But what if these TVs had game consoles inside as well?
Think about it; you could download a game from the iTunes Game Store to your Mac (or PeeCee, Hodgman-lovers), browse to it via the FrontRow interface, send it to the HDTV, and play as if it were a regular console. Apple owns a number of patents for graphics that make it totally feasible.
This combo setup actually makes the games more important than the hardware: Console makers generally take a loss on the hardware, and make it up on the game licensing. Apple hardly seems the type to take this road, so combining the gaming and display hardware saves costs, and changes the market dynamic to boot.
Is this what Apple’s got in mind? We know there are HDTVs and something to do with video games coming up, and coupled with iTV, it doesn’t seem that far-fetched at all.
Apple rumored to be eyeing video game market [Apple Insider]
If you want to game on your tv, then I recommend the Nintendo Wii. It is soo much fun!!! I’m even able to download some classics I grew up playing.
Until Active X runs natively on a Mac, ( which it won’t since Active X is a MS product) how in the world will you get games on a Mac? Sure there are ports a year after the PC version. Right now the only leg up a PC has is the games.
In a way a mac is like a console in that the macs all have the same hardware, so that game designers don’t have to worry about someone having 2 3D cards as well as some one running the game with 128 megs of RAM on a Centrino PC.
I don’t buy it on this rumor because its an overcrowded market that is hard for apple to innovate in.
Also I went back and read that iphone patent and it just sound like a weird phone, with all the ceramics and longitudinal tubes with end enclosures. This thing if it ever sees the light of day is going to be a freak.
Just because they want to compete doesn’t mean they will. The market is super competitive. Maybe they can find a niche….Apple computers run Windows? That markets is closed.
Just because they want to compete doesn’t mean they will. The market is super competitive. Maybe they can find a niche….Apple computers run Windows? That markets is closed.
brklynsurfer
1) You’re talking about DirectX, not ActiveX. ActiveX is the component present in Microsoft Internet Explorer.
2) So what if it will never support DirectX, DirectX is not vital to 3D acceleration. Have you ever heard of OpenGL? Hint: Unreal Tournament and many other graphics intensive games have used the OpenGL engine. Oh, and I can guarantee you that its perfectly feasible to run OpenGL on Mac OS X.
It seems to be the absolute worst timing for Apple to be releasing a video game/console/gaming system at all. I agree with brklynsurfer that perhaps we should all take a step back and look at the whole scheme of things.
1) PS3 and Wii were just released, simultaneously, only a month or so before Christmas
2) Xbox 360 is building up a lot of interest with competitive pricing deals and advertising, in addition to releasing big name games like Halo 3 soon or something like that
3) Although Apple has been doing very well with its product line expansion (new laptops, new ipods, etc), they still have a lot on their plate (new OS mainly)
4) Introducing something very expensive (HDTVs and the like) and trying to sell something that is also expensive alongside it (such as a console/emulator, etc) right after the Christmas rush = failed product launch. Releasing something like that is going to enough due to the tough competition (all three consoles would be viable contenders to a newly introduced AppleBox).
5) Apple pricing, apple pricing, apple pricing! Apple is expensive, notably more so than a lot of other competitors. How will Apple market something that is neat, but not brand spanking new in tech or style, with a very high price?
Those are some questions/thoughts I had about this article. But if Apple were to pull this off, or actually even be thinking about this seriously, congrats to them, because even though they’d have a hard time pulling it off, they’d definitely do it the best with the infrastructure they have set up.
money is made on video games, not consoles unless you’re nintendo who is raking in on the Wii consoles.
the wireless integration between HDTV, Mac, iPod, iPhone, etc. is what i would like to see Apple do. once that is established, anything can happen and they can truly own the living room.
so wait, remember when there were rumors of an apple/nintendo merger? they talked about things, and the wii is very applish.
that’s all crap though. we’re not talking about macs running games, but a console. the hardware could be anything, really. if they’re going groound up, so can the software. and don’t forget: the xbox 360 dev machines were powermac G5s!
i see this happening. not right away, but it’s likely. checking scores on your iphone? you bet. soundtracks in itunes? yup. avatar creation with isight? yah. all the pieces are there…
Most everyone can agree that it would be nearly impossible for Apple to compete in the console-gaming market in a traditional sense.
However, Apple has already shown themselves to think outside the box a bit. Since they are introducing the iTV product this upcoming year, and since they already have the architecture to deliver iPod games through iTunes, I think it makes perfect sense that apple expands the capability of iTunes to include games for use on the television.
The majority of people that use Macs aren’t usually hard-core gamers. However, they are typically adults with disposable income. The popularity of online card and puzzle games is obvious. Games like Bookworm, Zuma, Bejeweled, etc. are increasingly more popular with this same crowd. I imagine that either, Apple will encourage their developers produce games that work on the iPod OR on the TV or, Apple will encourage other third party developers to make their games available via iTunes. Either way, Apple could make iTunes an XBOX Live Arcade alternative.
I’d like to see this approach.
brklynsurfer
Office is also a MS product and there’s a mac version that runs smoothly. I don’t see the logic on your comment. MS and Apple are old time partners, even when they don’t want us to focus on it that much.