Subscription catalogues and cloud gaming

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A library for a monthly fee

A subscription catalogue gives players many games for one monthly price. The service pays the studios whose games are in it.

Two catalogues on phones

Quick check

What happens to Shard Garden's coin shop in Apple Arcade?

  1. It goes: Arcade games have no in-app purchases
  2. It stays the same
  3. Coins cost half price
Show the answer

It goes: Arcade games have no in-app purchases

Apple Arcade games have no ads and no in-app purchases. Everything is included in the subscription.

How studios are paid

Google says Play Pass developers earn recurring revenue from subscribers who engage with their app, through Google's own formula.

For Apple Arcade, Apple invites studios working on "a fun, unreleased game" to get in touch, so the decision comes early.

A whole game, no shop

A catalogue version must feel complete without a shop. Everything a player could buy is unlocked by playing instead. The studio gains steady income and new players; it gives up selling items to them.

Remy keeps Shard Garden's core the same. The channel layer for the catalogue switches off the shop and the ads, and gives out the shop items through play.

Fit the catalogue

Kai pitches Shard Garden to a subscription catalogue. Which version fits?

  1. Every seed and pot unlocked by playing, with no ads
  2. The normal game with a coin shop
  3. A demo that asks players to buy the full game
Show the answer

Every seed and pot unlocked by playing, with no ads

Catalogue games include everything for the subscription price: no shop, no ads, no upsell.

Quick check

A game in Google Play Pass can show ads between levels.

Show the answer

False

Play Pass games are "completely free of ads and in-app purchases."

The game runs somewhere else

In cloud gaming, the game runs on a server. The player's device shows a video of it and sends their presses back, so a phone can play a game it could never run. Each press makes the round trip: Shard Garden's calm pace streams well, its timed weed races need testing on a slow connection.

Microsoft's guide for Xbox game streaming: "You can make your game playable without an attached controller", with touch controls drawn over the game.

True story: Stadia closes

On 29 September 2022, Phil Harrison of Google wrote: "We've made the difficult decision to begin winding down our Stadia streaming service." It "hasn't gained the traction with users that we expected".

Google refunded "all Stadia hardware purchases made through the Google Store" and "all game and add-on content purchases made through the Stadia store". Players could keep playing "through January 18, 2023".

Source: Google: A message about Stadia and our long term streaming strategy (29 Sep 2022), blog.google

Protect the players

Remy weighs three plans. Which protects Shard Garden's players if a streaming service shuts down?

  1. Accounts and saves kept by the studio, linked to each channel
  2. Saves kept only inside the streaming service
  3. Telling players to take screenshots
Show the answer

Accounts and saves kept by the studio, linked to each channel

When the studio keeps the account and the save, a closing channel loses a way to play, not the garden. Players sign in somewhere else and find it waiting.

More PC stores

Steam is the biggest PC store, not the only one.

Bolt says: Next: PC stores beyond Steam.

Fact-checked 12 October 2026