Apple is to host a keynote at 10am PT (5pm UK time) today where it's expected to set out its vision for streaming and subscription services for TV, film and potentially games.
The main announcement is anticipated to be a Netflix rival, with Apple already having commissioned its own TV shows.
Premium subscription
It’s also widely speculated that Apple could unveil a game subscription service. Bloomberg reports that “people with knowledge of the plans” as stating the company is working on its own premium games subscription and has already been in discussions with potential partners.
According to one source, Apple will distribute revenue amongst developers based on time played.
If no announcement is made on this tonight, it’s expected that the tech giant will reveal details on its game subscription service at WWDC in June.
A free, ads-powered game streaming service for premium games is currently available on Google Play in the form of Hatch, which offers access to more than 100 premium games.
That platform will soon open up a subscription option, enabling users to play games without ads for a regular fee.
Services shift
The expected announcements of a Netflix rival and games subscription service mark a shift at Apple to a services company.
In January Apple disclosed that sales for its iPhone business fell 15 per cent year-on-year for the three months ending December 29th 2018. CEO Tim Cook blamed falling revenue on China’s economic slowdown and fewer iPhone users regularly upgrading their handsets.
At the same time however, Apple noted that its services business has risen 19 per cent to a record high of $10.9 billion.
While its hardware business may be slowing, it’s still retaining many of those Apple customers. The company will hope that by expanding its services it can extract more money from those consumers within its hardware ecosystem and perhaps even beyond.
You can watch Apple's big reveal streamed live right here.
Streaming will be a hot topic of conversation at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle on May 13th and 14th.
