The dumbest rumor ever. This is one of the most fiercely battled markets out there and Apple has absolutely no interest at all to enter that.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Video Game Console?
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
OpenGL is fine, it is just that ported games often use a DirectX->OpenGL wrapper which slows things down. Also Apple's OpenGL implementation sucks (or it used to suck, it might be better on the Intel macs).
However the other gaming APIs would be useful - decent audio, controller, etc.
In terms of the iTV I think that Apple will have simple games available for it that you can control with the remote control. I imagine the remote may even have a scroll wheel on it. As the iTV is meant to be cheap, it is probably the guts of an iPod on steroids, it may even run the iPod games.
Object-X
macrumors 6502a
Just posted it
I just posted this in the last thread, sorry to repeat myself, but Apple should buy/partner with Nintendo. I can't see Apple entering this market, which is very mature, with a brand new product and having anything new to offer, especially games. Nintendo has the best innovative idea around and their product would complement Apple nicely. Add iTV functionality to it, add HD, slap an Apple logo on it and your set.
They could port Nintedo games to work on the Mac and offer an online service that works with .Mac and allows Mac gamers and Wii gamers to play together. I think it would be a winning combo and add even more pressure to Sony and Microsoft.
It would also add another incentive to buy a Mac and .Mac for happy Wii owners.
I just posted this in the last thread, sorry to repeat myself, but Apple should buy/partner with Nintendo. I can't see Apple entering this market, which is very mature, with a brand new product and having anything new to offer, especially games. Nintendo has the best innovative idea around and their product would complement Apple nicely. Add iTV functionality to it, add HD, slap an Apple logo on it and your set.
They could port Nintedo games to work on the Mac and offer an online service that works with .Mac and allows Mac gamers and Wii gamers to play together. I think it would be a winning combo and add even more pressure to Sony and Microsoft.
It would also add another incentive to buy a Mac and .Mac for happy Wii owners.
BlueRevolution
macrumors 603
You know the rumour mill is running a bit dry when these start surfacing again. As if our iPhone rumours aren't enough...
I agree with you that Apple entering the console gaming market is stupid (The consoles are good products; Nintendo is obviously doing something right with the Wii) but the cellphone market is different. You could say that the mp3 player market was saturated w/ competition before the iPod came out. The difference was, the iPod did the mp3 player right. They brought simplicity and elegance which I believe they can bring to the cellphone market as well. Sure, there are some phones out there with nice designs (I like my Razr) but the sofware is always complete crapugly, inelegant and hard to use. If Apple can bring that elegance to cellphones, people will ditch their current phones in droves, just like they ditched their crappy mp3 players in favor of the iPod.
Nintendo is a huge, huge company. They have something like $10 billion in cash reserves just sitting that and those get bigger every year. I really doubt Apple could buy Nintendo.
Microsoft tried it prior to launching the XBox and were flatly shut down. Financially, Nintendo's probably in better shape right now than Sony is.
Microsoft tried it prior to launching the XBox and were flatly shut down. Financially, Nintendo's probably in better shape right now than Sony is.
Perhaps console is too strong a word.... but the iPod is effectively a portable gaming device. At present, there are only 9 games... but if in the future, there are a ton more games on it, it wouldn't be surprising that Apple's iPod could be considered a portable gaming platform.
arn
gkarris
macrumors G3
Wii's Already Apple White
Nintendo already made the hardware...
Take a Wii, remove the Gamecube ports, replace the OS, and you have the iGame...
I can see it, plays DVDs, iTunes movies and music, and iTunes games... $199 (since the Gamecube stuff is gone). Uses the Wii Remote as well as the Apple one.
Nintendo already made the hardware...
Take a Wii, remove the Gamecube ports, replace the OS, and you have the iGame...
I can see it, plays DVDs, iTunes movies and music, and iTunes games... $199 (since the Gamecube stuff is gone). Uses the Wii Remote as well as the Apple one.
The problem with this is ... why would Nintendo want to do this? They'd have to share profits from the iTunes games (presumably), movie/music downloads with Apple.
They could offer that functionality themselves and keep all the profit for themselves if they really wanted to. Nintendo already has a game download service set up and running on the Wii for instance. Music/Movie downloads ... I'm really not sure how much interest they have in even offering that.
If Apple were to come into such an alliance, it would have to be on Nintendo's terms, not the other way around. As far as the game market goes, Apple needs Nintendo more than Nintendo needs Apple.
jimsowden
macrumors 68000
The pool is already crowded with fat kids here. And if these companies have proven anything, Sony and Microsoft in particular, it's that gaming isn't a massively lucrative business model from the start, something Apple has never been to keen on doing. (Loss leaders) I think Nintendo remains the Apple of the game world, with lesser hardware but more focus on the actual enjoyment of playing rather like Sony's new PS3 and what can be done and isn't (Can't buy them, good games are still a ways off) I'd implore Apple not to move into this market, stick with consumer entertainment and professional creativity for now.
roland.g
Suspended
I'd love to see it happen just so the gamers would stop whining about how Macs are not good gaming machines unless you pay out the for a Mac Pro and this video card this and this video card that.
Somehow I don't think that would stop them. It would probably just get worse. Sorry I like games, don't really play them, I use my xbox 2-3 times a year and have none on my Mac, but people whose main concern is how many fps they can get with this or that card on WOW or some other blah blah game just get so irritating.
Excuse me last time I checked there was a lot more to Macs and computers in general, not to mention life, than games and gaming.
Try to find some middle ground.
/endrant/
Somehow I don't think that would stop them. It would probably just get worse. Sorry I like games, don't really play them, I use my xbox 2-3 times a year and have none on my Mac, but people whose main concern is how many fps they can get with this or that card on WOW or some other blah blah game just get so irritating.
Excuse me last time I checked there was a lot more to Macs and computers in general, not to mention life, than games and gaming.
Try to find some middle ground.
/endrant/
Dont Hurt Me
macrumors 603
The day Apple announces a gaming console is the day I sell my aapl stock!
Seriously, the only way it would come close to being successful is if it was backwards compatible with other system's games....and I'm sure Sony and MS will jump at the chance of doing that....🙄
Seriously, the only way it would come close to being successful is if it was backwards compatible with other system's games....and I'm sure Sony and MS will jump at the chance of doing that....🙄
Shadow
macrumors 68000
Never say that, because if it does happen you look like an idiot. I'm not saying it will happen, but look at Intel. People said Apple would never use Intel chips, and look where we are now!
TheBobcat
macrumors 6502
I agree with those who say that if anything, Apple is looking to strengthen its position for casual gamers by having an easier system to make games run natively for both Intel Macs and Windows. Given the Intel Chips now, Apple should be able to have some method to make games for Mac and Windows more easily.
First, Apple will never win over hardcore gamers, for games. They like to build their own machines and tweak them to the max. That's not how Apple operates. Such people though may have an Mac as a secondary computer, I know several in that situation.
Second, I seriously doubt the iPod's games will ever move beyond the novelty status and just a quick fix for fun with simplistic games. Apple doesn't need to. There's no big group of holdouts praying for the next iPod to have a large library of games available for it, and most users don't care about the ones available for it currently.
For those who say its too late in the game for a console, I disagree. Many latecomers become market leaders (Toyota in America) as long as their offering a product people want to buy as opposed to what is available. MS showed us that by buying a bunch of game studios, you might get lucky by finding one with the "killer app". However, I doubt that Apple really wants to commit the capital that would be required to have a game machine, and lets not forget the current problems that still plague Xbox abroad. Xbox is a mild success, but no cash cow. I doubt Apple would want to take a hit with something similar.
First, Apple will never win over hardcore gamers, for games. They like to build their own machines and tweak them to the max. That's not how Apple operates. Such people though may have an Mac as a secondary computer, I know several in that situation.
Second, I seriously doubt the iPod's games will ever move beyond the novelty status and just a quick fix for fun with simplistic games. Apple doesn't need to. There's no big group of holdouts praying for the next iPod to have a large library of games available for it, and most users don't care about the ones available for it currently.
For those who say its too late in the game for a console, I disagree. Many latecomers become market leaders (Toyota in America) as long as their offering a product people want to buy as opposed to what is available. MS showed us that by buying a bunch of game studios, you might get lucky by finding one with the "killer app". However, I doubt that Apple really wants to commit the capital that would be required to have a game machine, and lets not forget the current problems that still plague Xbox abroad. Xbox is a mild success, but no cash cow. I doubt Apple would want to take a hit with something similar.
iTunes channel for wii
So in terms of reality, I could see apple making an iTunes channel for the wii, that acted like the iTV. After all, I don't think that the iTV is as much of a profit generator as it is an enabler. It increases the value of iTunes media. Which maintains the strength of iPods, as well as increasing the consumer's refresh rate, in order to keep all the media and stream it. As such I don't think that apple it terribly concerned with selling lots and lots of iTVs without competition. And since the iTV caters towards really jazzed out home theaters, but the wii is more of a catch all, so the two wouldn't neccesarily compete that much.
As for thoughts that nintendo and apple should get together in a more substanitive way, while the companies do seem to have a lot in common, willing to be a niche player as long as it is profitable, having similar design athstetics, etc, I don't think the two are really compatible. Nintendo makes a point of releasing systems that are complete unto them selves and Apple wants to be a digital hub, but you only really need the digital hub for something that is incomplete, and i don't think that that is something nintendo really wants to do. And both companies tend to try to be the slpha dog in the pack, which means that any collaboration might end like the nintendo sony one that lead to the play station.
So in terms of reality, I could see apple making an iTunes channel for the wii, that acted like the iTV. After all, I don't think that the iTV is as much of a profit generator as it is an enabler. It increases the value of iTunes media. Which maintains the strength of iPods, as well as increasing the consumer's refresh rate, in order to keep all the media and stream it. As such I don't think that apple it terribly concerned with selling lots and lots of iTVs without competition. And since the iTV caters towards really jazzed out home theaters, but the wii is more of a catch all, so the two wouldn't neccesarily compete that much.
As for thoughts that nintendo and apple should get together in a more substanitive way, while the companies do seem to have a lot in common, willing to be a niche player as long as it is profitable, having similar design athstetics, etc, I don't think the two are really compatible. Nintendo makes a point of releasing systems that are complete unto them selves and Apple wants to be a digital hub, but you only really need the digital hub for something that is incomplete, and i don't think that that is something nintendo really wants to do. And both companies tend to try to be the slpha dog in the pack, which means that any collaboration might end like the nintendo sony one that lead to the play station.
Whys that, MS only just jumped into the market. People thought they were too late in the game. Apple's console could bring the much needed integration above Connect360, built in with iTV and DVR.
Actually Microsoft still loses money on their XBox division. It's never turned a profit in its 5 years of market existence. They're hoping to turn a profit in 2007 or 2008 for the first time I think, but they've bled something like $2 billion to just get into the industry.
Apple would have to be willing to take some serious sized losses I think if they want to enter the market. Which is another reason why they won't.
Apple would have to be willing to take some serious sized losses I think if they want to enter the market. Which is another reason why they won't.
Not looking longer term...
Steve is trying to take over the world.
He understands that the personal computer is not going to land in every ones hands and thats why there is an ipod. But the Ipod is about to evolve into something else here in the next year. It's already made 2 evolutions. With the ipod already in everyones hand by adding game content they add one more value to it. There is no new market to break into. If you own the ipod you are the market. The ipod has been from the very begining steves takeover device. It will eventually take over as a nessary device for people much like a cell phone. It will take 10 years though. And its working becuase he is not fighting any markets. HE's letting roots grow in. Adding video game capabilty is pretty inoccuous right now, atleast untill you cant wait to downlaod lemmings 2050 on to it, thats when the the root has taken. It started as a music player, and eventually it will be a fullscale multimedia device that does it better then the rest.
Steve is trying to take over the world.
He understands that the personal computer is not going to land in every ones hands and thats why there is an ipod. But the Ipod is about to evolve into something else here in the next year. It's already made 2 evolutions. With the ipod already in everyones hand by adding game content they add one more value to it. There is no new market to break into. If you own the ipod you are the market. The ipod has been from the very begining steves takeover device. It will eventually take over as a nessary device for people much like a cell phone. It will take 10 years though. And its working becuase he is not fighting any markets. HE's letting roots grow in. Adding video game capabilty is pretty inoccuous right now, atleast untill you cant wait to downlaod lemmings 2050 on to it, thats when the the root has taken. It started as a music player, and eventually it will be a fullscale multimedia device that does it better then the rest.
Remember peeps...back in the day..Apple WAS the gaming platform...
Not sure if a game console is plan here...
I would expect more of a "Mac Games can be played on your TV!!" approach...
Or your Ipod can play halo 5!!!
Not sure if a game console is plan here...
I would expect more of a "Mac Games can be played on your TV!!" approach...
Or your Ipod can play halo 5!!!
