Apple TV to Gain Game Support With Bluetooth Controllers By March

[Nozuka]

i'd love to see an appstore and netflix making their own app for it - instead of this watered down version that's currently on the apple tv.

 

[Menel]

Well to be fair, the apple tv is just as much of a walled garden as xbox or ps or nintendo; they're all closed source systems. But to your point, yes, it would be naive to think the horsepower of what apple tv could put out at a $100 price point would not be able to compete with a true console. That's why I consider this "mobile" gaming on a TV and question the audience.

You miss Infinity Blade's graphics?

Obviously not the same target audience as xbox/ps4.

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I can see why Apple TV gaming hasn't taken off. Tried AirPlay mirroring today and it was awful. Laggy and unresponsive as hell!

Yea while it actually looks really good, e.g. Real Racing 2. The controls lagged making it difficult. But controls were via wifi and the latency it involves. If controls were via bluetooth... And respknsive. There's potential.

 

[benji888]

Not all games are 3D shooters. Scads of good games can be played with minimal CPU power.

Why would Apple enable the app store on a device not capable of utilizing the latest and greatest apps?

We had great games on the A5 on the iPhone 4s and iPad 2 although those were probably not single-core, but the single core A4 on the iPhone 4 had a lot of great games and that was single-core with half the L2 cache and an older GPU. I'm not sure what the Apple TV is clocked at, but I'm under the impression some of the iOS devices were clocked slower to save battery life (not an issue for Apple TV that doesn't use batteries).

I would think I could use my iPhone or iPad as a controller too; at least for some basic games.

Streaming video isn't just a function of hardware, it's a function of your network and your carriers network too.

Gary

The other iOS devices with A5 chips are dual-core, and drive smaller displays (iPad 2=1024x768...HD=1920x1080). Apple discontinued the iPad 3 after a short while, mainly due to heat issues, but, part of that problem was driving the retina display with the dual-core A5 chip, which was barely up to the task.

Think of the Apple TV (3rd gen) as a stripped-down iPhone 4S, more similar in computing power to the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 has been discontinued, and proven sluggish with iOS 7, while limited in iOS 7 features as it is.

The fact remains, the current Apple TV has just enough power (and memory) to drive an HD display at 1080p with 5.1 audio, regardless of the streaming abilities of the network (streaming isn't really a factor for the point I'm trying to make.).

Can you play games on a Roku? The Apple TV is in direct competition with the Roku.

This rumor is a pipe dream.

 

[Sky Blue]

This rumor is a pipe dream.

Not if they're releasing a new model with an A7.

Interesting bit of speculation here, from September:

http://cannyvision.com/2013/09/12/t...html?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

 

[Tech198]

Cloud gaming could easily equal the current gen in power. What they need is a mass consumer base with fast net connections. The Apple TV puck doesn't need to be some high powered device to make that happen...

You mean like NVIDA showed off at CES with cloud gaming ?

This would still be based on bandwidth though, but sice most people today who have ATV would have reasonable connections anyway, it shouldn't be much of a problem. Although it could be good for something Apple to consider.

 

[Carl Sagan]

Exactly the point, Apple owners tend to have better of everything so bandwidth isn't really that big an issue is it?

 

[Liquorpuki]

Exactly the point, Apple owners tend to have better of everything so bandwidth isn't really that big an issue is it?

Apple doesn't have the infrastructure or IP to do cloud gaming

NVidia already partnered with Gaikai, which was acquired by Sony

 

[Tech198]

Apple doesn't have the infrastructure or IP to do cloud gaming

NVidia already partnered with Gaikai, which was acquired by Sony

Now that i think about it, your probably right...

Just look at how many movies you can't watch in the evenings due to Apple's low bandwidth in peak periods... with could gaming, it would only get far worse.

Adding extra bandwidth to account for cloud gaming could help, but since not everyone would use it at all times, it may not make much sens for Apple to loose money for the times that "extra" bandwidth is going to waste.

However, it seems even now, that Apple cares too much about not
over-spending money vs keeping customers happy at all times.

Not just Apple, but most companies would not overspend for bandwidth. Having a super-fast connection wouldn't even help, if the source can't even handle it..

This is why i prefer media server

Obviously, NVidia has this much to go around otherwise they wouldn't have announced it as sure as they are.

This is just one more reason, i don't rent off iTunes anymore....

 

[roadbloc]

These better be decent titles were talking here. Not Angry Birds or whatever candy based saga is popular now.

 

[Carl Sagan]

Apple doesn't have the infrastructure or IP to do cloud gaming



NVidia already partnered with Gaikai, which was acquired by Sony

Apple has the infrastructure and the IP. If they didn't they couldn't run iCloud or had no games running on iPhone. They have both and can easily scale.

 

[kiranmk2]

I can see them launching an App Store and new hardware in the next few months going on the WWE story. The current generation unit will most likely support the App Store but have a very small amount of space for apps (probably 1-2 GB made available) so will mostly be for video apps and the like (to replace the channels that are currently available) with some support for simple games (thinking of all those GTA ports and retro ports). Support for BT controllers with default support going to idevices but compatible with any BT device (Wiimote, DS3 etc).

Regarding new hardware, the current hardware is 2 years old, but the RAM quantity is 2.5 years old (iPhone 4S), the A5 chip is from the broken bin from 3 years ago (iPad 2) and we know what has happened to the price of flash in the past few years. Thus I think Apple could keep the £99 price point with either a single core A7 (thus reducing binning of defective chips from this year's idevices) or an A6 chip (in production for the iPhone 5C), 1 GB ram and 16 GB flash. BYO controller (probably with an Apple-designed one at £30-40). Think a performance level between XBox / Wii / PS2 level.

This would leave the current ATV able to get apps for people who just want video / music streaming and maybe a bit of retro gaming and a new box for people who want a few more games.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Apple has the infrastructure and the IP. If they didn't they couldn't run iCloud or had no games running on iPhone. They have both and can easily scale.

They don't. Most of iCloud is running off leased AWS and Azure servers. iCloud/iTunes use CPU instances, not the GPU instances needed to render in the cloud. Apple owns zero game compression IP, which is what made services like Gaikai and OnLive so valuable. And most importantly, they own zero gaming IP.

 

[Carl Sagan]

They do, they own and are building more and more server farms of their own. They have the iP already. It's just a matter of them pulling it all together and switching it all on.

 

[sonicrobby]

Think there will be a hardware upgrade?

With this software update, do you think apple will also be releasing a hardware update early this year?

 

[Sky Blue]

With this software update, do you think apple will also be releasing a hardware update early this year?

Yes:

http://9to5mac.com/2014/01/28/apple...ssory-to-product-line-ahead-of-major-changes/