Apple's newly appointed head of the App Store, Carson Oliver, has given his first interview since taking the role, telling Polygon that the App Store was "built to level the playing field" so indie games can sit beside the biggest franchises. The interview, published by Polygon, followed Apple's Indie Games Week event.
Oliver took over App Store Worldwide after Phil Schiller's sudden departure from the role in August. One of his first public acts was leading the indie gaming showcase, which kicked off on Monday and brought seven titles to iOS, including Vampire Crawlers, Sifu and Little Kitty, Big City. Apple also announced a mobile version of No Man's Sky.
Apple gaming strategy and App Store tools
Oliver said gaming has "always" been central to the App Store and that Apple's strategy has evolved to match how people play. He argued that what is accelerating now is the technology behind the ecosystem, pointing to hardware features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing as well as developer tools including Game Porting Toolkit 4, Metal and open-source Unity plug-ins.
He also highlighted Apple's approach to discoverability. Oliver said a global editorial team uses human curation to surface new games, and he pointed to Creative Assets, a new feature that lets indie developers showcase their own artwork in search results and product page headers. Apple Arcade, launched in 2019, remains part of the plan, he indicated.
The company has been courting major studios for years — Capcom brought games to Mac, and Apple now has a dedicated gaming app. Hello Games founder Sean Murray credited Apple's hardware for making a 5GB No Man's Sky port possible on iPhone 11 and newer devices.
What it means for you
For players in Tunisia, the immediate takeaway is that Apple is pushing harder to bring premium indie titles to iPhone and iPad, and tools like Creative Assets could make those games easier to find in the App Store. Apple Arcade availability and pricing in Tunisia have not been announced, and Apple has not confirmed any regional changes.
