Do you think Apple will ever make a Video game Console?

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Shrek


That's because MS doesn't innovate like Apple does, and I think Apple should do it!

as much as i find microsoft boring, i do like the xbox and this may not make a lot of gamers agree

i have not given the gamecube or playstation a honest try yet but they do look good while played in the stores

most stores carry all three boxes, so why not apple?

i know they can sell, but will they to a level of profit? and will a profit come right away?

apple is much smaller than the game console companies and microsoft, so they can't swallow a loss with only six billion in the bank

heck, sony probably pays more in taxes each quarter!

 

[Shrek]

I think if Apple made their own game console, they should call it the gMac (Game Console Mac), and make it better than the XBox 2 (by that time, M$ should have an XBox 2), and sell it for around the same price as an XBox 2. See how M$ likes that! HA!!! TAKE THAT!!! AND THAT!!!

THAT WOULD ROCK MINE AND MILLIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE'S WORLDS!!!

 

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by Shrek
I think if Apple made their own game console, they should call it the gMac (Game Console Mac), and make it better than the XBox 2 (by that time, M$ should have an XBox 2), and sell it for around the same price as an XBox 2. See how M$ likes that! HA!!! TAKE THAT!!! AND THAT!!!

THAT WOULD ROCK MINE AND MILLIONS OF OTHER PEOPLE'S WORLDS!!!

the gmac, that is a great idea...and they should make not just one, but a whole string of gmacs...

...and call them the gmac game console 1, gmac game console 2, gmac game console 3, etc

and call the string of game consoles the g-string series from apple...that has kind of a good ring to it

 

[jefhatfield]

Re: wow!

Originally posted by LimeiBook86
Wow one of my own posts have got so many replies!

COOL!

yes, this is one of the better ones of late

beats all the SMG talk...i'm guilty here

 

[Shrek]

Come to think of it, if M$ does make a gMac, I think that they should try and get it out months before M$ comes out with the XBox 2; that way they'd be one step ahead of M$. M$ may try and make XBox 2 more innovative than the gMac, but considering that M$ doesn't innovate that much I don't think that's going to happen.

The gMac would be a great way for Apple to bring in the BIG $$$!!! Of course not from sales of the gMac, though, but from the sale of games for it. Imagine Apple selling hundreds of millions or possibly billions of games for the gMac?!?! And they wouldn't have to spend money to market the games either (unless they make their own games). THAT WOULD BRING IN SOME SERIOUS CA$H!!! Then they could use that money to lower the price of their PowerPCs and be able to spend more money to keep up with rivals like Dell, IBM, and Microsoft. Of course they should probably buy out Motorola, too!

Just food for thought. . .

 

[mnkeybsness]

keep dreaming little boy

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

Let Nintendo and Sony battle it out for top console. After all, they already have a huge following - gaming IS Nintendo's primary industry (and Apple could hardly compete with that, could they?). As for Xbox, it would just be another Microsoft hurdle to jump before they could even make in-roads into sales - since Microsoft already would have a year lead on Apple in support and sales for their product.

Not only that, I doubt whether software companies would go out on a limb on the premise that vast numbers of Apple games consoles will be scooped up by a waiting public.

Therefore, I would rather Apple put their R&D into faster processors, better graphics capabilities and improved iApps. Anything else would be a waste of their time.

And we'd still be able to play games on our fully upgradeable Macs, which are truly multifunctional, and won't be as outdated as a dedicated games machine will be by this time next year.

 

[jefhatfield]

Originally posted by kiwi_the_iwik


And we'd still be able to play games on our fully upgradeable Macs, which are truly multifunctional, and won't be as outdated as a dedicated games machine will be by this time next year.

a game console, while also prone to getting obsolete, is less likely to get outdated as fast as a computer for many powerusers

just look at all the posters here who get a computer every year...or more often

how many people buy a new console every twelve months?

 

[kiwi_the_iwik]

Originally posted by jefhatfield


a game console, while also prone to getting obsolete, is less likely to get outdated as fast as a computer for many powerusers

just look at all the posters here who get a computer every year...or more often

how many people buy a new console every twelve months?

Yes, granted, Mr. Hat.

But my major point is that Apple can't possibly drum up enough support for games OR buyers to justify the R&D for a dedicated games platform. Especially since:

1. There is already a ton of support for existing games consoles;

2. Apple failed in their attempt once before (Pippin), and;

3. Have you gone down to the local computer store lately? There are literally only a HANDFUL of Mac games out there on the shelves. What makes you think that the software houses will even port EXISTING games over to the platform, when we have enough problems "begging" for the latest-and-greatest titles to come to our Macs?

 

[isogonic]

emulator

Nintendo's development tools were originally run on a powermacs based emulator. It seems to me that Nintendo should compile their dev tools emu and release them for approx $80 US. If this title included a USB based GameCube controller, it would totally rock! Nintendo would perhaps make more per unit than with their GC. Their is no question that I would purchase such a product, though I don't see that occuring.

 

[pass]

In the US the Xbox is *currently* outselling the GameCube. I'm not sure if they've managed to catch up to the total GameCube sales though as until the price drop the GameCube was outselling the Xbox. In Japan and Europe the GameCube is outselling the Xbox.

However the PS2 is outselling the two of them combined. And has a huge lead. THe PS2 has won this generation. Nintendo will probably come 2nd and MS 3rd.

Nintendo (or MS too I guess, it is still really early) might be able to pull off a respectable 2nd because hardware doesn't matter. Most people don't care their system has 6.4gig/sec of bandwidth and vertex shaders (hell, some people on this board though their computers could play console games!). Which system has Tony Hawk, Grand Theft Auto 3, Gran Toursismo, Pokemon, Mario games, etc? That is what matters. If Nintendo can release software to drive demand they may come back.

Originally the GCN (GameCube Nintendo, NGC was already taken by the NeoGeo Color portable) was 66% the price of the other systems ($200/$300), but now it is 75% ($150/$200) the price. The GameCube was designed with price/performance in mind. Xbox and PS2 have automatic loading trays while the GC you have to snap the disc in place by hand. Heck, just pick all three systems up. THe GameCube feels like it is an empty plastic box compared to the other two systems.

THe original manufacturing costs for the GC were estimated at $180 (Nintendo still lose $20 by the time each console was sold), but you can be sure they've come down. If NIntendo can get their system down to just $99 this Christmas and can show a couple great games like Mario Sunshine they may catch or beat Sony's sales (but I doubt catch Sony's huge lead).

Finally Apple had nothing to do what so ever with the GameCube. The Gekko processor is basically a G3, but it has "pair single" floating point instructions, not quite Altivec, but still two floats can get processed in parallel instead of a single double. There is also a couple instructions of prefetch cache control I don't belive the standard G3 has.

 

[Wry Cooter]

Re: Re: it already tried

Originally posted by LimeiBook86

WOW! Cool! Did it ever market? If so I WANT ONE! Do they sell them? Or can I find one on eBay! They look so cool!

They were available at MacWarehouse and a few places for hmm maybe as long as the Cube was available.

The huge problem with the Pippin was, it was a closed video game system, and no one developed for it. When what it COULD easily have been and should have been, is a WebTV type device, that could read existing Mac CD-Rom materials.. If they merely made it able to read existing CD Roms for Macintosh (not a technical hurdle, but one that was merely closed off due to marketing ideas) they would have sold a load of them. At the time the only reason my dad wanted a computer of any sort at all was to read and search CD Rom reference material. The Pippin could have done this. Instead it became a widget with next to no software whatsoever.

 

[topicolo]

There was also the fact that the pippin had NO 3D hardware whatsoever and thus it was limited to 2d platformers and other Super Nintendo style games, not the newfangled 3d graphics of the playstation, which came out at about the same time. That was a huge disadvantage.

 

[hesdeadjim]

Hell no

i'm sorry, but it's not going to happen now. i would say at the earliest, if ever, it would happen about 6 months before the latest crop of consoles goes to the next generation. then apple can innovate and not try ot infiltrate an already flooded market. and, they only way apple can make money is if they get in good with game makers. xbox isn't doing as well because the games they offer, with the exception of halo, or either horrible, or can be found on other consoles. nintendo on the other hand has a whole lineup only available for gamecube. i don't know about you, but i'm not willing to spend $199 plus $50 for halo, espically when i like metroid, mario, and zelda. also, it would make more sense for apple to get in good with nintendo, they already use a modifed G3 (to make it 64 bit or 128 bit or whatever), and nintendo shares a cult following similar to apple, but i still don't think it will happen. at least until nintendo is going to realease the next console. that's my two cents.