Apple gaming Console?

Apple did once make a video game console in conjunction with Bandai in 1996 called the Pippin, but it was generally a commercial failure. Only 100,000 units were manufactured. So Apple chooses to stay away from the video game business.

Game consoles are only as good as the software on it. If seasoned gaming veterans like Sony and Microsoft are finding it hard competing against the Wii, how could a new console with no long-running series survive?

This isn't the handheld market. You can't get away with what passes for a quality iPhone game here. You need Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Metal Gear Solid, GTA, Gran Turismo, Halo, Mass Effect, Bioshock.

For me that would just be going to far. They should stick with what they got - too many products at once would be a bad idea in my opinion.

I find the Wii so boring.

gaming consoles are usually sold at a loss at first and the money is made up on the back end. they usually ship with a crazy fast CPU/Graphics which ages nicely over 5 years. completely opposite of the apple business model of making money from hardware.

For the most part, the Wii does not offer the type of games I want to play and I really don't want to wave my arms around. It's probably pretty good for sports/party games. I don't see Apple doing a game console, but I've been wrong before.

Huntn said:

For the most part, the Wii does not offer the type of games I want to play and I really don't want to wave my arms around. It's probably pretty good for sports/party games. I don't see Apple doing a game console, but I've been wrong before.

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Completely agree.

The iPod touch is their gaming device

ohaithar said:

The iPod touch is their gaming device

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At the moment, yes. But there's always room for new products I suppose, even if they can cannibalise existing sales of products they already have.

I simply don't believe that there is room for another major console but portables are a different story and Apple already has iOS devices for that. Maybe they'll put some simple games on their new iTV but I wouldn't count that as a gaming console per se, as it's mostly a media device, just like those Android powered Google TV things which have Android games on them.

Other than good games a console needs a powerful graphics engine. Powervr won't cut it for home gaming.

And you need exclusive good games. Like splinter cell, final fantasy, etc

Dagless said:

Game consoles are only as good as the software on it. If seasoned gaming veterans like Sony and Microsoft are finding it hard competing against the Wii, how could a new console with no long-running series survive?

This isn't the handheld market. You can't get away with what passes for a quality iPhone game here. You need Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Metal Gear Solid, GTA, Gran Turismo, Halo, Mass Effect, Bioshock.

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Yeap, games consoles are TOTALLY different to the handheld market. The developers spend as much time and money on a game these days as the latest summer Hollywood blockbuster does. We are talking millions and millions and several years (Gran Turismo?).
Their have been a few company's try to enter the handheld market over the last few years and fail, and I can't think of anyone trying to take on the home console market, well they have had so little success I haven't read about them in any media.

The next big thing is this system to stream the games to you. I don't know if that will take off? But to enter the console market you need VERY big balls and I don't think Apple has them or wants them attached to it's brand name. You need to attract developers, so for that you need to offer something people will want, and Apple can't because it's all been done already at a cost I don't think Apple are willing to go down to.

Online play, online chat, online messanger, movie rental, programme rental, cheap games, game add ons, every peripheral under the sun, motion control, digital camera control, networking, streaming, digital TV recorder, HD films, music, music videos for free, Satellite TV channels............. all done already.

I have a PS3, others a Wii or 360, some all or a mixture. I have mine because it dose what I want and I cannot see anything Apple can offer that the PS3 can't. And knowing Apple, you most likely could have all 3 consoles for the price of one Apple console...

Apple won't release a "Game Console" per se, but they will migrate Apple TV to iOS, thus making all games available on the iPod/iPhone/iPad also available or very easily portable to the iOS for Apple TV. Essentially it will be a gaming capable set top box...which now that I think of it is what many of the current Game consoles are becoming with, various data download services and Netflix/Blockbuster video on Demand services. The thing is, with Apple allowing Valve to really have input on OS development to improve OpenGL (and other game specific OS components) performance on OS X Apple is definitely finally paying attention to game development now and that has to be a great thing for gamers in the near future.

Well if Bobby Kotick (activision CEO) gets his way we could be seeing the end of consoles, let alone a new one being introduced...god i hate that man!

I would love a console designed by Apple, but I think their mobile devices are as far as they'll be going for a while. In their ads they frequently talk about it being a gaming platform, and it is, tens of thousands of games, easy to download, on a superb mobile device. I think they'll stick with that for now.

Debojyoti Das said:

Well great replies, but 1 thing I must sure emphasize that soon ( I hope so ) our precious consoles are gonna be archaic. With OnLive streaming games to your tv on a subscription rate like your cable operator or DTH operator, who is gonna buy a console? Also remember that even if you buy a console you can never own all the game titles it has. Ok ok, you are Richie Rich but even if you own all titles you will never like them all, I bet. So for the rest of us who don't have deep pockets, we would love to choose our game, play it as much as we like then ditch it. Winning solution by OnLive. Now assume another situation, unlike the above stated, imaginary in nature. Apple comes exactly with the same plan ! Now with iTunes on Apple TV I don't see anything that will stop Apple to take on OnLive. And with so many developers and an effective network, things will go breezely. What do you think on that?

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The failure of OnLive has been discussed before. Ultimately it will be a laggy experience no matter how fast your connection or ping. Not even taking into account how poorly the video compression quality is.

So "who is going to buy a console"? Console sales increase every generation and with 344 million consoles in homes this isn't a market that is going away.

if apple were to make a box with some ARM CPU that supports playing at 720p and a nice graphics chip then the only issue would be storage. since no optical storage like the PS3 they would have to have a system where you download a 20GB game and store it somewhere to play it. along with movies.

Debojyoti Das said:

However, theses a catch. Storage should be no problem at all with hardware upgrades and secondly apple may stream the game, so only the instance of frames your are playing gets stored in the hard disk. Then it is highly acceptable. I think thats the new secret device which AppleInsider found Apple testing today. A Console.

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Bandwidth is still an issue, ping times are fine. But I don't think Apple is about to launch a games console I'm afraid. There is also nothing to stop Sony or Nintendo or Microsoft doing the exact same thing and they would have MUCH more success from the start as they are known front room brands and they also have networks built up that can be built on. Apple would have nothing and it's known for it's iToys.

And I prefer to actually own my games disks. I don't need to rely on a hard disk not to pack up just to play my games.

Debojyoti Das said:

Although it may sound ridiculous, Contrary to your belief OnLive is gonna be a huge success, as I did meet someone who was in charge of testing it and was dumbfounded. It is a road that Apple is soon gonna ta. Read my comment above

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Not exactly. I work in the industry and colleagues have titles on the platform, I personally haven't tested it (UK). Everyone I spoke to has not liked it. There is lag, video compression is terrible. I've seen uncompressed recordings and it was not pretty. It is not a route that the industry is going down. Games cost more than they do in stores, you have to subscribe to the service on top of all that, and when you stop your subscription you lose your games - permanently.
It's a very bad service and, unless they can break the laws of physics, will always be laggy.

Why do you think peripheral manufacturers actively try to make their products faster? A Razer mouse, for example, has 1000hz ultrapolling (1ms lag). The market for these devices is huge.

Nice that you were dumbfounded whilst talking to someone who works for the company. That's always the best way to be dumbfounded.

Debojyoti Das said:

Although it may sound ridiculous, Contrary to your belief OnLive is gonna be a huge success, as I did meet someone who was in charge of testing it and was dumbfounded. It is a road that Apple is soon gonna ta. Read my comment above

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for a successful console you need good exclusive games. it's a reason to buy that console over another one. it took MS until the 360 to prove to developers that they are going to be around and to get good exclusives or break some of the Playstation's exclusives

and in the case of the PS3 i just bought yesterday it's a nice blu ray player with all kinds of online features. I think the X-Box 360 has better online features but i wanted a Blu Ray player as well.

and with physical disks i can take games to other people's homes to play. OnLive sounds like cool tech, but there have been a lot of times when people made up cool tech that wasn't practical in everyday life

we have vmware where i work and i've read the latest stories about Amazon's EC2. the only way you make money off these cloud services is to oversubscribe them. same story as back in the 1990's when they were called ASP's and failed