Apple TV 3 Might be Apple’s First Home Game Console

NextGenRetro: There’s a market a’brewing. A market for an Apple game console that is. People are buying lots of games from the App Store. The selection has grown from simple games like Cut the Rope to complex games like Dead Space and Infinity Blade and people can’t get enough. The market is growing more hardcore so to speak. The tastes of users have matured and the possibilities are really opening up.

[NoobJobz]

No thanks.

[Blad3star]

Great just what we need - the PS3 Fanboys vs the 360 Fanboys vs the Apple Fanboys.

[Pixelated_Army]

Damn there's a lot of butthurt Zune fans in here today. lol Apple is here to stay so

http://i.imgur.com/W15rM.gi...

[Spitfire_Riggz]

I say the nintendo/sony/microsoft fanboys form against the apple fanboys. That would be fun

[metsgaming]

The casuals would flock to this so fast if supported. The big 3 wouldnt be able to make their games casual enough to compete lol. Thats if it was real which its probably not.

[Stealth20k]

hardly. its not a system

complex but infintie blade and cut the rope suck

this is just some shmo blogger

[ryhanon]

...it's not their first attempt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[firefoxprime]

well well well...we know see where sony ripped-off that banana controller scheme. Hehe.

Glad they didn't go through with it. *whew*

[BeastlyRig]

If you think Xbox is closed platform wait till apple gets in the game!! It will only work on apple tvs!!

[Tron_Rocks]

No thanks Jobs!

[ngecenk]

well they got everything needed to build a console: lots of cash, lots of devs, good relation to publishers, heck they even got their own programming IDE and their own language. thats a big plus.

[shanesgc]

This would be so easy to do for Apple the odds we see games on Apple TV are immense. Only question is to what extent.

[Kon]

I'll pass.

[madpuppy]

god, I hope not!, the only people that will buy it are elitist douche bags, If you think PS3/360 fanboys are terrible wait till the Apple heads come to tell everybody why spending 3 times more for less is better.

[krauler]

It's obvious that the casual market is the most expanding and profitable niche to go after. Inexpensive games for cheap thrills.
I like the hardcore as much as the next guy but let's face facts. The most hard core platform (PC) is dwindling and with the direction Sony and MS are going with the motion/ family games, they too know where the money is. This is no longer an industry led by high poly count and texture res. It's about getting as many units sold as possible and Apple knows what they are doing.
BTW everyone knows about the Pippen. Apple has changed ALOT since then.

[ryhanon]

The casual market is where the money is right now, yes. Will it be where the money is in the long term though? I think that depends on the platform.

The hardcore gaming market has been around for a long time and will continue to be because it is capable of sustaining itself over a period of time. Why? Because it's made up of consumers who play lots of different games, people who are interested in new, up-and-coming games - these people devote time to it and consider this their hobby. A hardcore gamer thinks nothing of plopping themselves in front of their TV or monitor for hours at a time playing through the latest hot release.

The casual market is just the opposite, it's made up of millions of people who are just looking for a brief distraction, something they can pick up and play while waiting in line, riding the subway, taking a break at work. It's these small moments of "down-time" that people want to fill with a casual game this is why it's so popular on mobile devices. Think about it - why have so many people who've bought Wii's only ever purchased a couple of games before letting the Wii sit around collecting dust?

The casual gamer is not the type of person to sit down in front of a TV or monitor for hours at a time playing games. The casual market on home consoles is seeing rapid growth right now, but it is going to see a massive crash shortly once the gimmicks have worn out their welcome. After that happens, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony and even Apple are going to have a hard time getting this group of people to come back for round two with their next wave of consoles. These people are not dedicated to the medium, they are not an audience that is likely to stick around for any length of time, they're a flash in the pan.

[krauler]

I think you're right on all accounts. However, I do believe both markets are here to stay. The economics are simple though. Most core gamers do buy casual games as cheap, quick thrills as well as the big budget games but the casual gamer will spend his or her money only on Angry Birds and the like.
If you were a publisher, which type of games would you concentrate on making? The ones the minority of people buy or the ones that the majority of people buy?

[ryhanon]

@krauler

Very true. Casual games definitely enjoy a large overlap market, but I think the overlap is primarily in the mobile space. Look at the sales figures for the average Wii game as an example. Nintendo has, by far, the greatest install base this generation, and yet still the average 360 and PS3 game beats the average Wii game in sales. The casual market is huge, no doubt, but I just don't believe it has the legs to survive in the console space without a hardcore foundation.

I agree with you on the inferred premise that Apple is in a very good position to try something like this, but I don't think that they (or anyone, for that matter) can build a stable console infrastructure based solely on the casual market. My point is that these people are not the types to sit down in front of their TV to play a game, especially not a game like Angry Birds. If Apple were to do something like this they'd have to approach it with a greater sense of attention paid to the hardcore market, and as a life-long Mac user I can attest that is not something Apple has historically been any good at.

[krauler]

@ryhanon
you do make very good points

@everyone at N4G
This is what a normal exchange of ideas looks like

[Zydake]

I agree 100% shit I saw Angry Birds as the most sold minis over on the PSP every1 buys casual games .

[DangerTick]

Why do people think it will be a console (aside from people just being retarded)?

i"Phone" - Oh wow, it's a handheld gaming system like the DS/PSP!

Apple "TV" - Awesome, it's a game console like the Wii/PS3/360!

[thebudgetgamer]

if you can get steam through this i might be interested.

[negroguy]

Man it would be funny to add in some apple fanboys on n4g.

[Desert Turtle]

Infinity Blade is not a complex game. You fight the same enemies over and over until you get strong enough to kill the end boss. There's nothing to it.

[Mr_Luke]

Could be great, but i imagine the price... $1200 maybe? =P

[truehunter]

Price starting at 999.99$ Apple will also give u discount of 10$ off on the next purchase of any Itouch/Ipad/Iphone/Ipod.

[lephunk]

their current apple tv is $99...

the next one will probably also be around that price...

but now with the ability to play all the appstore games and controlling it with your iphone/ipad/ipod...

it could happen... but who knows...

[Blad3star]

Go APPLE.

[gcolley]

this is not for us. this is for the people who never have and never will visit this site or any like it.

[krauler]

Exactly!

[CaptainPunch]

Will it be overpriced? Oh wait it's Apple!

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

sounds great...not. Apple TV does NOT sound like a good console to me at all.

That would be funny because maybe people here would shut up with the xbox vs ps and hate apple. Nintendo dominating both in sales couldn't do it, apple entering the console gaming industry might.

[matey]

Consoles need talented developers to make in house/1st party games and Nintendo has the best talented developers in world the Gakaxy team are amazing imagine what Nintendo'd devs could do on a Super Console in the wii2.
Apple stand no chance at a console as its the software that really sells it and Nintendo make the best as 90 million wii's sold prove this.

[matey]

I mean 3rd party wii games are hit and miss so yeah Nintendo are what have made them 90 million consoles sold not 3rd partys infact u could say the wii has the most left in it because if 3rd partys stepped up i mean capcom show us some MT Framework light games even crytek said the wii could handle there engine but there making timesplitters i think on wii/ps3/360/3ds also EA havnt got there engine running on wii 4 sports games maybe with TW12 but hey even Ativision have all there big engines running on wii publishers need to make there wii game engines more robust but yeah 3rd partys dont help sell wii consoles so it a testiment to how amazing nintendo's games are.

[matey]

Also a wii2 with 3rd partys able to make there best efforts on wii2 first then down port them to ps3/360/3ds/psp2 ect as i smell a very powerful hardware is coming in the wii2 that will cause sony/microsoft to really step up there game and with rumours of wii2 having dedicated servers on all games and 3D on every game developed nintendo mean buisness