I would think it makes more sense for Apple to continue to pursue their current Apple Arcade initiatives over paying for a port.
I think they need to continue and improve Apple Arcade, but that is not one or the other, they need to do both. Apple Arcade is intended to be a step above mobile games, but not exactly AAA titles.
The only people that will pick up the ports are people that have Mac as their game machine.
Here is where we disagree. I think that the only way to get people to consider the Apple ecosystem as a game environment, is to make it a game environment. That means, not just new titles have to be there, but there has to be some volume. To achieve that they need ports. It would be fast and inexpensive. Again, 40-80 titles is way more compelling than 2 or 3 new games, and 2-3 new platform-exclusive games plus 40-80 older titles is more compelling still.
After this ARM change, it will be interesting to see if/how people's gaming habits adapt. One of the major criticisms that we always see from ports is that there are very few that are done well.
Usually because the people doing the port do not have the same incentives as they would in my example. Apple and the Studio both have an incentive to ensure they are done well.
To the Fortnite/LoL comment, people still resort to using Windows bootcamp for those instead of playing it on MacOS.
I am sure some do, but given they are paying for these ports themselves, they must have enough of a market to make it worth it for them to do.
It's progress, but there's a growing amount of stagnancy with Apple Arcade right now.
They need to keep Apple Arcade fresh, for its own sake.
The single code base to run all Apple platforms is definitely a plus. The unfortunate reality is each will still have its own subtle nuances of optimization.
Yes, but from discussing it with a few people who have done it recently, the extra work is cheap enough to make it worth it (if doing it at all is worth it). In other words, if they can get the iPad market, the extra work for the Mac and Apple TV ports would make sense.
Another thing that you're missing is that there is a social networking aspect to the consoles/PC. This is something Apple would have to work on to add as well. Apple would have to provide not only the titles but the same feature parity with its competitors' platforms.
Not sure what you mean here. Some products let one play on any platform and compete against people on any other platform using their own network. That would have to include Apple as well (by that I mean Apple would have to unsure that any port they funded included that option). Others use the PS Network or XBox Live for those functions. In those cases, they would need to ensure that game center was good enough to serve that role (again, some progress at WWDC on that front).
That was the point of my post. The number of things they need in addition to hardware are things that take investment, time, and understanding. For the three facets, Apple hasn't really shown a considerable interest outside of mobile gaming.
One can make the same argument about film/TV content, and yet Apple is now spending billions a year on it. I have no idea if Apple will decide they care, but there are certainly signs in that direction. The thing to remember is that no matter how much they care and spend money promoting the platform, if they do not have the hardware, none of it matters. These moves (may) address that issue.
I just don’t see it. When you bundle a ton of games, who becomes your target audience for this? It's definitely not that PS4 buyer we are profiling.
Why not? If the games are compelling and the price is right, it is an easy way to get someone to consider the platform and get over their "but I am already invested in PlayStation/Xbox" mentality. Letting people choose to be macOS/iPadOS/tvOS gamers with a solid set of games as table stakes makes a lot of sense.
The only thing alluring about Apple right now is mobile gaming because you have 2 very easy choices: iOS vs Android.
That was the case. However, if Apple says that is the only place to focus, they will never be competitive. Again, Sony and Microsoft both entered a market that had other players and replaced them.
When you involve the console/desktop tiers, the competition stiffens. I think Apple would really need strong exclusivity from top tier gaming studios to have this be a conversation.
They need a combination of things. I think eventually, they need some number of windowed platform exclusives, but before the get there, they need an interesting enough set of current games on the platform to convince customers of new AAA titles that this will be a real platform (as you said earlier).
