Apple Arcade not working for child family member

In working through this with Apple Support last week, we found the following workaround available for those that have a Mac:

1. Either log into your child’s account on the Mac or create and log into your child’s account on a Mac
2. Connect the child’s iCloud account to the User account on the Mac
3. Open the Mac App Store
4. Select Arcade on the left pane
5. Click to download one of the games listed
6. The Mac may prompt you to accept some terms and conditions, or verify the iCloud account
7. After the download is complete, select to Open the newly installed app
8. The Apple Arcade - Mac app will launch asking for your child to accept the terms and conditions of GameCenter
9. After all these steps are completed, you’ll find the ability for your child’s account on Apple TV can now load the Apple Arcade games.

One of the last problems I’ve seen is that when changing the user on tvOS it doesn’t change the associated GameCenter account so that the game is saving the progress to the right account, so that it can be utilized on the child’s other Apple devices.

Hi,

I had the same problem with the children's account on my Apple TV. I tried to follow the steps described by hardstriker on my mac, but he never asked me to accept legal conditions. I just limited myself to:

1. Create a new user with administrator permissions.

2. Enter the children's account in iCloud.

3. Enter the children's account in the App Store.

4. Download a game from the Arcade platform.

5. Open the game and close again.

6. Disconnect the children's account from the App Store.

7. disconnect the iCloud children's account.

8. Delete the user.

After this the children's account was unlocked for Appla Arcade on Apple TV.

I hope it works for somebody.

Greetings!

I faced a similar issue with a brand new Apple TV today, with the 1 month free trial Arcade subscription that I'd activated on my phone a couple of weeks back. Every time the kids tried to start a game on their Profile on the Apple TV, it would try to load, but kind of crash and present a screen similar to the one above that seemed to suggest you needed to subscribe but that button was greyed out, and actually said "Subscribed". This seems to suggest they recognise the subscription exists, but just can connect it to the profile

I tried the suggestion above of activating their Apple ID's on my iMac, and after running back and forth that seems to have worked. I also confirmed the Apple TV had the kids Game Centre IDs attached as well. But, as mentioned above, the "Profile" seems to bear no relation to the Game Centre ID, and while switching Profiles is very easy now, switching Game Centre Profile on the Apple TV is very cumbersome. You have to go into the Settings menu, into the Users, sign out of the current Game Centre account, and then sign into the one you want. This of course requires the password for that account and the two-factor authentication, so it's not something you really want to be doing every 5 minutes or so if you have a few people playing and want to keep their high scores up to date.

Is there a way to swap Game Centre account Profiles that is a simple as changing the movie and TV user profile on the Apple TV?

Hi guys, I have had this same issue and appear to have found a fix..

I simply deselected ‘ask to buy’ for my child within the family sharing options by clicking on their name. This immediately allowed the games to work on the Apple TV..

hoping it doesn’t affect them when wanting to make any purchases as he will have to put in a password anyway..

seems to have fixed it whether anybody else has had a workaround or fix yet?

I have the same problem as mentioned above. There is definitely some differences between "Family Sharing" and "Multiuser" that is not fully functional, specifically for Arcade. I suspect there is a relation to the fact that switching users does NOT switch the GameCenter account. So in the best case scenario (as is), switching to your child's user would still use your own GameCenter data. I don't know if this is a bug or a feature. But, it is certainly frustrating as this is the single most important feature I need for Arcade to be useful in my household.

Don't think this is one your fellow users can help with. Try contacting Apple Support instead.

tt2

We're having the same/similar difficulty, although my children play on the same Mac Book Air. My daughter can play under her user name no problem, but my son cannot. We get the same screen as amjohnno. I've looked through our subscription settings etc. all seems fine. I've checked parental filters etc. and can't find anything. Realize this is a new service but obviously people are having some glitches here. Hopefully Apple will respond soon!

Strangely, I am now experiencing a similar issue on the iMac. Only one of the 4 profiles on my iMac can actually play Arcade games. Each Profile has its own Apple ID and is logged into Game Centre as well. Each profile can "GET" and download games from Arcade, but they won't load. I just get the screen about Subscribing, but with the button greyed out and saying "Subscribed". Strange.

I know this isn't helpful but I have the same issue. The child accounts can play on the iPad just fine (logged in as them) but not on the AppleTV. I have the same issue as the original post.

I just ran into this issue today, signed up for Apple Arcade over the weekend and each child account can not access any games. @AppleSupport please help.