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Apple Video Game Console?

The point I was trying to make is that Apple has, since it's inception, been in the high margin business. They don't sell their stuff at cost or a loss in the hopes of making the money up elsewhere.. like the games console market and cell phone market.

When the iPod was originally introduced, the portable MP3 player market wasn't anywhere close to being saturated.. and the closest thing to an iPod that was on the market was some clunky device the size of a brick.

If people were still walking around with bag phones and 'portable' phones the size of WWII walkie talkies, Apple would have a shot.. but that isn't the case. If they enter the cellphone market today, it'll be a strong uphill battle.

A games console is only as strong as the third party software development. More available games means more demand for the console.. really, it's the same problem Apple has with the Mac.. in truth, the ONLY problem Apple has with the Mac as far as i'm concerned.

You go to the store and see row upon row upon row of inexpensive software available for the PC.. and the PC only costs $499, monitor, keyboard, and mouse included.

Then you've got the Mac offering at $100+ more, and you need to get a mouse, keyboard, and monitor extra.. or spring for the $1,000+ 'all in one' iMac.. but the available software is like one shelf, and it's all high priced stuff.

So Apple could make the most mind blowing games console ever.. with hardware specs and computing power that rival the worlds fastest super computers.. but unless it has a bunch of cool games available, nobody is going to buy it.. not even at $299.. and especially not for $700 or more.

I think developing little games for the iPod is a great idea. Sell them off iTunes as a way to generate additional revenue.. lots of times people are stuck riding on a bus, or waiting at the DMV and wouldn't mind playing a game while they listen to music.. frankly, i'm suprised they haven't had more game support on iPods earlier.

'DIWWYG' is my advice to Apple: 'Do It With What You Got'.

Add cellular capabilities to the iPod so people can download music on the road.. don't turn it into a phone.

Add gaming capabilities to the iPod so people can play a game while they're killing time.. but don't turn it into a full on game machine.
 
Gaming on a full screen iPod, or something similar, would be awesome.

Before Apple gets into a console, they should increase gaming capabilities on Macs first.
 
This is not going to happen...


Or hold us off for anything else, give us our Power Book G5 rumors!! :D

Or, just tell us about some Lube™
Even though I still have no clue what the big deal is....
Lube just makes things easier to manuver...


So....
About jesus...... :p
 
pdpfilms said:
With the ultimate failure of the PS3, I'd think they'd be very cautious to enter the gaming market.
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Ultimate failure? You've gotta be kidding me. Sony has taken some well-deserved knocks from the press for their PS3 launch, but calling it a failure reminds me of a certain president announcing "mission accomplished".

Bill Gates himself said that the winner of this generation will be determined in the next holiday season (not this one). I see many reasons the PS3 could fail, but just as many reasons that it could pull out another market share victory. To claim to know now is silly.

That said, I highly doubt Apple will get into the console market by themselves. It's too big a nut for Apple to crack. I do think that Apple has been foolish to all but completely ignore gamers for all of these years and I'd hope they'd do something to make the Mac a more gaming-friendly platform. Should be easier now that they are running on Intel chips.
 
I wouldn't rule out a iTV / Wii hybrid unit. I'd of thought Nintendo would be more than happy licensing out the Wii technology as it would increase the installed user base, which means more games sales and licensing fees. Nintendo have done similar deals before with their hardware.

Though a simple iTunes licensing agreement for Wii would make sense as well. It would give Wii the media side its missing and increase the user base for Apple.

The console wars have finished, the next battle is all about controlling the living room. Whoever has the box connected to your TV will most likely be providing the media as well (tv, films, music) which is where the real money will be made.
 
I don't think it's Apple that's been ignoring gamers as much as it has been the game developers ignoring the Mac, largely as a result of their small market share.

If you're going to spend the time, money, and effort to develop a game, you want to do it on the platform that most people have.

If you write a book, are you going to publish it in Ancient Greek, or in English?

If you make a movie, are you going to release it on DVD, or BETAMAX?

Then you have the hardware issues.. some of these PC games require balls out video cards, for instance. How you going to make a Mac game and put a 256MB high end video card on the hardware requirement list? Right off the bat, you've just eliminated most of the 10% market!

Not like the kid with the Mac Mini can just buy a new video card and plunk in his machine to run your game.

That's why the PC is a far more attractive platform for game developers than Mac.. and now that Macs can run Windows, it's only going to get worse.
 
babyj said:
The console wars have finished, the next battle is all about controlling the living room.
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I don't know about finished, but I agree with the idea about controlling the living room. This is where I could see Apple teaming up with somebody, but none of the current players seem to be a good match.

Nintendo doesn't seem to concerned with the whole living room thing. If they did, they would have included a DVD player in the Gamecube. No, they seem to be all about doing their own thing with games and they don't need a partner. From the beginning, they always made money on Gamecube hardware, unlike their competitors. We may count them in the console race, but I get the distinct impression that they don't count themselves.

MS partnering with Apple. Not a chance.

Sony? Nope. Like MS, I think they want complete control and think they can gain it through their console.

So assuming Apple can't successfully break into the VG market, which I take as fact, who would they partner with? I just don't see it happening, though Apple is full of the most wonderful surprises.
 
This will never happen, but if I was Steve Jobs, I would buy TransGaming's Cider software.

Apple could really do with using Direct X, or their own compatible version of it. If Macs could run Windows games without buying Windows, that would be one step towards in my opinion destroying the console market. How about Apple modifying Cider to run 360/Wii/PS3 games, assuming it is possible?

At the moment, I think Apple should exploit the fact that we use OSX because we like the operating system and the hardware, but people use Windows because they like the software.

The way I see it, you can buy a 360/Wii/PS3, or if you already have a PC with a decent CPU, you can spend that money on a decent graphics card, and run a wider range of games more conveniently, on better, cheaper screens at a higher quality. Sorry to yet again bring up the Mini Mac Pro, but I believe Apple are halfway there with the Mac Pro being upgradeable, they just need a cheaper less powerful option, and to allow people to stick off-the-shelf graphics cards in. How long will it take for Apple to allow people to run 8800's or X2800's even in SLI? Whether they are used for games or CAD, it's about time Apple extended their very competitive use of very powerful CPUs to powerful GPUs, instead of the tradeoff it is today.

So a Mac Pro, Mini Mac Pro or iMac Ultra (I can see the pain in your eyes as you all read this) able to run Mac, Windows, 360, Wii, PS3, etc. games on excellent CPUs and excellent GPUs would surelly take a rather large chunk out of the console gaming industry.

Now before you all hate me, I know it will never happen, but IMHO I think it should. ;) :eek:
 
0010101 said:
I don't think it's Apple that's been ignoring gamers as much as it has been the game developers ignoring the Mac, largely as a result of their small market share.<snip>
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Multi-threaded OpenGL? Oh, that's right... wait until 10.5. Support for game pads? Nope. Surround sound for games? Another nope.
Yes, Apple's market share is small and there aren't a ton of game developers for Macs, but don't kid yourself: Apple's support of gaming is woeful.
Need more evidence? Open up Apple's site. Where's the tab on top for a link to the games section? Oh wait, it's just a small window with a link down on the bottom right corner of the page.
An Apple Console? Absurd.
More iPod games? Most certainly... but comparing or drawing a connection between iPod games and a 'gaming console' is stretching the rumor a hell of a lot. I mean, that's like translating a rumor of Apple releasing an ultra portable notebook into the iPhone.
 
Game Console, no. Possibly more support for games, as well as developers focusing more on the mac platform. Hopefully with the upcoming release of Leopard, this will be a reality.Multi threaded Open-GL DirectX type system, it's all a dream for now. It is disgraceful how major game developers (Aspyr, Ubisoft for example) have treated the mac, utterly ridiculous. I also believe that an Apple game console is pushed even farther out of the question due to the primary marketshare of apple, designers & marketing firms, to even education.

If a game console is in Apples future, I don't think it is reasonably plausible until at least the end of the decade. I don't think around that time a Nintendo partnership is out of the question.
 
I tend to agree that Apple won't come out with a game console.

Still - Imagine being able to buy and download a game from iTunes. Put it on your iPod. Plug your iPod into a dock on the game console, and play the new game. Or even bypass the iPod and wirelessly connect to the game from the console to the download computer. And then imagine having the game work just as well on a Mac as it does on the console.

That won't ever happen (for reasons too numerous to list)...but it's kind of a cool idea.
 
iTV and iTunes

iTV makes it so you don't need to take the extra step of making that DVD, also lets not forget about iTunes downloads. You can't burn iTunes downloads. iTV makes it so you can watch those on your TV and not just you computer.

Hugh


0010101 said:
Apple entering the console gaming market is as stupid as Apple entering the cell phone market. For the same reasons.

Both markets are heavily saturated with competition and established names. The lions share of profits are made in both markets not by the actual hardware, but in accessories and service to the hardware. (games and control pads for consoles, airtime and chargers for cell phones)

iTV is a stupid idea, too. People have tried for years to stick a computer on a TV set. People in general just aren't interested. Why do I want a iTV when my current $99 DVD player can play anything I can burn to a disk, and my FREE DirecTV box has built in TiVO?

Yes, a box that sits on your TV that connects to your LAN has a certain geek appeal.. but I doubt it has much chance at large scale commercial success.. not when for the cost of a blank DVD-R I can burn anything on my computer to media my $99 DVD player can play.
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I'm torn between saying that they could or couldn't. In terms of technicalities and things like features Apple has always come through as it was with the iPod when the media player market already had some contenders... but simultaneously I think they're already kinda late for this generation of consoles - which could be good if they use this one generation as yet another lesson in which they can learn that power in terms of technicalities is always on the rise, but that ideas and their economical appeal to the consumers is just as important, which is something that Sony didn't quite catch this time.
 
I favor the idea of Apple developing something similar to DirectX. Hiring hardware and software game developers for such a move makes sense to me, since they should know what a game/multimedia API should look like.
 
J Radical said:
The Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD competition could be avoided entirely by a download service. Broadband continues to get faster and faster, downloadable games and music are already a reality thanks to steam and itunes. Add this trend to the fact that most people are happy with the quality of their current DVDs, and iTV already makes a lot of sense.

It's only a matter of time until iTunes offers HD movie downloads, why take a risk on HDDVD or Blu-Ray when you can stick with the extremely well established iTunes? You can download music and HD movies cheaply and easily.

Storage may become an issue, but harddrives have come down in price considerably over recent years. Hell we will probably be streaming full length HD movies in the future- we're already streaming HD trailers in front row.
Click to expand...

Bandwidth is the real issue. The majority of homes DON'T have the bandwidth for HD videos. Download services WILL make headway, but they won't be replacing physical disks on shelves for years to come.
 
is it just me or are there too many rumors flying around for too few products actually being released? rumors of phones, "true" video ipods and tablet/ultra-mobile pc's and now a game console? there's only so much teasing a poor guy can take.
 
Re: Apple WAS the gaming platform

CaptainScarlet said:
Remember peeps...back in the day..Apple WAS the gaming platform...
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Was it? Wow, when?

(I suppose I do remember Mac games having far better graphics than PC games back in the day...)

EDIT: Hello, first post :)
 
whacky rumor if you ask me

I haven't read all the responses, but I seriously doubt this will happen anytime in the near future, at least not in the form of a home console. The 3 players are way too entrenched and I don't think there's a room for a 4th player.

Look at what happened to Sega Dreamcast and a bunch of other players who tried and failed: Atari Jaguar, 3DO, SNK's Neo Geo (too high end a niche mchine).
 
not going to happen anytime soon... apple simply hasn't got any developers for games around and rather limited history with games (compared to microsoft and sony ... not even talking about nintendo)

both sony and microsoft have either been making games or hardware for game consoles/computers for years (microsoft has been a rather big publisher long before the xbox launched)


the only way to get a grip on the games market is with a slow and steady built up of a "Apple Game Studio" or something like that .. i think Apple has the funds for that step and could take some good & known game designers etc. and make a few hit games for another games console etc. to start off in that direction
 
As a gamer and developer myself - I hope Apple don't do this. Unless it's a way to bring casual games to a range of systems, perhaps using scaling techniques/vector graphics to run the same game on an iPod, Mac or iTV.

I can't see them competing against Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft in this regard but I can see them continuing and evolving what they've done for the iPod. iTunes being the delivery system (a la Steam).
 
tog22 said:
Was it? Wow, when?

(I suppose I do remember Mac games having far better graphics than PC games back in the day...)

EDIT: Hello, first post :)
Click to expand...

And Amiga systems had better graphics than all.
Maybe Apple was a big gaming company in America but the Amiga and Commodore ruled the roost here.
 
It just doesn't feel right to me.

If anything, I would hope for measures to get more PC games released for OS X, but I suspect the ability to dual boot will do nothing but push this further away. I guess I'm stubborn about always using OS X to play whatever games I want.

I'll be really surprised if Apple does in fact release a console of its own.
 
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