For the last few years, subscription gaming services like Apple Arcade and Netflix have offered mobile game developers something of a haven for high-quality, premium mobile games: a type of game that had become vanishingly rare following the rise of the microtransaction-stuffed free-to-play model. But as these services’ once enviable lineup of indie games dwindles, that haven appears to be shrinking.
In 2021, Netflix announced a new gaming initiative, offering users a chance to play games through the streaming service’s mobile app. Apple launched a similar program with Apple Arcade just two years before that. Both services offered an intere …