{"id":73748,"date":"2019-12-04T03:08:42","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T10:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/apple-and-google-reveal-the-best-apps-and-games-of-2019\/"},"modified":"2019-12-04T03:08:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T10:08:42","slug":"apple-and-google-reveal-the-best-apps-and-games-of-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taterboy.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/apple-and-google-reveal-the-best-apps-and-games-of-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple and Google reveal the best apps and games of 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continuing their annual tradition, Apple<\/a> and Google<\/a> have released their list of the best apps and games of 2019. Apple, for the first time, held a real-world event to celebrate its winners, where it crowned AI-powered camera app Spectre Camera as its best iPhone app of the year and Sky: Children of the Light as its best game. Google, meanwhile, dubbed video messaging app Ablo as its app winner and Call of Duty: Mobile as its best game.<\/p>\n

Apple\u2019s <\/span><\/a> event held in New York put its winning developers in front of media in order to demonstrate their apps and games. The event was less formal than the Apple Design Awards held at the company\u2019s worldwide developer conference each year, and instead focused on private presentations to press.<\/p>\n

Apple said its winners<\/a> this year sit \u201cat the nexus of digital and pop culture,\u201d but its list really better highlights what Apple thinks are the key selling features for its devices. For example, with Spectre Camera <\/a>by Lux Optics, it\u2019s about the iPhone\u2019s ability to serve as your main camera even for complicated tasks like long-exposure photos.<\/p>\n

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The iPad app of the year was Flow<\/a>\u00a0by Moleskin, an app that already won a 2019 Design Award<\/a>. In this case, the digital notebook app shows off a top iPad use case of being a device aimed at creative professionals. Users can take advantage of its digital graphite pencils and chisel-tipped markers to draw and sketch as they could in real life.<\/p>\n

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The Mac app of the year, Affinity Publisher<\/a> by Serif Labs, allows users to design and publish books, magazines, brochures, posters and more \u2014 a task that best lends itself to a larger device with a full-sized keyboard.<\/p>\n

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Finally, the Apple TV app of the year, The Explorers<\/a> by The Explorers Network, showcases something that works best on your TV\u2019s larger, high-def screen. The app\u2019s community of photographers and videographers are working together to create a visual inventory of the natural world, which you can enjoy on your big screen.<\/p>\n

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Apple\u2019s iPhone Game of the Year, Sky: Children of the Light<\/a> by thatgamecompany (makers of Journey, the 2013 Game of the Year), iPad Game of the Year Hyper Light Drifter<\/a> by Abylight S.L. and Mac Game of the Year GRIS <\/a>by Nomada Studio, are all the sort of beautifully designed games that Apple prefers to showcase.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s gaming market has become over-filled with free-to-play titles due to the sort of supported business models that work on the App Store. That\u2019s something Apple Arcade is an attempt to correct, in fact. Apple winners show that even free games can be works of art.<\/p>\n

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Sky: Children..<\/em>.is a free to play social adventure with in-app purchases, but is also beautiful and creative. Similarly, adventure game Hyper Light\u00a0was already a visual arts award winner at the Independent Games Festival. And GRIS has been described<\/a> as one of the most gorgeous games.<\/p>\n\n

The Apple TV Game of the Year, Wonder Boy: The Dragon\u2019s Trap<\/a> by DotEmu, was developed by LizardCube with the cooperation of series creator Ryuichi Nishizawa to bring an \u201980s cult classic back to life. That\u2019s part of one of Apple\u2019s larger App Store gaming trends \u2014 a year of \u201cblockbusters reimagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple also gave mention of other launches in this space, like Mario Kart Tour, Dr. Mario World, Minecraft Earth, Pok\u00e9mon Masters, Assassin\u2019s Creed Rebellion, Gears POP!, The Elder Scrolls: Blades, Alien: Blackout and Google\u2019s Game of the Year,\u00a0Call of Duty: Mobile.<\/p>\n

And in what could be the start of a new tradition, Apple also anointed an Apple Arcade Game of the Year with the gorgeous, fast-paced and music-filled Sayonara Wild Hearts<\/a> developed by Simogo and published by Annapurna Interactive.<\/p>\n

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Apple\u2019s year-end list also highlighted App Store non-gaming trend of\u00a0 \u201cStorytelling,\u201d which featured a variety of apps to tell stories, including visually, as well as through audio and text. Noted apps here were Anchor, Canva, Unfold, Steller, Spark Camera, Over\u00a0and Wattpad.<\/p>\n

Separately, Apple featured a list of the \u201ctop\u201d (most downloaded) apps and games on its App Store for the year, which featured Mario Kart Tour at No. 1 in Games and YouTube as No. 1 in Apps.<\/p>\n

Google doesn\u2019t go all-out as Apple does for its \u201cBest of 2019\u201d picks.<\/p>\n

Instead, it simply featured best app Ablo and best game Call of Duty: Mobile as its editorial picks, then leaves the rest to a User\u2019s Choice. Voters selected the same game, but gave the Best App award to a video editor, Glitch Video Effects.<\/p>\n\n

Google\u2019s full list also includes Google Play\u2019s best e-books, audiobooks, TV shows and movies, which you can see here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Continuing their annual tradition, Apple and Google have released their list of the best apps and games of 2019. Apple, for the first time, held a real-world event to celebrate its winners, where it crowned AI-powered camera app Spectre Camera as its best iPhone app of the year and Sky: Children of the Light as… Read the full article…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[174,377],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games-media","category-gaming"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t