Apple Serious about Games?

[mrgreen4242]

Predictions:
1) iPod games "grow-up". Not in the lame, "OMG I WANTZ MATURE GAMES WHERE I KILL EVERYTHING" way. I mean they start moving beyond the simple puzzle/pong-derivative games. Those are fun, and they still need to offer those (at that can't-resist-$5 price), but there's room in that market for an RPG, an adventure game, I'd LOVE to see a Dragon Lair type game, or even Dragon Lair, etc. Basically, two levels of iPod games, $5 pick up and plays, $10 "serious" games.

2) Apple TV gets games. Apple releases a game pack for the TV. Includes a BT adaptor (USB) for the ATV, a controller, and a couple free mini games. Extra controllers also available. Games for sale on iTunes, focus on party style gaming; beefed up board games, mini-game filled titles (like WarioWare/Mario Party). I think the controller will be a one-handed job, like the Wii main controller, without the motion sensitive bit (to expensive/complex for the market they would want to get). Hold it in your hand like a remote, D-pad under your thumb, a main button under your index finger, second button by the D-Pad.

3) Games on the Mac. Apple launches a Yahoo Games/PopCap style division. All casual games, like Snood, Zuma, card games, etc. Some Apple made titles, some exclusive third party stuff, some ported to Mac games. Everything sold, installed, managed, etc through iTunes. A 'click here, confirm purchase, game downloads, installs, and then gives you a friendly message reminding you how to launch it (which is just to go to the games "playlist" in iTunes and click the title you want)' service. Very very simple to find, buy, download, install and start playing. This is what the casual market wants. Fixed price structure similar to the iPod with $5 and $10 games.

Someone needs to get Dragon Lair on the iPod ASAP. I never thought about it, but it's pretty much the perfect platform for that style of game. Good video capabilities (Dragon Lair was based on a Laser Disc movie system, for those of you who don't remember it), great sound, 4-way controller... it's just to good of a match.

 

[rickag]

If they wanna get serious about games, they need to release a good Core 2 Duo tower! Above the specs of the imac and below a Mac pro, without a monitor!

Well that only took the 6th post to appear. When or if Apple will ever listen becomes the question.
I'd buy one even though I really don't play games that much. The quest for the mythical single Conroe tower continues.

 

[mrgreen4242]

Well that only took the 6th post to appear. When or if Apple will ever listen becomes the question.
I'd buy one even though I really don't play games that much. The quest for the mythical single Conroe tower continues.

While I think Apple needs a non-all-in-one between the mini and Pro, it's not something that I think will help them "take the gaming market". For Apple to succeed in gaming, I believe, it's going to be based around the iPod with Apple TV and some casual desktop games helping support/grow the service.

 

[zombitronic]

As far as a lead graphics designer...Jamie Hewlett of Tank Girl/Gorillaz. I don't know how well this would mesh with games, but as far as style points, I could see it shimmering in Apple's eyes.

 

[tbrinkma]

...There'll be mounted at his shoulders some kind of weapon, called iShoot. It will be the only one you can use at the game , but it's enough, because it is the best and most sophisticated gun in the universe. It will target and shoot the enemies alone, when it needed. If several enemies attack - iShoot defines what is a danger order and take them all down, starting from most dangerous to weakest ones. ...

Seriously, if those are your tactics, you'll have issues. Generally speaking, you focus on the easy kills while avoiding damage, then go for the big guy. Otherwise, while you focus on the tough kill, you have to keep dodging the attacks from the little guys.

Lets say you've got 10 little guys and 1 big guy.
Over the course of the average second, the little guys each do only 3 damage to you, and the big guy does 20. It takes 2 seconds to kill a little guy and 30 seconds to kill the big guy.

If you take out the big guy first, you'll take ((20*30)+(10*3*30))+((10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1)*2*3)=1830 damage (600 + 900 + 330)

If you take out the little guys first, you'll take (40*30)+((10+9+8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1)*2*3)=1530 damage (1200+330)

You take double the pounding from the dangerous enemy, but you don't give the swarm the chance to peck you to death like a flock of ducks.

 

[Clive At Five]

what happened to that whole apple-nintendo thing?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

THERE IS NO APPLE-NINTENDO THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That being said, my opinion is this:

Apple is currently trying to market itself toward the home-user. iLife, music, blogs, home movies, etc.

Well, home users play games too.

Without stepping into this market, at least in a small way, Apple will leave out a piece of the puzzle.

-Clive

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

THERE IS NO APPLE-NINTENDO THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That being said, my opinion is this:

Apple is currently trying to market itself toward the home-user. iLife, music, blogs, home movies, etc.

Well, home users play games too.

Without stepping into this market, at least in a small way, Apple will leave out a piece of the puzzle.

-Clive

And the TV dont forget billions of people watch Tv, Gaming and the TV and Apple has......Nothing Zero ZILCH and they claim to be a media hub or want to be a media hub without the two biggest media being Games and Television. APPLE needs to wake up from their snotty nosed arrogance. Consumer says I want my Computer,My Games and My TV but does Apple listen to the consumer? I say no.

 

[Clive At Five]

And the TV dont forget billions of people watch Tv, Gaming and the TV and Apple has......Nothing Zero ZILCH and they claim to be a media hub or want to be a media hub without the two biggest media being Games and Television. APPLE needs to wake up from their snotty nosed arrogance. Consumer says I want my Computer,My Games and My TV but does Apple listen to the consumer? I say no.

NO!

No Apple-branded TV!

Apple DID TV. It's called the iTunes Store. Buy all the TV content you want on there.

-Clive

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

NO!

No Apple-branded TV!

Apple DID TV. It's called the iTunes Store. Buy all the TV content you want on there.

-Clive

Why buy TV shows when I have cable and a hundred channels? Or a Dish and the same? I can allready record anything I want? Apple not getting games and tv in this day & age is marketing commitee nonsense. Apple alienated all these folks and have been for years. My PC has PVR functions Does any Mac made have them?

You cant beat your chest and talk media and fun like Apple does without having mainstream Games and TV in the equation.

 

[jakeguy99]

Give us the abilty to play them first...

Before apple should start making games, maybe they should think of making us a half decent gaming computer to begin with, possibly one that can be upgraded (parts other than ram). With the mac pro it is a step, but when will they make a half decent computer good for games at a reasonable price. I mean hey we could max out a g5 with everything and have no money for the next ten years..

 

[fall3n]

I wonder if Apple ever has people actually come to fan sites and read topics such as these? My guess is probably not. If they do, the research doesn't reach head office.

Like many have already said, developing games for the casual gamer will be a decent market. You CAN play games on a mac at their current level of "gaming power", but you can't expect to play the best next generation games at full capacity (though even on the average PC you can't really either, better then mac though).

I think Apple will do what they always do and just make a product that only works for their products. It will compliment their products and generate some sales, but it definitely won't be anything revolutionary from Apple.

Games and Apple just don't mix, at least for the serious gamer. Like others have said, if Apple wants to enter the serious gaming realm they need to step up to the plate and make a consumer computer (that is easily upgradeable) aimed at providing the power needed to play great games with great graphics, then third party companies can port games over and Apple can start partnering with them.

 

[Stella]

NO!

No Apple-branded TV!

Apple DID TV. It's called the iTunes Store. Buy all the TV content you want on there.
-Clive

Which anyone outside the u.s can buy absolutely zero of!

 

[cbud]

If apple's serious about this whole game realm, why are they recruiting undergrads?

So they can pay them nothing!

 

[clevin]

NO!

No Apple-branded TV!

Apple DID TV. It's called the iTunes Store. Buy all the TV content you want on there.

-Clive

u must be living in 3000, lol

 

[wwillie2]

Sr Games Developer

Did anyone notice a post on Apple's website for a Sr Games Developer?
Just more food for the fire. Bring on iGames.

 

[Digitalclips]

Well, Leopard will make it easier to make use of the available hardware resources, but it will not create new ones. Graphically intense games (not all of them though) already make good use of the resources available. Better available frameworks like DirectX on Windows make it easier for developers to access the resources and thus lower development costs. But leopard wont make it possible to display graphics which requires a high-end gaming graphics card today on, let's say, a current MacBook.

If you think in the traditional hardware / software paradigm you are correct. However, animations seen in several *Core Animation demonstrations would have required movies with high frame rates and massive data transfers to accomplish with traditional hardware and software not to mention HD resolutions. With Core Animation lower overheads are required. Perhaps we will see a paradigm shift in how games requiring high frame rates such as Quake et al are created and run on computers. Perhaps soon what we accept now as the norm and bench mark methods for creating these games will seem as quaint as hand drawn animations flipped to create the illusion of motion.
*http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/coreanimation.html

Which anyone outside the u.s can buy absolutely zero of!

So that's why thousands are pouring over the Mexican border every week!

 

[Clive At Five]

Which anyone outside the u.s can buy absolutely zero of!

And how will an Apple-branded TV remedy it?

Unless it has DVR, it won't... and you don't need an entire TV to do that! TV *SHOULD* have been that. But it won't be. Why? Because DVR funtions cut into iTunes market (wherever iTunes TV media content is sold).

No Apple-branded TV. No Apple-branded TV! NO APPLE-BRANDED TV!

-Clive

 

[Lynxpro]

They'll make a game where you have to go around converting PC users with your smugness and condescenscion. It'll be awesome.

And they'll get the game designers who worked with Burger King to make your much touted gaming concept....it will be called SNEAK STEVE.

You'll go around presenting iPods to the unsuspecting, and you'll get power-ups every time you find a black turtle-neck to wear.

I just hope that they don't spread out too thin and start slacking on their true roots: Making great computers and software. I'm tired of the iPhone hype already.

But Apple's true roots were as two employees of Atari, Inc.

 

[Umbongo]

Your doing the thing where you count every PC as a gaming platform when that isn't the case.

No I'm counting them as a potential gaming platform.

 

[Nenita]

they wa i see it is:

1. mac mini with tv tuner and 128 mb graphics card maybe 256.
2. casual gaming capabilities rather than a gaming platform (there are more casual gamers than there are hardcore gamers) [also keep in mind most hardcore gamers stick to few games to maximize their abilities in the game, not the repeat business that apple wants]
3. apple tv will let you stream this games to other (secondary) TV sets and play them.

i knw this is macrumors, but you guys have no idea what the new cat has in store.

 

[iomar]

Finally Apple is getting smart. This is the way Apple can increase their market share.

 

[weg]

They'll make a game where you have to go around converting PC users with your smugness and condescenscion. It'll be awesome.

*yawn* xbill has been around since decades...

 

[Clive At Five]

they wa i see it is:

1. mac mini with tv tuner and 128 mb graphics card maybe 256.
2. casual gaming capabilities rather than a gaming platform (there are more casual gamers than there are hardcore gamers) [also keep in mind most hardcore gamers stick to few games to maximize their abilities in the game, not the repeat business that apple wants]
3. apple tv will let you stream this games to other (secondary) TV sets and play them.

i knw this is macrumors, but you guys have no idea what the new cat has in store.

HAH!

1. What would Apple have to gain from putting a TV tuner in the Mac mini?! If you want a device to access your media and watch television, you don't port your TV through your computer and then to your monitor. That's a waste of a computer. You buy a much cheaper TV and stream. The device is still a rip-off if you ask me.

2. If, by casual games, you mean Tetris, Bejeweled, the occasional blizzard game, what have you, the Mac Mini is *capable* but you'll have to turn down details/max FPS on more complex applications. Do not, however, think that the Mini is incapable of performing those tasks. You can be certain that the Mini's next upgrade will put it at a 2GHz Core 2 Duo. Although it won't have the greatest video card, it will still chug through 3-D software... certainly well enough for the casual gamer.

3. Unless you see this gaming platform as being run through FrontRow/iLife, you can count on it NOT being streamed through TV. TV is basically a FrontRow interface between your TV and your Mac.

Yes there has been some speculation about TV being a potential gaming platform for the likes of Pop-Cap games... but I wouldn't call tha "casual gaming." I'd call that "casual time burning".

-Clive

 

[elppa]

Apple would have to come out with a groundbreaking title here to even make a small dent. Something like Halo did for microsoft and their Xbox. Everyone knows xbox sucked.

I hope you knew the history of Halo and the company (Bungie) who developed it before making that comment.

 

[Clive At Five]

I hope you knew the history of Halo and the company (Bungie) who developed it before making that comment.

Well put, well put.

It's sad that people don't know the true story behind MS and XBox's gaming success. Another example of Microsoft's lack of originality and over-abundance of cash.

-Clive