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Should Apple release a handheld system dedicated to gaming?

F

firteen888

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 2, 2008
209
0
So I was just wondering how you guys would feel about this....

I think the current selection of games in the App store are great. Developers have really come up with some creative ideas for using the touchscreen/accelerometer, BUT there's a huge limitation when creating games for the simple fact that there are no buttons on the iphone. How would you feel if Apple released a dedicated gaming handheld? Some ideas...

- It would look VERY similar to the iphone in terms of size and screen. I'm sure it would need to be a little bigger to fit the buttons but not much.

- It could have dual analog sticks similar to the one on the PSP, the standard four buttons on the right (i.e the triangle/square/circle/x on the PSP) as well as 2 shoulder buttons.

- All games would be purchased from an App store just like they are now, but it could be a dedicated store made specifically for the gaming device. Games like trism for instance can be submitted by the developer to be put on BOTH app stores, while games that specifically utilize the buttons will only be submitted for the gaming systems app store.

- It would have a hard drive much like the iphone/touch does now so you can still put your music collection/videos/etc... on it.

I would love to photoshop a picture of this if I had the skill but I think you guys get the point. Would you guys purchase a device like this?
 
Yes, it's called an iPod Touch. I see what you mean, and they are enabling what was originally an internet capable iPod to do some pretty amazing things. The iPod Touch/iPhone, I'm guessing will see revisions that are specifically aimed at making it more graphically powerful. But right now it's a great gaming toy, that is able to surf the net, play music etc. It's much like a PSP, except it does many things better, the only thing some people feel it falls below the PSP is gaming power, whereas others would argue it's a much more capable gaming devise because of the accelerometer and touch screen etc...

This is all I think we will see in portables because if they were to make a gaming specific system it would have all the features of an iPod touch anyway, so why wouldn't they just make an iPod Touch/iPhone with a boosted GPU designed by P.A. Semi??? Makes sense... I think that's what we will be seeing in the future... Integrated GPU's... And in the App store we will probably see a little iCon signifying the GPU requiring games as to another iCon on other games for older iPhones/iPod Touch's, much like the iPod games where only certain generation iPods are supported...
- Sounds good to me!:)
 
I think we'll see a dedicated gaming handheld from Apple right around the same time they release a full fledged console to compete with the Xbox/PS3/Wii...that is to say, no time soon, if ever.

Gaming consoles, handheld or otherwise, seem to be an endeavor best suited to companies who have either A.) always been gaming companies and nothing else (Nintendo), or B.) have dominated the market in other areas for a long profitable stretch (Sony, Microsoft). For the former, it's a matter of bread and butter. For the latter, it's potential (but risky) icing on their already very large cake.

Apple dominates one market only (so far), the portable music player, and have done so for a fraction of the time that Sony or Microsoft have owned their markets. Apple simply can't touch their R&D budgets for now.

The Xbox has only just recently stopped losing money. I'm pretty sure the stockholders would agree, Apple can't afford to sustain losses for as long as MS or Sony can in order to get a shaky foothold in the fiercely competitve gaming marketplace.

I think Apple is better off concentrating on getting Macs into as many homes and offices as possible for now, and continuing to sock away R&D funds for future empire building projects, 5-10-20 years down the road. iPods and iPhones have been a hugely successful foray away from computers for them, but the iPod/iPhone galaxy is on a much smaller scale than the video game universe. That's not to say they don't sell tons of iPods and iPhones, but a lucrative gaming system is a far larger and more challenging undertaking than either the iPod or the iPhone.

Finally, I think Apple has typically been at the top of their game when they can say "we did it first", as opposed to "we did it too". Look at MobileMe. They can barely do now what Yahoo and Google have been doing with webmail for 10 years.
 
why.. so when apple releases this handheld and let's developers make games for it... we'll have about 10000000 posts a day saying "omg, this new game for apple's ________, they should make it for the iphone too"

you guys know it's true... :p
 
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