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Apple TV As a Gaming Console?
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iOS is already a poor choice of gaming compared to consoles thanks to the obsession with touchscreens. I couldn't imagine playing those games on a big screen.
Don't get me wrong - I love Worms and Peggle on my iPod but they're effectively phone games.
Also will this introduce yet another pricing tier to App store prices? iPod/iPhone, iPad and soon Apple TV? Why can't they do what Steam does and combine all versions into one?
Don't get me wrong - I love Worms and Peggle on my iPod but they're effectively phone games.
Also will this introduce yet another pricing tier to App store prices? iPod/iPhone, iPad and soon Apple TV? Why can't they do what Steam does and combine all versions into one?
This is pretty exciting =] With such a huge developer outreach Apple would be mad not to pursue 'proper' gaming! Excellent tools, distribution channels and an established hardware base is perfect!
I'd like to see the ability to play iPhone/iPad apps on the AppleTV. It would make sense, especially with Airplay. An example could be an RTS, the physical iPad could be used to display the UI, and the gameplay streamed to the TV?
I've also seen people using the iPad as a games console, with the iPhone/iPod Touch as a controller paired through Bluetooth. The iPad uses the VGA adaptor to output to the TV.
I'd like to see the ability to play iPhone/iPad apps on the AppleTV. It would make sense, especially with Airplay. An example could be an RTS, the physical iPad could be used to display the UI, and the gameplay streamed to the TV?
I've also seen people using the iPad as a games console, with the iPhone/iPod Touch as a controller paired through Bluetooth. The iPad uses the VGA adaptor to output to the TV.
It makes sense. Make Apple TV the hub to connect all your iDevices to your home entertainment center. Seems like they need to boost the power of ATV, but maybe that's coming too.
I'm sure this is going to be the next "big thing". It's such a natural fit. Love it.
I'm sure this is going to be the next "big thing". It's such a natural fit. Love it.
lul it gonna looks ugly. Heavy pixeliated. It's made for a iPhone. To stretch that to fit your tv, damn.
No problem here, 7 seconds and my netflix HD starts and never stops.
3 second delay for SD movies.
What I like to see is airplay working without having to have itunes open. Come on apple you can do better.
A lot of this is do to internet stability but I would like to see a bit more customization on apple part for the tv 2, its not a side thing any more apple people are taking it serious now. widgets with information and oh my lord multitasking would be nice.
You don't need iTunes open or a computer on to use Airplay.
Not the idea.Games(and apps)would just be a bonus(which I would love).
No one is seriously thinking anyone is going to pass up a PS3 or 360 for an ATV.
No one expected the iOS devices to hurt Sony and Nintendo,but among the many casual gamers they have.
Yes. It's a flop.
It's a flop for the companies who have created the consoles.
It's a flop for a huge number of developers.
The ONLY profitable parts of the market are the mega franchises.
CoD, MoH, Halo, Gears, GTA, GT - are profitable franchises. But the typical console game outside the mega-franchise umbrella sells under 600K units. Nowhere near enough to pay back the cost of production.
So any company wanting to make money out of gaming should avoid the hardcore market. In much the same way as anyone wanting to go swimming should avoid smearing themselves in blood and going to a shark pool.
C.
Apple is not going to go against the full blown consoles like a PS3 o the XBox360. Apple has absolutely no expertise in that field and I don't think it fits in their general image or mindset. Imagine Steve Jobs have people playing GTA on his hardware with all the violence and the "bonus" levels.
If anything Apple could try to port the success of the small and quick iOS games to the TV. Plus as already mentioned, maybe a game center app where you can meet and talk to your friends and watch your achievements.
I am not sure how Apple would even tackle the controller problem. Requiring at least an iPod touch seems a bit steep for an entertainment system.
Long story short .. I don't see Apple taking any shot at living room gaming any time soon. I certainly don't see them coming out with a full blown console .. I do see them opening the ATv a little to support more Apps .. but not as open as the rest of the iOS family.
T.
If anything Apple could try to port the success of the small and quick iOS games to the TV. Plus as already mentioned, maybe a game center app where you can meet and talk to your friends and watch your achievements.
I am not sure how Apple would even tackle the controller problem. Requiring at least an iPod touch seems a bit steep for an entertainment system.
Long story short .. I don't see Apple taking any shot at living room gaming any time soon. I certainly don't see them coming out with a full blown console .. I do see them opening the ATv a little to support more Apps .. but not as open as the rest of the iOS family.
T.
Sony do have huge expertise. And even they don't know how to make money from it.
Opening the Apple TV to game developers would cost Apple nothing. The only issue is what would a controller look like?
C.
Yes.They'd need a dedicated controller,or severely limit the game possibilities.A game that uses a few screen gestures,accelerometer/gyroscope or a few big buttons would be ok,but a fast paced or timed game needing precise touches would have you ignoring the TV to play.
Can't wait to see what they come up with!
All the consoles (xbox, ps3 and wii) are all making healthy profits for their respective companies. The main reason why a developer will not make their money back on a game is if the game is rubbish. Sure it does help having a big franchise to your name but quality will always shine through.
No, not really as most games won't work with AirPlay because the streaming content must be in an H.264 video format. However, games don't "draw" in H.264 video, they typically use 2D/3D graphics libraries which draw into the frame buffers that are then output to the physically attached display.
For a game to work with AirPlay they would first have to draw their images/frames using the Apple TV's graphics libraries and then they would have to compress that image into H.264 video and stream that to the Apple TV (all in realtime and while keeping the audio and video in sync with the control inputs for the game itself). That would be a very difficult thing to do even with a relatively high-powered desktop computer let alone a handheld iOS device running on a single-core 1GHz processor.
I'm afraid that a lot of people are going to end up being disappointed when AirPlay is finally enabled for third-party apps. You're not going to be able to stream games and the vast majority of video content that is viewable via Safari won't suddenly be able to be watched on the Apple TV (so, you can pretty much forget about watching most of the freely available video content that is currently on the internet). Some websites may eventually work with AirPlay but I suspect that at introduction it will be very hard to find any web-based video that will be enabled for AirPlay.
Of course, it might be possible for the Hulu Plus app to support AirPlay streaming to the Apple TV, but that's probably more of an issue with the content licensing than anything else. In any case, I suspect that the video transcoders like AirVideo and StreamToMe will get the biggest boost from AirPlay and that will be pretty nice so not all will be lost -- AirPlay will still be a good thing to have.
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I was playing Street Fighter IV (for iPhone) yesterday. It was 99¢ so I bought it. Heh, it was one of the worst looking versions of the game that I've seen. Touch screen controls for a fighting game are not that enjoyable either. Yet... I played the game... and I kept playing! I'll probably play the game some more. Heh, and I have Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix on the PlayStation 3.
What's the difference? It was cheap and it was new!
Apple TV doesn't have to be the best gaming system on the planet. If it can play Netflix and iOS games for $99, it could be very popular. The Apple TV matches the economy - most people don't have a lot of money to spend. Sure, the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 have some really good games. Yet, I haven't bought a single $60 game for my PS3. Instead, I bought cheaper games from the online PlayStation store. And with my iPhone 4, I don't use the PlayStation 3 / Wii that much anymore. Last Christmas, I bought nine new games and one app for about $11. That's including sales tax.
Would people rather have 50 cute and fun games or one dark and mean shooter? The rise of iOS gaming and the Wii shows that casual gaming appeals to a larger audience.
Good hardware is important. Perhaps that's why Apple didn't launch the Apple TV with an app store / games. They're waiting for a future generation with better hardware support. Yet, the iPhone 4 supports games at 960x640 resolution. The iPad supports games at 1024x768. That's basically high-definition gaming. I think it's possible to push an Apple TV to support 720p games.
That's sharper looking graphics than the Wii!
It would be close with the current generation of the Apple TV, but one or two upgrade cycles should be plenty of power to be competitive. I think it can be competitive right now. Even at 480p gaming, that's still Wii quality graphics... and that's if you have the good video cable. The Wii drops to 480i without the good cable! Heh, I think an Apple TV can beat that.
Would you like me to post some figures - or would you?
Sony Game Division Profits
2006 ($872M) loss
2007 ($2800M) loss
2008 ($1510M) loss
2009 ($700M) loss
2010 ($88M) loss
Name one PS3 title, not part of a mega franchise that went into profit. I can only think of one.
C.
Apple TV doesn't have much processing power (iPhone guts), particularly when considering it would have to scale up resolution to 10x compared to the iPhone/iPod Touch. It's probably a go for Wii/casual type gaming, but I'm not giving up my PS3 anytime soon. Nintendo opened the game market up by teching down and gaming up, but with Apple themselves classifying AppleTV as a "Hobbie" I doubt they would put any serious muscle behind making it a real player among all of the other options. (buying exclusives, building a huge internal game development group with management that doesn't just do casual games) I guess the big question is are there enough people playing games on their iPhones/iPod Touches that would want to play those games at home or are the games basically just good for them on the go.
When I get my Verizon iPhone 5 in June or July I'll take another look hopefully there will be another Apple TV update by then, maybe even they'll have a similar processor to Sony is delivering in the NGP since it's also ARM. It's definitely is cool to be able to use something you already have as a game controller and have others able to join in without having to have extra controllers. Personally, I was an update the Arcade style Golden Axe at home and an update to the Xmen Arcade so we can have cool party games.
When I get my Verizon iPhone 5 in June or July I'll take another look hopefully there will be another Apple TV update by then, maybe even they'll have a similar processor to Sony is delivering in the NGP since it's also ARM. It's definitely is cool to be able to use something you already have as a game controller and have others able to join in without having to have extra controllers. Personally, I was an update the Arcade style Golden Axe at home and an update to the Xmen Arcade so we can have cool party games.
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I think you might have missed my post. The Retina Display and the iPad both run at resolutions that are close to 720p. That's high definition - and better resolution than the Wii.
Simply opening your hardware to developers is not going to do any good. They need to figure out what a controller would look like, work, how it would integrate. They would also need a clue about what sort of hardware would be required for gaming and what would be appealing to the target audience. That's why I said they don't have the expertise to do so. Apple has never been interested much in serious gaming and I don't see that changing. The iOS gaming success kind off happend by chance, considering, that they didn't even want to open the device for development in the first place.
I believe the XBox/Gaming division at MS is doing rather well .. I am not sure about Sony .. they kind missed a couple trends lately (the whole mobile gaming thing, online integration ..) but they are catching up again. People called Nintendo dead for a long time before they reinvented themselfs. And the NGP/PSP2 is looking great .. only the price tag could kill it now.
T.
Where have these figures come from?
Im guessing these games posted profits and were not from large franchises. They all sold at least 1million copies. As I dont know the developments costs I cant be 100 percent sure.
I can think of Heavy Rain, LBP, Uncharted , Infamous , Heavenly Sword.
http://www.home-entertainment-news....8/sony’s-games-division-makes-big-profit.html
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/sonys-game-division-sees-135-profit-boost-during-holiday-quarter/
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/32819/Sony_Posts_135_Rise_in_Game_Division_Profits_for_2010.php
So looks like it made profit last quater 2010
But they also did 2008
http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/31/sonys-game-division-turns-a-profit/
Microsoft make a bucket load of money from xbox live and their kinect.
I'm a big OnLive user and I love it! It's an absolutely fantastic service.
If it comes to Apple TV, I would be pretty ecstatic. But it seems more likely that Apple would do their own thing. In either case, if anything good happens, it's better than nothing.
P.S. You don't have to pay any monthly fees for OnLive to play games you own or rent there. It's also free to try any game for 30 mins, and you can do it instantly, no multi-gig demo download. Check it out!
If it comes to Apple TV, I would be pretty ecstatic. But it seems more likely that Apple would do their own thing. In either case, if anything good happens, it's better than nothing.
P.S. You don't have to pay any monthly fees for OnLive to play games you own or rent there. It's also free to try any game for 30 mins, and you can do it instantly, no multi-gig demo download. Check it out!