Apple is now preparing to add full fledged gaming to its Apple TV product

[Dorfdad]

According to some inside information the Apple TV is about to get a little upgrading...

Apple is jumping back into the gaming business. Buoyed by the huge interest in bringing games to its iPhone product, Apple is now preparing to add full fledged gaming to its Apple TV product and distribute the games via iTunes ala Valve. Apple sees their potential to be the hub on home entertainment being threatened by the Xbox 360 and PS3. This is also a pushback against Valve which is rumoured to be interested in video and music distribution.
SONY and MS should be VERY worried.

My friends say that the new Apple TV will be more 'like a revamped Mac Mini' but will NOT include an optical disc. All software will be digitally distributed with a heavy emphasis on casual games. This article on May 8th at Apple Insider has some info on the potential controller (note: above isn't meant to be a product shot!)

http://gamergalinsider.blogspot.com/2008/05/elephant-in-room.html

This might actually get me to buy the damn thing...

 

[GFLPraxis]

Well, sadly, I have to take this with a bit of salt. The gaming industry more than any other is rife with blogs of fake "insiders", and I see no reason to trust this more than any other. Does she have a history of making correct predictions? As far as I can tell her previous posts were just posting announcements from CES and claiming she was there for them (no actual original pictures she was there though, all stock photos from press releases).


The other thing...Sony and MS should be worried? AppleTV has nowhere near the performance of an XBox 360 or PS3 in terms of graphics capabilities. Processor wise it outstrips the Wii, but I don't know how the GPU stacks up and that's what matters. And the Wii is known for terribly poor graphics and doesn't do HD, so that's no major victory- the Wii makes up for it with a strong lineup of first party games and originality, and Apple has no first party game lineup to speak of.

I dunno, seems like the post is saying what Apple fans want to hear, which makes me question it.

 

[godslabrat]

Buoyed by the huge interest in bringing games to its iPhone product, Apple is now preparing to add full fledged gaming to its Apple TV product and distribute the games via iTunes ala Valve. Apple sees their potential to be the hub on home entertainment being threatened by the Xbox 360 and PS3.

What I'm getting from this is "AppleTV hasn't exactly taken the world by storm, and some other products that people actually want are taking away the one thing it has going for it. Therefore, Apple is going to introduce a new product that will keep gamers from using their PS3/360s for video, since it doubles as a game console. Except, it won't be able to compete with the 360's or PS3's gaming performance in any meaningful capacity."

I really hope this is a hoax, because it strikes me as extremely poor reasoning on Apple's part. Not only do I doubt that apple could build a discless system that would appeal to the 360/PS3 market, they're completely discounting the fact that lots of gamers own multiple consoles, so there's nothing saying people that bought this product wouldn't STILL use a 360 as a media center.

I'm remaining VERY skeptical.

 

[dbwie]

hogwash

hogwash, I say! AppleTV will become more popular when the movie selection improves. It is not designed for games. The concern that apple should have regarding this product is if cable companies start charging extra for heavy internet use, such as downloading HD movies to the AppleTV device. This could scare consumers away from the AppleTV, the netflix box, and any other device whose purpose is internet video distribution.

 

[powderblue17]

I don't see anything wrong with adding gaming to the AppleTV and it would only be a secondary function so it wouldn't harm anything. I think it would need to display in HD to differentiate itself from the Wii but as a casual gaming device where all titles are purchased digitally it would be a good thing. It would still be marketed as a media device first and a gaming device second. The Wii has already shown that the casual gaming market is much larger then the hardcore gaming market of the PS3/360.

 

[godslabrat]

I don't see anything wrong with adding gaming to the AppleTV and it would only be a secondary function so it wouldn't harm anything. I think it would need to display in HD to differentiate itself from the Wii but as a casual gaming device where all titles are purchased digitally it would be a good thing. It would still be marketed as a media device first and a gaming device second. The Wii has already shown that the casual gaming market is much larger then the hardcore gaming market of the PS3/360.

The problem with that logic is that the point of the article was that the 360 and PS3 were taking attention away from the AppleTV with their Media center capabilities. Apple isn't enthusiastic about making a console, they just want to keep people from buying PS3s/360s and killing iTunes sales. The catch is, they're not making a system that can compare to a 360 or PS3. If they make it a "casual gaming" machine, it'll only reinforce the idea that the 360 is the machine for people who want to game AND rent movies online.

 

[Kebabselector]

And the Wii is known for terribly poor graphics and doesn't do HD

Really? O.k. it doesn't do HD, but i've no problem with the graphics. Mind you i'm not using an LCD/Plasma (mainly cos most TV is still SD, and that looks crap on HDTV).

 

[Muncher]

The Wii is an immensely popular console that has been attracting thousands of people who never had been grouped into gaming demographics before. It will crush an tv gaming unit. I sincerely hope that Apple will not do this, or is doing it as an after-thought and not refocusing their machine entirely.

"Wii would like to play!"

 

[LinMac]

I could see limited gaming support as an interesting addon to the AppleTV if it is handled like games for the iPod. I don't see the AppleTV being more than that in terms of gaming, but I could see it being useful for a browsing device like the WebTV as most televisions it is connected to are fairly high resolution (720p/1080p) with larger screens.

Think bejeweled with a wireless keyboard and touchpad on a 42" screen. Not very advanced compared to gaming consoles, but I know many people that are quite addicted to similar simple games that might sell well at a $2.99 - $5.99 price point.

 

[GFLPraxis]

Really? O.k. it doesn't do HD, but i've no problem with the graphics. Mind you i'm not using an LCD/Plasma (mainly cos most TV is still SD, and that looks crap on HDTV).

Well, relatively speaking. The Wii looks great compared to, say, a GameCube or PS2 or XBox, it just doesn't compare to the XBox 360 or PS3.

Although you can't see as big a difference on a SDTV, and sometimes games can cover technical inadequacies with excellent art style (almost any Zelda game, or Super Smash Bros Brawl, make good examples)