road Rush launches November 5 only on Apple Arcade, with online races for up to four players. Since the game is offered nowhere else, an online race fills only when every friend in the group has Arcade too.
The Product Desk · Product desk
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What happened
- The game keeps the voxel look of Crossy Road and Crossy Road Castle while adding combat, exploration and an adventure structure, according to 9to5Mac.
- Launch is set for 4:00 p.m. PST on November 5, and Arcade subscribers can pre-order the game now.
- Five other titles, including Terraria+, Pusheen's Place and River City Survivors, were added to Arcade earlier in October.
- Apple Arcade already offers its subscribers more than 200 games.
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Why it matters
- cost Four friends on standalone plans pay $27.96 a month between them to share one lobby, though each also gets the full catalogue for that money.
- decision Households already on Apple One get Rush at no added cost, while anyone else is weighing $83.88 a year on the strength of one franchise title.
- constraint Arcade games carry no ads or in-app purchases, so there is no free version to hand a friend who won't subscribe, and the group's least willing payer sets its size.
The description on Crossy Road's YouTube channel ends with an invitation: "Ride solo, or connect locally and online with up to 4 players!" [7] The three friends that invitation goes to are the audience the game has to win.
Apple's own pitch is the obstacle course. Players "swerve, jump, and smash their way across an island obstacle course packed with quick-fire challenges and hazards at every turn," according to Apple [5]. Here's what teams tell themselves users do with a pitch like that: recognise the Crossy Road name [1] and sign up. With a four-player game, I'd expect users to do something smaller. They ask the group chat who has it. The answer depends on who pays $6.99 a month for Arcade or gets it inside an Apple One bundle [11].
On Apple's side, the release day shows what the game is for. KAMI 2 and Food Stylist, both existing App Store games, arrive on Arcade the same day [8]. Rush is the only new title of the three [13]. Apple and Hipster Whale announced it jointly [2] without disclosing deal terms, so whether Apple paid for the exclusive, and how much, is not on the record.
For a studio weighing a subscription exclusive of its own, I'd sort the decision on two axes: whether the game needs other people, and whether its likely players already pay for the service. A solo game aimed at existing subscribers gives up little by going exclusive. Solo players outside the service have to be talked into the fee by one game. Social games aimed at subscribers work when whole friend groups are already inside. The hard corner is social play aimed at non-subscribers. There, one title has to persuade several people to start paying at roughly the same time.
I'd take a social exclusive only when the subscriber base already holds the friend groups. The cost of that rule is reach: it means turning down deals for games whose players mostly sit outside the service. Rush, with solo play and online races for up to four [6], belongs in the social column.
What to watch
- Any release of Crossy Road Rush outside Arcade after November 5; that would end the subscription requirement for online races.
- Player reports after the 4:00 p.m. PST launch on how quickly four-player online lobbies fill, and support threads from groups split by who subscribes.
- Whether Arcade's next batch is led by another new title or, like KAMI 2 and Food Stylist, by games already on the App Store.