Apple Games: 5 Things To Know About The Gaming App
Once released, the Apple Games app will be pre-installed on all new Apple devices, represented by a red icon featuring a rocket ship in flight, and provide a unified library for gamers across the Apple ecosystem. This makes it easier for players to keep tabs on all their games in one convenient place, or to see what's happening in their games across all devices. Source: Tom's Guide
It's to be noted that the introduction of the Apple Games app will not render the current Game Center obsolete, and instead serve as an evolution of Game Center, which was previously used to provide social features such as leaderboards to mobile gamers.
From competing with friends and family, to keeping tabs on your friends' high score, and discovering the new games that they seem to enjoy playing, here are 5 things you need to know about the Apple Games app:
Upon launching the Apple Games app, users will be greeted by its Home tab, which gives a detailed overview of all a user's gaming library at a glance, collating data and allowing players to see all the games they have ever downloaded from the App Store via a Library tab, including downloads across iPhone, iPad and Mac devices.
At the top of the page, a rotating carousel will feature editorial collections to help players find new games and recommend the latest Apple titles in store. Below that, a Continue Playing section lists all of the user's downloaded games organised based on which title was last played, allowing easy access to a player's favourite title and allowing them to quickly get back in the game.
Even if you're on an iPhone and that copy of Civilization VII is for your iMac, Apple Games will reflect that, and you can tell which of your friends also dabble in global domination.
Additional sections of the Home tab feature what games a user's Game Center friends are playing, including Top Played Games based on App Store rankings, and curated recommendations which suggest similar titles to the games a user has played.
Users will be able to sort their list of games either alphabetically or based on the most recent title played, with additional filters available that let users list only installed games, those that work with controllers and Apple Arcade titles.
Additionally, the Library screen also features an Updates and Events button, where users can keep track of any relevant events for their owned games, like upcoming seasonal content or competitive tournaments, while the Achievements button lists the various Game Center achievements users have racked up over the years across all titles.
Within the app's Play Together feature, users can now keep track of their friends' gaming activities by integrating features on the Game Center app, listing out all their friends and created groups in one place to easily enjoy games together.
Apart from listing out their shared gaming history, users can also compare game achievements or send game invite links or party codes right from the app without the need for external software, making the process of multiplayer gaming more streamlined.
The Games app also features challenges — a new way to spark friendly competition through score-based contests. Developers with Game Center leaderboards can create tailored challenges for smaller groups of friends, transforming solo gameplay into a shared experience with friends, allowing for more ways to rally a group, crown a winner, and have a rematch. Players can invite friends to challenges by selecting their friends or contacts.
The Apple Games app will also serve as a hub for Apple's gaming subscription service, Apple Arcade, with a dedicated tab for the feature. Functioning similarly to the Home tab, users will be able to subscribe to the service, discover new titles to play, or launch their Apple Arcade games directly, all from one convenient location.
The Apple Games app also adds a handy Game Overlay feature for iPad and Mac, which will show over the top of games when pulled out. This tool allows users to quickly adjust system settings on the fly, like audio and screen brightness, manage Bluetooth devices like controllers, switch on Low Power mode to extend gaming sessions and maximise battery life, or turn on Game Mode for enhanced system performance, all without leaving the full-screen app.
Additionally, players will also have access to a social tab within the Game Overlay, giving quick access to the Game Center and their friends list, making it easy to start a chat even while gaming. This feature supports both portrait and landscape modes, with navigation possible using a controller.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise 'duds' like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3 . He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying. Apple Apple Games Apple Games App iOS 26 WWDC 2025
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Geek Culture
9 hours ago
- Geek Culture
'Wednesday' Creators Alfred Gough & Miles Millar Plan 'Addams Family' Animated Reboot Film
In an episode of Deadline's Crew Call podcast, Wednesday creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar disclosed their current work on a new animated Addams Family movie for Amazon MGM Studios. The Addams Family (2019) The movie will be a complete reboot of the animated film franchise, having no links to the original films, as well as Netflix's Wednesday, which stars Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Jenna Ortega as the deadpan, sarcastic, and macabre titular character. Gough has told Crew Call that the creator duo would be working on the new animated film with Amazon MGM, as well as Kevin Miserocchi, the director of the Tee & Charles Addams Foundation, who personally knew Charles Addams, the creator of the Addams Family. Other collaborators on the project include producers Gail Berman ( Elvis ) and John Glickman ( Rush Hour ). Gough and Millar shared about the first time they collaborated and how they have maintained that level of teamwork from their time at the USC Peter Stark Producing Program, working on their orangutan and cop buddy movie, Mango , all the way to their half-billion-grossing Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024). The pair also went on to talk about Season 2 of Wednesday , disclosing how they managed to successfully pull off the new season despite the writers' and actors' strikes, their inspiration, the enduring pull of the Addams Family franchise, and the best way to accurately depict what's in Wednesday's mind as she offhandedly tosses her usual sardonic one-liners. As Gough explains, 'The key with her is not writing a joke, it's writing to her worldview. That's where it lands, and that's where it sounds fun. Anytime you reach for a joke with this character, you wind up cutting that line.' In addition, because Wednesday isn't exactly a typical detective, her motivations are usually different. In the words of Gough, Wednesday commits to solving crimes because 'someone has gaslighted her, or because she feels a truth isn't being told, she also sticks up for the underdog.' Unlike other characters who become more fleshed out as their show progresses, Gaugh said that the approach to Wednesday is to instead think of her as a character that is already 'fully formed and she [just] has to learn that the world works in shades of grey.' Conversation with Ting Wei is like chatting with a weird AI bot programmed only with One Piece lore and theories, sitcom quotes and other miscellaneous pop culture references. When he's not sleeping, he's highly likely reading manga. In fact, the only thing he reads more than manga is the Bible, and it's honestly pretty close. Amazon MGM Studios The Addams Family wednesday
Geek Culture
2 days ago
- Geek Culture
Weapons – Review
The horror and comedy genres may lie at opposite ends of the spectrum, but there are commonalities in their execution. For one, a good grasp of timing is key to delivering an effective punchline or jumpscare, serving to unravel different forms of tension. It's probably no coincidence, then, that some of the best scares have been established by filmmakers with comedy backgrounds, including John Krasinski ( The Office ), who established the A Quiet Place universe, Jordan Peele ( Key & Peele ), best known for Get Out and Nope , and more recently, comedian turned director Zach Cregger ( Friends With Benefits ), whose debut film Barbarian took the world by storm in 2022. Grossing US$45.4 million worldwide against a budget of US$4 to US$4.5 million, the indie thriller earned and fed curiosity with a deceptively simple framework involving a woman, a double-booked Airbnb, and a basement, earning praise for its writing, direction, cast performances, and tense atmosphere. Much of this continues to pervade Cregger's latest ambition, a genre-blending horror mystery that delights as much as it bewilders, topped off with a polished blend of morbid humour and grisly violence. Weapons weaponises modern fears well, paranoia first and foremost. The premise is straightforward, succinctly summarised by the liner on its official poster: 'Last night at 2:17 am, every child from Mrs. Gandy's class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark, and they never came back.' It's a powerful hook, with the macabre pose of the missing kids feeding into the sense of uneasiness and anxiety, inspired by photojournalist Nick Ut's impactful Vietnam War snapshot, Napalm Girl. Only one kid ends up unscathed, but surveillance footage captured by porch cameras and security systems reveals no motives or clues as to how the incident occurred. Suspicion naturally falls on their teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner, Ozark ), who becomes the easy target of grieving parents during a town hall meeting, especially Archer Graff (Josh Brolin, Avengers: Infinity War ), who insists that she must be responsible somehow. Once the school reopens after an investigation period, Justine is suspended from duty and advised to lay low, despite wanting to resume teaching, but that doesn't free her from acts of harassment that extend to vandalism, a threatening phone call, knocking on her door, and more. Puzzled and frustrated, she launches her own investigation into the mass disappearance, subsequently finding an unlikely ally in Archer. But the less known about its story, the better. Unravelling in a Rashomon -esque structure (Cregger cites Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia as inspiration), minus the unreliable narrative touch, Weapons follows six different perspectives: Justine; Archer; young cop and Justine's occasional hookup Paul (Alden Ehrenreich, Blue Jasmine ); the sympathetic, well-intentioned school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong, 3 Body Problem ); an unhoused drug addict James (Austin Abrams, The Walking Dead ); and Alex (Cary Christopher, Day of Our Lives ), the sole student from Justine's class who didn't go missing. Each of these chapters weaves in neatly, rewinding at the start of a new section to reveal fresh insights and establish more context for the previous scenes. The intricate execution allows the pieces to fit together satisfyingly, playing out so smoothly that viewers are able to connect the dots even before the whole picture comes alive on the big screen. Along the way, flashes of faces smudged in clown-like makeup play into the characters' fears, keep the tension high, and set the stage for a late-arrival appearance. It certainly helps that the point-of-view storytelling is led by strong individual performances, starting with Justine's duality. Gardner proves adept at playing the role of a compassionate, sympathetic teacher who bares her teeth when provoked and makes questionable, though understandable, decisions, while Ehrenreich commands attention with a seamless shift between Paul's hard-boiled and mellower sides. Brolin is convincing as the brash, hot-tempered Archer, who gives off the impression of a bully, even if his frustration is well-warranted, and Abrams effortlessly brings out the jittery desperation and twitchy sensibilities of a drug addict. Both Christopher and Amy Madigan ( Roe vs. Wade ), in a role that's best kept a mystery, are the standouts, with the former painting a striking image of a lonely, tortured-soul Alex. Still, the multi-character focus is a bit of a double-edged sword, as the uneven screentime leaves a few of them, including Archer, feeling underutilised. As the story progresses, some of the intrigue loses its charm, too. At its core, Weapons is an instrument of horror, which means frights. Leaning more into the intangible evils and a lingering sense of uneasiness than outright jump scares, the film wields suspense like a sharp, well-honed sword and never fails to stick its landing. It also maintains tension well from one scene to another, reinforced by dynamic camera work and a score that sometimes adopts contrasting, cheery tunes to elevate the chill factor. While violence is interspersed throughout the film, expect plenty more grisly action in the final stretch. The child narrator in the opening scene says, 'A lot of people die in a lot of really weird ways in this story,' and boy, is that an understatement – alongside gory entrails, brutal head-bashing, and more, there's a sequence that uses a potato peeler as a weapon (yikes!). The humour is as twisted and dark as it gets, conveyed through visceral physical comedy, a grotesque grand finale, and campy moments. Sometimes, the jokes can take a while to set in, and when they do, the absurdity and bizarreness of it all will take viewers to the many times in the movie where a character goes, 'What the f**k!'. The comedic element and lack of a more traditional horror experience may disappoint genre enthusiasts, but there's no denying Cregger's mastery in combining the thrills with the spills. Word has it that Peele parted ways with longtime managers Joel Zadak and Peter Principato after losing the auction for this film's production rights, and it's easy to see why. There's a strangely hypnotic quality to Weapons that keeps viewers on constant tenterhooks, promising a satisfying romp of innovation, intrigue, and suspense. Like Barbarian , it has little interest in answering the big whys and hows, because certain genre elements are simply inexplicable; instead, the chiller pours its attention into crafting a new standard for genre-blending storytelling, led by a solid cast. Summary Gripping, thrilling, and bizarre at times, Weapons weaves a strong cast and macabre humour into a suspenseful horror mystery that makes clever work of the genre. Story - 7.5/10 Direction - 9/10 Characterisation - 8/10 Geek Satisfaction - 9/10 Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth's theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia's greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really. Review Warner Bros. Weapons Zach Cregger
Geek Culture
4 days ago
- Geek Culture
Mason Dye And Kiki Layne Join 'The Boys' Prequel 'Vought Rising'
Mason Dye ( Stranger Things ) and KiKi Layne ( The Old Guard 2 ) have been cast as series regulars in Vought Rising , the upcoming The Boys prequel for Prime Video. Mason Dye The pair join returning stars Jensen Ackles ( Supernatural ) and Aya Cash ( You're the Worst ), along with previously announced regulars Will Hochman ( Blue Bloods ), Elizabeth Posey ( Euphoria ), Jorden Myrie ( The Strays ), Nicolò Pasetti (That Dirty Black Bag ), Ricky Staffieri ( The Bear ), and Brian J. Smith ( Sense8 ). According to series creators Eric Kripke ( Supernatural ) and Paul Grellong ( Law & Order: SVU ), Vought Rising is 'a twisted murder mystery about the origins of Vought in the 1950s, the early exploits of Soldier Boy, and the diabolical maneuvers of a Supe known to fans as Stormfront, who was then going by the name Clara Vought.' Ackles and Cash will reprise their roles as Soldier Boy and Stormfront, respectively. Jensen Ackles' Soldier Boy in The Boys . While details on most of the new characters are under wraps, Dye is rumoured to play a junkie and former combat pilot, with Layne expected to portray a Harlem housewife with big ambitions. Production is scheduled to start later this month. Grellong will serve as executive producer and showrunner for the hourlong drama, which is being developed by Kripke. Additional executive producers include Kripke, Seth Rogen ( The Studio ), Evan Goldberg ( The Studio ), James Weaver ( Bad Neighbours ), Neal H. Moritz ( Fast & Furious franchise), Ori Marmur ( Passengers ), Pavun Shetty ( Goosebumps ), Ken Levin ( Preacher ), Jason Netter ( Gen V ), Garth Ennis ( Gen V ), Darick Robertson ( Gen V ), Michaela Starr ( Gen V ), and Jim Barnes ( The Walking Dead ), with Cash and Ackles also serving as producers. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon MGM Studios, in association with Kripke Enterprises, Point Grey Pictures, and Original Film. KiKi Layne Dye, also known for playing Garrett on MTV's Teen Wolf , recently portrayed antagonist Jason Carver in Season 4 of Netflix's Stranger Things . Meanwhile, Layne's breakout came in Barry Jenkins' ( Moonlight ) If Beale Street Could Talk . She later starred alongside Charlize Theron ( Mad Max: Fury Road ) in The Old Guard and recently reprised her role as Nile in The Old Guard 2 , acting opposite Theron and Uma Thurman ( Kill Bill ). With the two acclaimed up-and-coming stars joining the already star-studded cast, it looks like Vought will indeed be rising. Conversation with Ting Wei is like chatting with a weird AI bot programmed only with One Piece lore and theories, sitcom quotes and other miscellaneous pop culture references. When he's not sleeping, he's highly likely reading manga. In fact, the only thing he reads more than manga is the Bible, and it's honestly pretty close. Jensen Ackles Prime Video The Boys Vought Rising
