Filed under: Apple Corporate, Rumors, Apple
Rumors: Is an Apple gaming console next?
What's up next for Apple? After that whole iPhone thing of course? Various news outlets today suggest that an Apple gaming console may be next on the agenda. Prudential analyst Jesse Tortora believes that Apple Computer's hiring of video game designers may indicate that Apple intends to jump into the gaming market itself, according to a report at Apple Insider. If this is the path that Apple intends to take, certainly its superior design aesthetic plus its iPod-boosted brand name will help it establish a presence in the gaming market. It's unclear whether the introduction of the iTV this January will be tied at all to gaming.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
JkEw said 7:49AM on 12-06-2006
Apple is hiring video game designers for games on the iPod period end of story.
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Jon said 8:02AM on 12-06-2006
Apple wants to conquer the living room, so this may well be an objective for them. I can't see it coming soon though.
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rich said 8:08AM on 12-06-2006
Slow news day eh?
No way is Apple going to make a console.
It'll be games developers to make games for the iPod, and maybe the iPhone.
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BLACKOUT said 8:32AM on 12-06-2006
apple is not microsoft.
it wouldn't do it.
it couldn't compete. sony and microsoft sell their consoles for a loss a lot of the time, and that goes against steve's way of running the company.
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DrWho said 8:40AM on 12-06-2006
Enough of the rumormongering already, as if the damned iPhone wasn't enough.
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Michel said 8:48AM on 12-06-2006
Pippin !
Pippin !
and yeah, Apple is _NOT_ microsoft or sony. apple doesn't want to go in market where they would fight to have a huge marketshare. they go just after things are started and _before_ the market is full of products and competitors.
ho and the "apple place" in video console is already taken (and very successfully) by... Nintendo
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fanguad said 8:49AM on 12-06-2006
I have two answers for this:
First: no
Second: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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Galley said 9:56AM on 12-06-2006
Perhaps they are developing games that will be playable with the iTV.
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Leland Scott said 10:57AM on 12-06-2006
PLEASE hire a decent copy editor, or send this writer back to grammar school. You only use an apostrophe in "its" if "It's" a contractor for "it is". In the last paragraph of this item, the writer uses three "it's". The first two are wrong, and the third is correct. Believe it or not, Mac users are pretty well educated and do remember their basic grammar lessons... this is just shoddy, embarrassing pseudo-journalism.
If I see one more article like this, TUAW goes off my RSS list.
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mauve said 11:17AM on 12-06-2006
Leland: From the latest post on your site: "practically ubiquitous". Ubiquity, like death, is an absolute concept - there is no nearly.
More fundamentally, "...and my notes on pros and cons probably explains the choices" - the subject of the clause is plural, therefore your verb also needs to be in the plural form.
"Shoddy, embarrassing pseudo-journalism" eh? Hmmm...
I don't know whether you find this pedantry as tedious to read when you're on the receiving end as it was for me to read yours, but if taking TUAW off your RSS list spares us anymore of your arrogant and pissy whining, then I say go for it.
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will said 11:55AM on 12-06-2006
I imagine that it's for iPod games. It could be that they are going to start focusing on the mac as a gaming platform. But with the way the gaming console market is set up these days the money is in how many games you can sign. In this market AE alone simply wouldn't cut butter.
However it would be badass.
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Stuart said 12:20PM on 12-06-2006
nuts
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Liam Parkinson said 12:13PM on 12-06-2006
Leland if all you are interested in is perfect grammar then go get a dictionary. Users come here for mac news not a English lesson. As long as i can clearly understand what has been written i am happy as are many other users. Not everyone is 'perfect' take me for example, i am dyslexic but if i wanted to be a writer should that stop me? As far as i am aware when only telling news it just has to be as informatic as possible and not a Shakespeare piece of work!
As for the article itself i don't think mac would hit it with a console, they barely get any games ported to the mac itself, what would make companys want to do it for a new pippen?
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Alex said 12:58PM on 12-06-2006
I think it's a lot more likely that the developers they hired are to work on better tools for game developers, or develop their own games for mac to boost the image of a Mac as a gaming machine.
This is still the only ground most MS fans have for a legitimate argument against the platform. Most mac users have games as a lower priority, with a higher priority being getting work done, but there's a huge market of kids that buy PC's just to play games.
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tacos138 said 1:26PM on 12-06-2006
Apple needs to focus on getting the devs to at the very least port games for mac before they even think of a console. Stick with the iPod and let sony, ms and nintendo fight it out with the consoles.
remember the console market saturation in the 80s? it seems like too big of a risk and expense to develop consoles these days, especially since they sell consoles for years at a loss.
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Sam G. said 2:44PM on 12-06-2006
I'd love to see an in-house Apple games studio for Macs. I think that the "hardcore gamer" market is one Apple could easily grab a share in if they wanted to, especially with the Mac's graphical capabilities and the Apple Studio Display monitors. Right now, Mac users looking for games either rely on independent developers like Ambrosia or ports from Aspyr. I'm sure someone at Apple is looking at Dell/Alienware and saying "I want me a piece of that market share."
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aj said 2:49PM on 12-06-2006
Yes, games for iPod, sold through iTunes, but probably also playable on the desktop and managed through a new Games section of iTunes. I imagine new games, but also an iPod port of Stella + MAME and downloadable classic ROMs via the iTunes Store would make sense as a new business model. Maybe iPod as competitor to PSP/DS, but not in the console space, too risky.
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Trevor said 10:35PM on 12-06-2006
Always thought that Apple would add a 'game-reader' and rosetta type of environment(or just software) to run Nintendo Gamecube games, especially when the hardware was so similar (powerpc, ATi graphics cards).
Maybe it's still an option? Especially with things like a GameCube Rosetta thingy?
Although, a living room iTV, Mac Mini, kinda gadget that allows you to do Media, Web surfing, games, etc., is one of those convergence things that I guess does make a bit of sense ... If it's priced right, could instantly start eroding marketshare of the higher priced consoles? (Ever wished you had a time-machine to check these things out?)
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Word Diggity said 4:58PM on 12-06-2006
Well, since rumour-mongering is the new black, why not go whole-hog, eh?
*I* heard from a VERY reliable source that Apple is getting out of the computer business to sell SAUSAGE.
Seriously! I can't reveal my sources, of course, because he'd lose his job, get sued, and be sent to jail on Rura Penthe. Plus Steve automatically gets custody of his wife and kids. But he's REALLY trustworthy. You can believe me.
Look for the new iLinks Breakfast Sausage, coming in Q3 2007 in a grocery store near you!
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SP Leung said 11:20PM on 12-06-2006
I read this before. Here it is.
http://stylemac.blogspot.com/2006/09/steve-jobs-hinted-multi-function-itv.html
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