I think it’s so app-level device-management policy features can be applied to the content of these services at a per-game granular level.
Having each game as its own app means each game gets its own app-store age rating; its own star-rating, reviews, and install metrics; its own parental-control settings (e.g. screen time limits); its own corporate MDM blacklist-ability; and the ability for Apple to block that individual game from being installable, either temporarily because it’s breaking App Store policy, or permanently within some country whose regime doesn’t allow it.
Also, Apple haven’t mentioned exactly how they’re implementing this just yet, but I would guess that the game streaming services are going to be required to have each client version paired 1:1 with a particular release of the streamed game, such that you must update the app to connect to an updated streaming backend. This would put Apple’s App Store review team back in the critical path for approving changes in app content.
Sure. It’s still a little hard to justify when you have video streaming services (which at a technical level is all that Stadia is as well). While Netflix is largely non-interactive content, they certainly do have interactive pieces (eg the experiment they did with a choose your adventure Kimmy Schmidt).
Having each game as its own app means each game gets its own app-store age rating; its own star-rating, reviews, and install metrics; its own parental-control settings (e.g. screen time limits); its own corporate MDM blacklist-ability; and the ability for Apple to block that individual game from being installable, either temporarily because it’s breaking App Store policy, or permanently within some country whose regime doesn’t allow it.
Also, Apple haven’t mentioned exactly how they’re implementing this just yet, but I would guess that the game streaming services are going to be required to have each client version paired 1:1 with a particular release of the streamed game, such that you must update the app to connect to an updated streaming backend. This would put Apple’s App Store review team back in the critical path for approving changes in app content.