Apple will reportedly unveil a new app at WWDC next week that centralizes some of its video gaming features on devices like iPhones and that will likely replace Game Center. Apple will release the new app this year as a preinstalled service across Apple platforms including MacOS, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Game Center, which launched in 2010, is not a stand-alone app, but more like a collection of settings and game-related data for connecting with other players. The new effort would replace Game Center with something more robust, according to Gurman, with leaderboards, achievements and ways to communicate with other players
The new, centralized gaming app is meant to show that Apple is a major player in gaming, Gurman wrote. But, he added: "There are two things Apple has never been especially good at: social networks and gaming. And its attempts to bundle the two ideas together haven't fared much better."
Apple also has an Arcade app that works as a subscription service for $7 a month. But despite the popularity of mobile gaming, Apple isn't considered an industry heavyweight in video games, as least compared to Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, the latter of which will be releasing its Switch 2 game console this week, just days before WWDC.
Speculation about how gaming might figure into Apple's WWDC presentation comes just after the company acquired RAC7, the two-person game studio behind the Apple Arcade exclusive Sneaky Sasquatch. The game has been around since 2019.
A representative for Apple did not immediately respond to a request for information about WWDC plans.
Apple's gaming prospects
It may be that Apple has a case of Steam envy. Valve, the company behind the Steam platform has created a dominant game-distribution market that also is good at engaging communities of gamers. The App Store, by contrast, is not.
"They've tried to boost engagement with various content pieces, but they all wind up seeming like wordy ads," says Jason Frankovitz, a software engineering expert at Quandary Peak Research. "Game Center hasn't offered compelling features for a very long time, so maybe Apple are realizing that game distribution is not just another type of software but a distinct community with different content needs and engagement demands."
On the platform and hardware side, Apple doesn't seem willing to invest the kind of money that Sony and Nintendo do on franchises and gaming services.Â
"I think the disconnect is that historically, the Apple market hasn't been large enough to justify development costs, especially as the expenses creating a AAA game have been skyrocketing," Frankovitz tells me. "You need to make your game for the biggest platform with the most people, and that has never been Apple."
Apple may take advantage of development tools like Unreal Engine 5 for cross-platform game development, or at least helping build the infrastructure for game developers to get more games on its devices, Frankovitz says. But don't put too much stock in its studio purchase.
"I think it's too small and acquisition to indicate they are getting serious. Instead, I think it's an experiment to help them decide if they want to start getting serious," he tells CNET.
The RAC7 acquisition may be the first step in a larger strategy, or it could fizzle like previous Apple gaming efforts. "I think this little studio is going to help Apple learn what it's like to have a first party studio, and once they have gained some of that experience, and they've decided they want to continue, then I could see them acquiring a larger developer, maybe even taking pitches for a new franchise," Frankovitz says.
You can check out what else to expect from WWDC 2025 and how to watch Apple's June 9 WWDC keynote.