“The Industry Standard posted an interesting article recently discussing the possibility of Apple releasing a mobile gaming platform. According to the writer, the circumstantial evidence points to Apple trying its luck with gaming once again. And while I think the company may want to do just that, it should attempt to make its way into the console market,” Don Reisinger writes for CNET.
“I’m sure some are wondering what my justification for such a move would be considering Apple failed miserably in the console market back in the mid-1990s with the Pippin, but let’s not forget that it wasn’t really an Apple product. Apple’s Pippin was licensed to Bandai, a company that was trying desperately to get into the gaming industry,” Reisinger writes.
“Fast-forward to today and the gaming landscape has changed,” Reisinger writes. “Today, the industry is booming like never before and it’s rife with opportunity for any company that’s willing to provide an experience that can eclipse that which we’re enjoying right now. And as long as Apple plays by the rules it has played by for the past 10 years, there’s no reason to suggest it can’t be a success.”
Reisinger writes, “What if you could use an iPod Touch or iPhone as the controller? What if the company released a controller that would double as a portable media player? To me, the possibilities seem endless… If Steve Jobs really wants to create a full-featured lineup of products, a video game console is a must.”
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Brawndo Drinker” for the heads up.]
I think Apple should get into the game console market, but they have to do it for the right reasons and in the right way. The reason is simple to increase Mac market share. My logic is pretty simple here. Go find someone who likes windows. You will find that they fall into one of two camps:
They do not know enough about the mac to make the call
or
They are computer gamers
If they are the former, chances are they take the advice of the later on computer purchases.
If Apple created a game console built on OS X, they could encourage more game companies to support the mac. This gets the geeks in line and they would then start to recommend Apple. Gaming is the only place where Microsoft has an advantage (albeit due to their market share advantage).
If Apple were to do a console, they would have to do it in a very Apple way. That is they need to make some solid games that are a cut above to release when the console debuts. They can’t have even a day without several “killer app” games.
I think we have to look at this from the hardware volume perspective and measure it against Apple’s 3 fundamentals for entering a space.
It appears the entire market is 10-20 million units a year. That Apple would go after the billion unit annual cell phone market space suggests the game hardware market is far too small.
Jobs seeks out markets that are not dominated, whose participants are comparatively weaker financially, and where Apple would be able to dominate the space for a period sufficient to reap a significant return on their investment to develop intellectual property.
The cable and satellite media companies are vulnerable. That is where he is going.
I think it would be better in that case if Nintendo bought Apple.
Please no….that’s the last thing Apple should waste it’s resources on.
Won’t happen. As likely as Apple getting into the Chinese restaurant business and selling Apple-branded pupu platters.
Should Apple release a game console?
As a dedicated console, ABSOLUTELY NOT.
What next, Steve Jobs as a late entry to the 2008 presidential race?? Both arenas have established players, rabid supporters, and a bitter fight to win. Why jump into such a melee?
What Apple should do is leverage Apple TV better as a home-entertainment device. Don’t even bother wooing the gamer propeller-heads, ’cause you’ll never win.
Make it a console for the rest of us.
Should Apple start it’s own airline?
How about it’s own cab service? Pizza franchisee?
Let Microsoft compete in everything, not Apple.
Come on, Apple should not enter the console market. They dont have the games people want to play. Come on if it was not for Halo. not that great a game anyways, very overrated. Xbox would have fell from the start. Nintendo and Sony have their properties on lock. From Mario to Zelda and Metal Gear and Final fantasy.
I think Philip makes the best point.
Steve Jobs has said on a few occasions that Apple enters into markets where it can add value and do something new.
Take video game consoles. Are they particularly difficult to use? Nope. Are the graphics poor? Nope. Are the controllers unintuitive? Yes. Is Nintendo already working on this? Yes.
So where is Apple going to add value to a video game console?
See, this is where analysts tend to not get Apple. “Apple should be in industry X because there’s money to be made.” But the whole point is that Apple makes products that are better than the competition. Making a “Me too” device with an Apple logo is only going to sell to the fanbois.
Apparently the author hasn’t done his research. The video console game market is stagnant – basically the same number of people buying new games. No growth has occurred in the traditional gaming demographics.
Nintendo is on the right track to break out of the traditional gamer demographic and attract new game players. Apple would have to do something completely different, and it would be a huge risk.
Much better to simply create the iPhone/iPod Touch to be fantastic portable gaming machines and let game developers adapt their products to Apple’s existing products.
Finally, Apple doesn’t lose money on hardware. Game consoles are, for the most part, loss leaders, with the profits coming from licensing to game developers (again, Nintendo is an exception here). Apple wouldn’t play that game, which means they would have to change an entire industry. Apple’s already doing that with the mobile phone market, so it may not want to take on re-creating two markets at once.
No… work on getting more games for Mac first.
I agree with Phillip and I must add that CNET generally sucks big time.
There, I said it.
And Ina Fried is STILL a man.
Mark S. (Shuffield?)
I’ll have to take your word about Ina…..
I have been PC gaming as long as there have been PCs. As much as I love PC gaming on my SLI rig at 2560×1600 resolution, I hate Windows instability. Windows and PC systems are no where near as dependable as Macs. If Apple brought a scalable gaming platform to market, then I would consider it.
Would Apple enter this market? I doubt it. Entertaining the idea is fun though. Gaming on a system built around OS X at 2560×1600, with hardware that I can max out to achieve brilliant details and high frame rates would be great!
There are parallels between Steam and iTunes that some need to consider. I could see where Apple would sell games on iTunes, much like Steam. This would work well if they had a decent console that could game at 1080p (I want 1600p).
I am not a console gamer, so I do not know what the web browsing experience is like. I would imagine that an Apple console web browsing experience would be like that of the iPhone compared to the Blackberry.
considering that sony and msft both subsidise/d their consoles, I can’t see how apple would be too interested in this already saturated market. the thing with mp3 players and phones is that there was already a highly diverse market before apple came to bat. the game console is what? 3 major players? forget it. too hard basket. work on stuff where they can dominate. console market is too dependant on third party companies. apple has never been dependant in that way
A porn game would be nice.
iDon’t…
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Get into Second Life
A dedicated games console? Why on Earth would they do that for the home. The obvious answer is to hit the same market from a different direction that will have the benefit of expanding use of Apple’s other products which is precisely the approach they have taken up to now while exploiting a gap in the market.
That means using their motion and interactive patents to create controllers or similar devices for Apple TV and Macs generally that will give NWi like enjoyment to 2 existing products that will spur sales of both products without going out on a limb. Fact is games are a vital aspect of the pc that will always limit sales of macs until it is addressed. What better way than to give a games experience that cannot be equalled on a pc. That strategy will cover the games experience on a computer and on a tv with one family of device without actually having to commit to another product range altogether. This will simply make existing products all the more desirable and flexible and hit the pc via its weak underbelly yet at the core of its one advantage in the home especially among younger users.
On the mobile front it may be a little less obvious what track to take. However initially using the innate and mostly exclusive capabilities of next generation iPhone and Touch will be expand the games experience there. However a dedicated mobile games product which is still an iPod/iPhone too, might be worthwhile here eventually, allowing it to do for the mobile market what the wi does for the console market before, Nintendo takes that opportunity over too, or indeed the laggards to catch up on the concept they previously missed altogether. If that is the next step, November to January might be a good time to launch it in an ideal World. Developments next month with the SDK will perhaps enlighten us a little more as to that likelyhood.
A game console? In an already over-saturated market? Why?
Apple could partner with Sony. Merge TV and the PS3.
Better yet, how about Apple just support Mac game developers so they release Mac games concurrently with Pee Sea games. It would be cheaper and more effective.
The only way that Apple should release a game console is if it played Xbox 360 AND PS3 games. Two platforms are enough, people only have so much space in there entertainment console to fit a Receiver, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, etc. AND an Apple console?
There’s just no market for a 4th “Game Console” in the market.
The Industry Standard needs it’s writer’s head examined. What a stoopid article. Why bother even explaining the moronic nature of this specious speculation. Another tech mag I won’t bother reading.
Do other folks get the idea that technology journalism is getting so incredibly LAME that we are having a proliferation of Dvorak quality articles that have nothing to say and are merely DESPERATE attempts to have SOMETHING to publish?!
:-Q********
Apple enters new markets when they know they can bring a major advantage to bear: when other vendors have really screwed the pooch, like the MP3 players or cell phones.
Game consoles are a crowded market, with Nintendo doing a very good job on the lower end, and Microsoft losing money hand over fist with their subsidized auto-bricking Xbox.
Apple’s got plenty to do between the iPhone, the iPod, their pro and home software lines, and offering refuge to the Windows sufferers. Adding a game console to their lineup isn’t a great use of their resources.
-jcr
I was laughing my head off when I saw this. They would probly encrypt the console so you can only play games they make like they did for my Classic. I love mac but damb. Leave gaming to PC’s….
Personally I’d rather see more native game development for the Mac, but if they did I bet it would be a apple TV-like device based on OS/X and thus mac-compatible…