Playond is the indie alternative to Apple Arcade in the quest to fix mobile gaming
In the 14 years that we’ve covered mobile games on Pocket Gamer, we’ve never encountered a love/hate relationship quite like freemium gaming. The positives are obvious: players get to download and try games before having to pay for them. And for publishers, they can now reach an even larger pool of gamers. The caveat: the limit to game progression is no longer only your skills, but also your patience and money. As the game progresses, you need to start buying in-app purchases to keep having fun.
There’s another issue. Developers still passionate about producing high-quality games who refuse to incorporate these pay-to-win dynamics now struggle to get noticed among the free-to-play titles dominating the app stores. Increasingly, they have been forced to compromise and turn to this new model.
That’s starting to change in 2019, thanks to the launch of several innovative subscription-based services. Platforms like Apple Arcade represent a shift towards making premium titles more accessible, giving them a level playing field to compete from.
Playond is an exciting new service in this space that aims to bring the joy of premium gaming back to players, with a focus on indie titles developed by small studios with passion and craft.
The service has put in place agreements with a number of iOS developers, and now features more than 60 award-winning games on its platform. This means, for a small monthly fee, you can enjoy a whole library of games that would cost well over $100 to purchase individually on the App Store.
What’s more, those who want to try out the service before subscribing can do so. Thanks to Playond’s innovative free tier, users can play any game in the collection for free with only some minor limitations – before subscribing to unlock full access.
And the games are indeed great. The launch line-up includes award-winning titles like Crashlands and Morphite, in addition to an extensive collection of indie gems for you to discover. Other catalog highlights include Max the Curse of Brotherhood, a cinematic puzzle-platformer, Jydge, a brutal top-down shooter, and Wonder Blade, a laugh-filled adventure game packed with sass. Playond’s current line-up runs an extensive gamut of genres and game styles, set to reward almost any player with months of fun.
Will Playond succeed in changing the mobile gaming market for good? Some kinks still need to be ironed out, and only time will tell. But, if you love iOS games, giving Playond a try is a no brainer. Simply head on over to the App Store today and download it for free.
If you like what you see, Playond is currently a bargain, with an early bird offer of just $0.99 per month for users that subscribe now.
