I don’t have cable TV, just an Apple TV with apps for Hulu, Netflix, CBS, etc. I wasn’t even aware that it could play games. I honestly have a hard enough time selecting shows with that remote let alone trying to use it to play a game.
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Minecraft for Apple TV Discontinued Due to Lack of Players
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It is chicken and egg, partially...
Could have been an easy port from iOS to AppleTV, and worth the initial risk? When sales didn’t meet expectations, and low confidence in AppleTV apps would ever be popular, it was abandoned.
Minecraft has been ported to many different platforms, so AppleTV would have been a good target.
I can believe there was low usage on AppleTV. If it were successful, and making $$, it wouldn’t be discontinued. Companies don’t tend to cancel money making projects.
AppleTV as a software platform, at this point is largely failure, unfortunately.
Could have been an easy port from iOS to AppleTV, and worth the initial risk? When sales didn’t meet expectations, and low confidence in AppleTV apps would ever be popular, it was abandoned.
Minecraft has been ported to many different platforms, so AppleTV would have been a good target.
I can believe there was low usage on AppleTV. If it were successful, and making $$, it wouldn’t be discontinued. Companies don’t tend to cancel money making projects.
AppleTV as a software platform, at this point is largely failure, unfortunately.
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Thinner... Nope!
Gen 1 Height = 28mm
Gen 2 & 3 Height = 23mm
Gen 4 Height = 35mm
Gen 5 (4K) Height = 35mm
I do not play games unless with my grandkids (and very little). But the biggest problem me is the IN-APP Purchase. It seems so difficult to just play the game having to navigate past all of the IN-APP Purchase stuff. My son who was a heavy gamer said that other platforms are also starting to go the IN-APP Purchase route. I think there should be some option that says I just want to play the game.
Unfortunately, I fear tvOS will continue to draw low numbers until Apple seriously commits to taking on the console gaming industry...
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Without belaboring the point...Apple has zero interest or expertise in creating a rival to services like Xbox Live or PSN, but does not seem really willing to partner with Microsoft or Sony to create a cross-platform bridge to their services. Considering that MS does not really have a presence in the tablet (Stop! You know what I mean.) or phone markets, it would make sense to partner with them for cross-platform play, at least with certain games(Minecraft, for instance! Oh, snap...), even if it that play was severely limited to just MS games or a small subset of all games available on the iOS and AppleTV App Store.
Heck, they even keep Nintendo at arms length and many would argue that they share a similar view of the world (I do not think so, but there is always some talk of synergy between the two for some reason).
With Game Center a rotting carcass now, and gaming in general seemingly MIA on the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV detail pages at Apple dot com, it seems likes gaming has again become an afterthought.
Unfortunately, Apple's pattern for as long as I can remember is to emphasize gaming when it makes sense (our hardware is sooo fast now), embrace and introduce new stuff that get people excited, ignore it since it requires constant vigilance but dos not make Apple enough money (mostly because it was done half-assed), de-emphasize it because you ignored it and now it is doing poorly and finally, EOL tools and services for lack of success - rinse, lather, repeat...I encourage anyone to prove me wrong on this.
The Siri remote is one of the worst designed Apple products ever.
That is actually saying something.
That is actually saying something.
A Playstation or Xbox better then an Apple TV for Playing games and Streaming if one wants a single solution for entertainment. All one solutions are compromises at some point. Want the best of the best, by both. Simple!
Apple designs and has been designing absurdly powerful SoCs for years and packs them in tiny and beautiful ATVs.
Apple had the potential to completely corner the game market and along the way making the ATV more solid as an all round TV Entertainment Hub.
It's like they have a sword floating Sony's and Nintendo's head but decide to grab hit with both hands so it may never fall.
Apple had the potential to completely corner the game market and along the way making the ATV more solid as an all round TV Entertainment Hub.
It's like they have a sword floating Sony's and Nintendo's head but decide to grab hit with both hands so it may never fall.
You could tell that even the person presenting the new features of Apple TV at WWDC was kinda embarrassed by the product (did she recently leave Apple? I think that she might've).
Apple TV is vying with HomePod for being one of the most underperforming and expensive products that they sell - and HomePod has only been out for 8 months or so. Apple TV has been out for 10 years, or so.
Either there needs to be a radical rethink of this product or Apple just needs to kill it.
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True - and it's a very expensive streaming device. What can it do that Google Chromecast can't AND that's worth the price difference?
Apple TV is vying with HomePod for being one of the most underperforming and expensive products that they sell - and HomePod has only been out for 8 months or so. Apple TV has been out for 10 years, or so.
Either there needs to be a radical rethink of this product or Apple just needs to kill it.
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True - and it's a very expensive streaming device. What can it do that Google Chromecast can't AND that's worth the price difference?
I use my Apple TV’s every day to stream games from my PC using a version of Moonlight that I had to compile myself. It’s a crying shame that Apple wouldn’t let valve release steam link, that was probably the last nail in the coffin for ATV gaming - so much opportunity wasted.
I agree as a gaming platform ATV missed the mark, to be polite. And yes I am disappointed. I do think if porting was easy, then updating should have been easy as well, and so I continue to think Minecraft dropped the ball as well with poorly thought out strategy. But come to think about it, if I had to guess, Apple offered them an inducement to port it... not to keep it alive LOL. So, all mistakes lead to Apple I guess. Which is your point
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To everyone saying Apple should sell a gaming bundle - they did back in January, it included Minecraft and a controller for much less than the cost of both of them together. Best Buy still does for $30 off the combined price https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-...ler/9999288900050003.p?skuId=9999288900050003
Worth the price difference is subjective... my understanding is Chromecast still does not play well with my iTunes video library? That's a major drawback for me and renders Chromecast unusable for me (again that subjective thing).
This is the correct reason why Minecraft for Apple TV was discontinued. Mojang stopped supporting it soon after it launched. The Apple TV version was only available for cross-play with iOS devices for a short time, and it never received what was called the "Better Together Update" for Minecraft which enabled cross-play between iOS, Windows 10, and select consoles. So Minecraft Apple TV only was compatible with itself after a while. No wonder why people didn't play it. If you can't play with your friends on the other updated editions, it's not really worth it. Mojang did offer Realms subscriptions for $4 to $8 a month on Apple TV, but you could only play with other Apple TV players.
When users got frustrated with Mojang for not updating the game and leaving it incompatible with the rest of Minecraft Bedrock Edition (which is the main branch of Minecraft now, and which is cross-play compatible), Apple TV users got upset and started reporting it here: https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MCPE...ssuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel#comment-466833
The official response from Mojang on why Apple TV wasn't updated is because of a "bug" that had to be sorted out first. But after more than a year, they never fixed that one mystery "bug" while other editions received the entire "Update Aquatic" update.
So the answer is not that the Siri Remote killed Minecraft on Apple TV (Apple sold Nimbus controllers bundles with free Minecraft ATV codes inside) or that Apple didn't market it enough (how many games get advertised at WWDC? Minecraft for Apple TV did.) Mojang killed Minecraft Apple TV because they didn't update the game to support the other editions!
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There are a lot of things an Apple TV can do that a chromecast can’t. The biggest one being that it is a standalone device that has its own remote and interface. The two are not comparable. You can compare it to a Roku or Fire TV or Google TV device, but not a chromecast.
The Apple TV is comparable in hardware and specs to the same-priced Nvidia shield TV, but it is limited more in what it can do because of Apple’s restrictions.
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Sad, AppleTV can be a great casual and light gaming console, I use it for party games and some gaming. for serious things you need a Nimbus joypad, sadly Apple doesn't sell bundles so most users/devs don't know you can have a AAA experience on it (considering the price).
There are some great games, co-op and party too. Apple just need to make its joypad, or bundle the existing ones. Showing gaming capabilities on keynote would be cool but sadly not a priority for Apple.
There are some great games, co-op and party too. Apple just need to make its joypad, or bundle the existing ones. Showing gaming capabilities on keynote would be cool but sadly not a priority for Apple.
Apple TV’s update to 4K last fall was meh. It’s still not as good as the ROKU ULTRA and you can’t upgrade the memory in it. The reason I say that is I have never seen or heard of a content provider get into a dispute with them. Everyone will work with the “neutral” hardware maker.
With Google, Amazon and Apple offering streaming boxes/sticks I still find myself having no need to go away from ROKU. I just don’t want to start getting locked into ecosystems.
With Google, Amazon and Apple offering streaming boxes/sticks I still find myself having no need to go away from ROKU. I just don’t want to start getting locked into ecosystems.
I have 4 joypad, a keyboard connected to my AppleTV. I play a lot of games with my friends and we have fun like on a console. There are AAA games for tvOS, party games which use 4 controllers. Just Mojang errors and in part Apple errors killed it.
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This is a classic example. Completely no sense. You can/must use a joypad which tvOS support since day one.
Yeah it does boil down to personal preference in the end, and I do see the appeal of a more casual approach to gaming. But I think the idea of the Apple TV as a gaming device was doomed unless Apple really put a ton of effort into it.
Personally I don't buy movies digitally because I don't want my movies to be locked into one particular account. If its not on Netflix or Amazon Prime, then I buy it on Blu Ray just so I have it all in one format that works on multiple platforms.
Think of the average consumer, especially during the holidays. Are they going to buy an Apple TV thats mainly a streaming device with a handful of games, or for a little more money are they going to go for a PlayStation/Xbox that likely comes bundled with a game or two, plus can do streaming, plus can play their blu rays.
I've even seen it first hand. My mother bought an Apple TV a few years ago (I think it was the 2nd gen model), but she stopped using it after a while, and she ended up buying my brothers used Xbox One off him because it can do streaming and play her massive collection of blu rays. Gaming consoles these days have a lot of bang for their buck as far as media consumption is concerned.