Apple’s new Games app lets you challenge your friends

Apple is launching a new app that acts as a central hub for the games and gaming features across its platforms. The new Apple Games app combines Apple Arcade, App Store game recommendations, your App Store game library, and your friends list into a single location. Apple calls it an “all-in-one destination for games and playing with friends.”

The new app will be available on iPhones, iPads, and Macs, starting with versions coming out this fall. In addition to collecting your games, you’ll also be able to view leaderboards for supported titles and complete “challenges” set by developers. Apple sees it as a way to create multiplayer experiences out of single-player titles.

On top of the new Apple Games app, Apple is also adding a Game Overlay feature to iPads and Macs, which lets players access Game Center features, friends lists, and gaming settings without leaving a game.

The news is the latest gaming-focused push by Apple. The company added Game Mode to Macs with macOS Sonoma in 2023, which optimizes your Mac for better gaming performance. It also brought Game Mode to iOS last year with iOS 18. And Apple offers a Proton-like tool that can help Windows games run on a Mac. The company has made a big deal about the ray-tracing capabilities of chips in newer iPhones. And, of course, it offers the Apple Arcade gaming subscription service.

Apple has worked to bring big, AAA games to its platforms, including Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and a bunch of Resident Evil games, including Resident Evil 2, 3, 4, 7, and Village. However, some of these bigger titles reportedly haven’t sold very well.