I came across an interesting article by Don Reisinger, who suggests that it’ll be wise if Apple will release a gaming console and I second that motion! It really makes sense that Apple should jump in the gaming industry with some beautiful and sexy looking consoles and on top of it, it’ll be even cool if they jump with some amazing games too.
Don also makes a good point that these days consoles are used not only for games but for various different purposes like downloading movies, music, TV shows etc. and with iTunes store in place, Apple has a huge market to capture.
What do you say about the idea ? Will you drop the idea of buying Xbox 360 or Playstation if at all, Apple decides to launch a gaming console, what will be the impact of the news, if at all Apple decides to go for gaming console ?
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Well at the launch of the iPhone sdk we all saw that the iPhone is a handheld gaming console as well so technically Apple doesn’t have to release anything cos its already released right? All the iPhone needs is a video cable or wireless video thingy to play it off your giant widescreen tv and that makes it a full fledged gaming console as well.
“consoles are used not only for games but for various different purposes like downloading movies, music, TV shows etc”
I think, 99%, they are used for games. The existing game consoles don’t do these other tasks particularly well.
I’d hardly think that besides the iPhone or iPod touch would Apple bother to release a dedicated game playing machine. As it is, I think Apple has a fairly well-filled product line. I honestly couldn’t see people giving up their XBoxes, Nintendos or PS3s for some new Apple gaming device unless it could run all the titles that each platform has to offer. Otherwise Apple would have to throw a lot of money into game development incentives.
I think Apple should just use the iPhone and iPod touch as the gaming devices since they’ll already have a nice user base to work with and the iTunes store to sell inexpensive, newly developed games than can be quickly downloaded. It seems that everyone is going mobile and I think that’s where most of the money can be made right now.
I wouldn’t mind if Apple or a third-party company could develop some sort of cradle that could plug into the iPhone and touch that had some physical buttons for controlling the games the way most people are used to. It just seems that on-screen controls take away screen space and realism of the game view. At least that’s my way of thinking.
However, all that gaming on the iPhone or touch is really going to put a hurt on battery life. Apple can’t get around this problem unless it develops some sort of ultra-long life battery technology, a replaceable battery, or external battery pack. I wonder if the iPhone is going to become the ultimate jack-of-all-trades and master of none device. Users are really asking a lot from such a small handheld device.
@ Tom B: That’s actually incorrect. PlayStation 3s have already been proven to be superior BluRay Disc players in comparison to their BluRay Disc player counterparts. I have a brand new BluRay Disc player and it plays like crap in comparison to the PlayStation 3. I took the thing back to Best Buy (a computer retail store in the US) and just kept the PS3. It prove to be a lot more efficient and all around better because it uses the gaming platform to create high density graphics… so the movies played a lot better than they did in the player. :) But, you may be right about the 99% thing… although I use mine 100% just for movies. I can’t bring myself to actually play the thing…
Overall, I don’t think I would buy an Apple gaming console. I guess it would be a for a few reasons… 1) It would probably have zero compatibility with current gaming systems and 2) I don’t typically play video games all that often. I think Apple has the potential to create something a lot sleeker than Microsoft’s XBOX 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3, but in all actuality, it probably wouldn’t perform as well as either.
The iPhone and the iPod Touch currently have Apple under a bind with the users wanting more usability on both. So, we’ll see… they’re already becoming a lot more advanced… so hopefully we’ll see more in the coming future as far as gaming on your iPhone and iPod Touch.
Much of Apple’s appeal comes from their ability to create both hardware and software, and then get them to work together so well. For Apple to create a gaming system, history suggests they would create both the system (hardware) and the games (software) themselves. Microsoft was able to quickly bring the Xbox into the mainstream because they had some in-house expertise, bought some expertise (Bungie, with Halo), and had a huge pool of outside game developers used to working on Windows machines to tap into. Apple has the first, could follow Microsoft’s lead on the second, but lack the third – if you want to play games on a computer – you buy a PC running Windows, not OS X. In short, Microsoft’s gamble worked because they used all the outside help they could tap into; Apple seems a little more the ‘go it alone’ type.
Also, there’s the question of whether the market has room for a fourth gaming system; a lot of people wondered if the market would support three when the Xbox came out.
Just a couple thoughts.
It would be foolish for Apple to do this. We have seen the *cough* games *cough* apple has come up with. Where Microsoft makes games with other companies, Apple could possibly just make their own games with OK graphics but no point whatsoever. And I also think that it would be tough to take those hard core gamers away from their 360′s. I would be surprised if anyone but Hard Core Mac fans bought the console at the first release.
We also have to remember that apple is not coming out with any "*cough* games *cough*." All the media that is being released for the iphone/ipod touch is being released by thrid party applicants. Yes, they are being released with apple's (stamp) permission but are not designed and devoloped by apple itself. Personally I would like to see what apple would have to present if an "apple" gaming system was released. Somthing to compete with the Xbox360 and the PS3.
Didn´t Apple already made it possible to use Intel Macs as consoles? Isn´t it just matter of installing bootcamp and wintendo to get your games?