Steve Justice Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 First of all, I've completely made that name up. Â Chatting with a friend this morning he mentioned something about the growth of Apple and how it has surpassed microsoft financially and in terms of technology. This got me thinking if Apple would ever venture into the games console market. Is there room for another big company? Could they pull it off? And how can it be intergrated with it's current 'i' technology? Would a touch screen games console work if that was the route it went down? Â Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Chest Rockwell Posted May 18, 2011 Moderators Share Posted May 18, 2011 If they do, I hope it sucks. Â I don't want to have to get on the Applewagon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I think they will do. They are making the first tentative steps with the iOS which is becoming a recognised platform for games developers. Â It's a bigger, tougher proposition than their previous ventures. What Apple like to do is find a new/upcoming product niche and take it massively mainstream. mp3s, smartphones, pads. The games industry is much more established, they'd need to find an "in". Â The other thing is, Apple like to make money on their hardware. LOTS of money, it's how they do business. Console manufacturers traditionally make a small loss on the hardware (at least initially) and make the profits off the back of software/licencing. So again, I think Apple would need to find the right product to fit their business strategy. Â If I had to take a wild guess, I'd say something like over-the-internet gaming would be the sort of thing they might try - where you have a set top box and everything's done on remote servers. The set-top box would basically just be a graphics/audio card with proprietary streaming tech. That'd be cheap to manufacture and Apple could make a tidy profit on it. They also have the muscle to set up the infrastructure to make it all work smoothly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_Stone Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I just somehow don't see it happening, the markets are quite saturated as it is and until they can actually make their current products good gaming platforms it'd be viewed with scepticism. Touch screen technology doesn't mean anything in the gaming console market and it seems they love to do stuff surrounding that, some of the love for the macbook is down to how good its tracking pad is, i'd still prefer to use a mouse though. Â The other thing is, gaining the contracts of already big games, i just for some reason can't see a lot of Xbox game titles being allowed an apple release, it took a lot of time until there was as much cross over between PS games and xbox ones, with franchises such as Final Fantasy only being available on one for a long time. Â Plus, could apple over charge enough for a console that they'd bother? I Know people buy their Macbooks for ridiculous prices (compared to an equivilent pc or Laptop) but would it work in the console market? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew "the ref" coyne Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 If I had to take a wild guess, I'd say something like over-the-internet gaming would be the sort of thing they might try - where you have a set top box and everything's done on remote servers. The set-top box would basically just be a graphics/audio card with proprietary streaming tech. That'd be cheap to manufacture and Apple could make a tidy profit on it. They also have the muscle to set up the infrastructure to make it all work smoothly. Â This. This is exactly how I'd imagine Apple would try and do it. It's so simple... set up a basic streaming system for a decent upfront fee, then offer games to download / stream for pennies (or at least a considerably reduce cost compared to modern game prices). Heck it's what they already do on the iphone / ipad, this is just the next logical step. Â In some ways they are already IN the games market. Sure Angry Birds and the like might not be as cool as Red Dead Redemption, Dead Space 2 etc etc, but its arguably had more of a impact on the gaming market. They've already effectively taken a great deal of the hand held gaming market, so I'm sure moving into the "front room" gaming market is a logical step and one they could easily dominate. Â Heck they've already created Apple TV, all you have to do is setup a control pad into it and you've GOT your new apple console. Â Interest times ahead.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Justice Posted May 18, 2011 Author Share Posted May 18, 2011 In terms of touchscreen, could it not be intergrated with the iPad? With your iPad essentially being your controller and projecting that image onto your TV via the console itself. Or even taking it that one step further by surpassing Kinects technology. Â I like the idea of downloadable games instead of a disc drive. Basically leaving the console itself to be smaller & more compact. Â I think as a media centre it could work no differnetly to what the 360 & PS3 are doing now, but with Apple's touches obviously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted May 18, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted May 18, 2011 Steve Jobs seems to have a fear of buttons. I'm not even joking - look at not just nearly every Apple product outside computers, but also his clothes; they seem to feature as few buttons as possible. Â If there was such thing as an Apple console, it'd probably have a feature where you could turn your iTouch or iPhone into a control pad, I reckon/iReckon. Â Â By the way, did you hear about their latest, abortive attempt? They were gonna make an iTouch aimed solely at the kiddy market, but backed out when they realised they'd made a massive mistake calling it the iTouch Kids. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I'm not even talking downloading games, as you'd need a large harddrive on the console. I'm talking about literally playing live - all the processing of the game is done remotely, you just get sent 60fps of visuals plus audio. Â The tech already exists: Â http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onlive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buba3d Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 jobs has a fear of flash, whats that now 4 different iphones, 4 different itouches, 2 ipads and not one of them has flash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smegma Cake Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I think its only a matter of time. I love my Macbook Pro but I really dislike most Apple products, but I'd be very interested in seeing an Apple games console but maybe not owning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members GlennCullen Posted May 18, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted May 18, 2011 Im sure the iCult would be all over an Apple games console. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Pepper Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Already tried, and failed, with The Apple Pippin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrew "the ref" coyne Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Already tried, and failed, with The Apple Pippin. Â Don't mean they won't try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KFR42 Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I like the idea of downloadable games instead of a disc drive. Basically leaving the console itself to be smaller & more compact. Â PSP Go owners say otherwise. Downloadable games is a horrible idea, even more so with apple at the helm. The problem is, as theres no competition for prices, they just stay at the same level indefinately and with apple being the rip off merchants that they are, those prices will likely be high. Downloadable games will only work when there are a selection of retailers each providing their own online game downloading store to introduce competition. Â As for an apple console, I wouldn't be surprised, its the next logical step. It would obviously sell by the bucketload, even if its terrible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denzel_maggiore Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Not going to happen. At most they will do a handheld type console (not all that different to games being played on the iphone anyway) but consoles is a big step that I don't think they would take the risk with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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