“For all the hype about iTV, here’s another potential application: iGames,” Aaron Ruby writes for Next Generation. “Could Steve Jobs and co really have their eye on the console market?”
“As summer turns to fall and the phosphor-lit leaves of the current stand of next-gen consoles begin to turn decidedly ‘This Gen,’ we already know that the scramble by Microsoft and Sony to put a digital Trojan horse into every living room in America has evolved into the greatest business story that never happened,” Ruby writes. “In both cases, these companies have shrieked so loudly and so long about their plans to capture the Holy Grail of Digital Convergence that pretty soon people are going to start lobbing cattle at them. Maybe, then, Nintendo really got it right when it started dressing up the DS like an iPod.”
Ruby writes, “Maybe the advent of iGames, the introduction of iTV, and the application for a patent covering handhelds with more than one touch-sensitive region are really the sawing sounds of building a new… Trojan… Apple. According to Disney chief Bob Iger, the iTV wireless streaming media device will have a hard drive. He recently said ‘It’s a small box about the size of a novel, and not War and Peace, by the way. It plugs into the television like any other peripheral would, like a DVD device. It’s wireless. It detects the presence of computers in your home; in a very simple way you designate the computer you want to feed it and it wirelessly feeds whatever you downloaded on iTunes which include videos, TV, music videos, movies or your entire iTunes music library to your television set.'”
Ruby writes, “It’s very possible video card drivers could be written so that graphic output data could be sent to a network port instead of the monitor connected to the card. That opens the possibility of using iTV and a wireless controller to remotely play Mac/PC games (*cough* WoW *cough*) in your living room.”
“Convenient then, that on September 7, 2006, Apple filed a patent application for a handheld electronic device with ‘multiple touch-sensitive devices.’ Sure, the primary application of the patent is likely to layer a touch screen over the iPod’s display, but applications that involve improving gaming control with Apple products is not far-fetched,” Ruby writes. “It would be truly ironic if a Trojan Apple rolled out of Cupertino. Instead of using games to gain convergence, Jobs and company may just use music and video to wrap up games into a neat set-top bundle. And the cultural ubiquity of the iPod brand certainly wouldn’t hurt iTV’s aspirations to breach our living room walls. After all, it was an apple that started Homer’s great war.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Steve Jobs gives sneak peek of Apple’s “iTV” wireless set-top box:
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it’s all about the software games companies. THEY sell games… not hardware manufacturers.
The exception is Nintendo who put out plenty of quality first party games… but without 3rd party support… not happening.
This is highly possible, provided that the specs of 802.11n are beefy enough, but Apple should only provide the framework for games, not enter into any game or controller manufacture themselves. Once they do, they’re support hotlines fill up with little 3rd-level grozarks and magical schmoopies crying about their frame rates and their inability to install this or that component. Who needs it?
I see everything going to the TV with the Mac as the digitual Hub. It’s inevitable, including games, which I consider essential to the full-spectrum home experience. I would bet on it.
@M di L B Simoni:
Actually, the hardware in game consoles is highly specialized for gaming, and at the time any particular game system comes out, it would cost a LOT more to build a general-purpose computer that has the same amount of gaming power — if you even could built it.
Game consoles have a place, at least now they do. For those who want the cutting edge graphics and gaming power, buying the newest console makes a lot of sense.
I do agree with your last statement though. As computers (and graphics cards) become ever-faster, there will probably come a point where it no longer makes sense to have a separate gaming console.
Also, as of now at least, most consoles are sold at a loss, with the money coming from the games. The same isn’t true for computers. If you paid what an XBOX 360 really should cost (with MS making a profit from the console), it would cost quite a lot more.
For these 2 reasons, consoles do have a place in our world so far.
And who was it that said that “only Sony and others went the separate console course…” or something like that? Uhhhh, no, actually, gaming consoles have been around since the early 1970’s. They’ve always been around and will continue to be around for some time.
Will Apple get into this? I doubt it, but… who knows. I’m not one to underestimate Apple’s abilities.