Evan reports, “EA vice president Eric Soderlund told CVG: ‘If it was anyone but Apple, I’d say that’s going to be very hard,’ Soderlund told CVG. ‘I still think it’s going to be extremely hard for them but they’ve surprised many people before. Look at what they did with the iPhone, right? They are a truly brilliant company so I would give them a relatively good chance to succeed if they tried.'”
Full article here.
Also, via CNN/Money, Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins says as games become easier and more social they will beat out traditional platforms like Microsoft’s Xbox in a video posted here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “James W.” for the heads up.]
No need.
Streaming games through Apple TV off a huge new server sounds pretty cool to me.
I’d love to see it even tho I just got a PS3. The Wii is an example of a revolutionary idea with mass appeal as tho Apple was behind it. Expect the unexpected with Apple in the same way. Gaming would have to be reinvented, which is Apple’s mantra!
Apple would not just release a gaming console. They definitely are capable of making a great gaming console, but it’s not worth the effort from Apple’s perspective.
Apple only jumps into markets when that they know they can make a fundamentally better experience than all the competitors, and if their innovations in the market can’t be easily copied by competitors. I don’t think Apple has such an opportunity in console gaming. Apple will just focus more on the markets it excels in (computers, music, cell phones, and tablets).
Apple needs to buy Onlive and use the AppleTV as the console. All Onlive needs is better titles anyway, add iPhone game apps and it’d be amazing.
Haven’t they done that already? I thought with airplay you can already stream whatever is on the iPhone or iPad directly onto your TV the minute you walk into your doorstep in conjunction with Airport or Airport Extreme!
NO, it will not work at all, playstation and xbox is way better. Their is no need for that and besides, apple tried that once and it did not work.
black ops is going to do close to $1 billion in sales by the end of 2010. how much is the best selling iOS game going to sell?
i have 3 iphones but don’t think iOS gaming is anywhere close to my x-box 360 or PS3.
dba:
Nobody is arguing that a handheld gaming device would eclipse a popular console title. The argument here is that if Apple decided to go into the console gaming market, they would likely challenge your Xbox and PS3 fairly quickly. The way they have seriously hurt PSP, DS and similar with their mobile platform.
i had the original x-box back in the day and was one of the first subscribers to x-box live.
to have a successful console you need exclusive games that make people want to buy the console. Sony had Metal gear solid, GTA and final fantasy. Nintendo had mario, zelda and others. the original x-box had some OK exclusives but it wasn’t until the 360. the reason is that developers aren’t going to spend money on your platform if they aren’t sure of your committment to another console generation. it’s a huge financial investment to develop for the x-box if you’re only a PS developer.
there are some good iOS games but they are no where close to what is on the consoles. if apple were to release a console it would have to have A LOT of local storage or an optical drive which in 2011 and later is going to have to be blu ray. that would mean same cost as PS4 and X-Box 720. my 360 and PS3 already do everything an Apple TV does so apple would have to do something unique and pay a developer a lot of money to develop an exclusive.
and gameloft is still far away from putting out stuff like EA and Activision. and even upcoming ARM CPU’s pale in comparison to what MS and Sony are going to put into next gen consoles.
social gaming is hype due to low development and operational costs and the fact that some crazy people will pay to play farmville or mafia wars. no growth in the hard core gamer market so everyone is chasing a new growth market.
the real growth is in family gaming. i have the kinect and it is very cool. just as cools as multi touch was when it first came out.
@ Andrew RE: “NO, it will not work at all, playstation and xbox is way better. Their is no need for that and besides, apple tried that once and it did not work.”
Apple made the iPad earlier too (the newton). Apple will be starting fresh (Pippin is over). Silly to say that PS3 and Xbox are better when speaking of nonexistant product. It could be a great fit in that perspective. Apple could make such a console compatible with Mac OS X, giving Apple Macs a bump in entertainment titles. The halo effect might turn into a Rodin coil giving everyone free electricity..
I think the whole debate is rather moot. I completely agree with the article in the sense that I have no doubt that Apple could quickly put together an ecosystem around a powerful hardware console that would seriously challenge both Sony and MS.
However, there is no chance Apple would ever get interested in such an ecosystem. Console gaming is a minor segment of the gaming market. There are plenty of fanatic, dedicated gamers out there, who spend many hours using these, but altogether, this market is rather marginal. Investment required to enter (and conquer) the market would obviously just be too high, compared to any possible returns. Casual, mobile gaming is clearly the easy, low-hanging fruit for Apple, where it can (and already is) effortlessly challenging Sony and Nintendo. When gaming is concerned, we know that Apple is disinterested. The iOS platform’s gaming popularity caught Apple by surprise, so they just ran with it, but there is clearly NO concerted effort on their behalf to seriously devote resources specifically to gaming. Perhaps Steve Jobs doesn’t care much for any kind of gaming devices…?
@Andrew, “apple tried that once and it did not work.”
That’s terribly misleading. It wasn’t the same Apple that Apple is today. It lacked any ecosystem whatsoever, and wasn’t ever released as an Apple product…only in Japan 1995 and briefly in the US 1996 by Bandai as the Pippin.
“playstation and xbox is way better”
Than what? Have you much experience with the completely unannounced Apple gaming console? If so, do tell.
For a first attempt at gaming on the current gen aTV, I think Scrabble has the best model. Right now you can use your iPhone/iPod Touch for your own personal view and the iPad as the Scrabble board for all to see. So extend that same model to use your iPhone/Touch/iPad for your personal view, then use the aTV as a global/public view for everybody.
They could actually. Game center can convert apple tv into a console and your iphones/ipod touches become the controllers
The freaking AppleTV is just freaking 720p, that is not freaking enough challenge Xbox.
The freaking HD TV is just 1080p, that is not freaking enough challenge iMac 27″.
WTF!
Wow, what a bunch of short sighted malarkey. The wii is nothing more than a glorified Cube and yet is still one of the most successful consoles ever sold. It’s nowhere near as powerful as the xbox or playstation, but the mass market doesn’t really care anymore. They are interested in what titles are available but it’s no longer about processor speed. There are insanely successful titles exclusive to the iPhone already and major game houses are offering large chances of their portfolios on the platform already, why wouldn’t that only continue?
Because sony will let that happen lol MS AND SONY will cut apple to pieces before the have a chance…..
@ Guest RE: “Because sony will let that happen lol MS AND SONY will cut apple to pieces before the have a chance…..”
Just like they did with the iPod? lol, right! So THEY’RE the game changers, heh? Keep in mind that Apple is the one that lets them feed on table scraps. If Apple decided to go for the gaming console market and I was Sony or Microsoft, I’d keep my eyes open wide before dismissing it. And perhaps throw a chair or two.
@Anti-720p
Except the Xbox IS 720p AS WELL, LOSER
Oops.
@jeremy
You forgot what really kills OnLive: latency
NO. it won’t work at all. it is very different market from mobile. unfortunately there is no hole apple could get into console market. they will fail. apple knows better. plus, nobody wants to develop mac game for console because it doesn’t make any money at all. mac os x doesn’t support gaming platform like windows OS (directX, games for windows live something). unlikely iphone, ipad, developers won’t be interested in making mac games. if Apple will make console box, I highly doubt who will buy. price will be very expensive just like mac products. apple can’t compete with the rest. plus, I don’t want to buy freaking expensive mac for gaming as well. it’s so much waste. there is nothing better than PC.