Is the video game industry Apple’s next victim?

[Solus Corvus]

They will probably do something like kinect or some other controller-less scheme.

Nope, they just need different game concepts. For instance Angry Birds suits the touch screen perfectly, better than mouse / keyboard / controller imho.

I enjoy Angry Birds in a pinch. But, IMO, artillery games are WAY better with keyboard input. You have so much more accuracy and repeatability, which is essential in the genera.

[STEvil]

What would be awesome is a controller you could plug into your phone, with a little bracket for the phone to sit in.

problem solved... bonus points if the controller includes a keyboard.... and mouse

[Russian]

I'm going to throw this out there and blow all your minds...

Every single iPad launch has been exactly in tune with that year's GDC. Want to know when Apple is launching their next iPad? Check when the next GDC is... 3 iPads in a row.

[iboomalot]

Its typical dumbing down of america and we love it.

Lazy , no personal responsibility , me me me, now now now.

Ipad is a large screen Iphone end of story. People want 90% surfing and gaming with 10% function and thats what they got.

Its for now a free country and if people want to spend cash on apple so be it.

Apple stock is up 20% in a month and making people rich its the american way.

As for me I will stick to my home computer and Samsung phone to get me by since I love large screens, oh ya my hone TV is a 73"

[3lfk1ng]

Ipad is a large screen Iphone end of story.

That's not true. It can't even make phone calls :P

[Mungri]

Touch screen devices cant really compare to video game quality on a PC or proper console. They might gain more sales, but thats because just about everyone has a phone and mobile games only cost a fraction of a retail release PC or console game.

I recently got a Nokia Lumia 800 which uses windows mango. I bought just a couple of games that keep me entertained on the go, monopoly and plants vs zombies, both play wonderfully on the touch screen device and are superbly addictive.

But the latter is still significantly better when played on my PC with a keyboard and mouse, plus you cant do hardly as much with mobile games compared to PC / console ones due to hardware, storage space and touch pad limitations.

[herderien]

they might destroy console gaming, but not pc gaming.

maybe when neural interface works like a charm, but untill then nothing compares to mouse and keyboard for fps, mmos, and rts (or tbs) consoles already tried to steall that.

[Mungri]

WoW, Guild Wars 1 / 2, DDO, Lotro, Diablo III (and all its clones), Total War series, Civilization series, Battleforge, Age of Empires online (very great game if you can get over the graphics), The Witcher 1 / 2, Elder Scrolls series with full modability, my entire steam library .....

Good luck inventing a mobile touch screen device that can do all that.

[ColonelCain]

My opinion? Current game manufacturers won't let Apple into the console space, at least not as the current (or near-future) console space is concerned. A lot of them have already seen first hand what happens in Apples app market, and won't want to get them a foothold. The gaming industry is somewhere that is already extremely developed, and doesn't need the "Apple" product blanket to get more users. Or to say, no major game company would look at the situation, and see an opportunity to make more by adding a third player to the market. Sure there would be a slight bit more by people who buy games for more than one platform, but Apple sure as heck isn't going to have a more developer focused ecosystem than the current companies.

[Origin_Unknown]

My opinion? Current game manufacturers won't let Apple into the console space, at least not as the current (or near-future) console space is concerned. A lot of them have already seen first hand what happens in Apples app market, and won't want to get them a foothold. The gaming industry is somewhere that is already extremely developed, and doesn't need the "Apple" product blanket to get more users. Or to say, no major game company would look at the situation, and see an opportunity to make more by adding a third player to the market. Sure there would be a slight bit more by people who buy games for more than one platform, but Apple sure as heck isn't going to have a more developer focused ecosystem than the current companies.

while i'd like to agree with that - if apple decides to make some console then people will buy it without question then game manufacturers will be at the mercy of people wanting to only play on the iconsole becasue it's apple and 'different'

[herderien]

while i'd like to agree with that - if apple decides to make some console then people will buy it without question then game manufacturers will be at the mercy of people wanting to only play on the iconsole becasue it's apple and 'different'

very true, do not underestimate apple fanboys, they can pay 400€ juste to gain a few pixels on their screens/camera ...

[wez]

No doubt it would make gaming more acceptable in the eyes of the clueless mainstream consumer zombie crowd. For better or worse I guess..

[Waterlogged]

while i'd like to agree with that - if apple decides to make some console then people will buy it without question then game manufacturers will be at the mercy of people wanting to only play on the iconsole becasue it's apple and 'different'

...but, the majority of established studios that dev games could also refuse to work with Apple from the start thereby either forcing Apple to start their own studio or try and buy one that's on the verge of going under, neither of those would be the "best" option for them. I mean really, if you buy a studio that's going under, it's like buying a used car that someone joy rode through a corn field @ 100MPH (161KPH for you metric folks), how good could their programmers/games really have been if they're going under?

[lizardmech]

Even an Apple product would be an improvement over the current consoles. The console business model of having a one off custom designed cpu + gpu that stays the same for 5-10 years is hopeless.

[Mungri]

Even an Apple product would be an improvement over the current consoles. The console business model of having a one off custom designed cpu + gpu that stays the same for 5-10 years is hopeless.

I'm already having to read everywhere how much the next gen consoles are going to dominate PCs for gaming performance ... well yes, PCs that are 1-2 years old that is. Within a few months of consoles being released, the hardware on them is already obsolete, and we end up stuck with console hardware limitation for the next decade.

[crash5s]

they might destroy console gaming, but not pc gaming.

maybe when neural interface works like a charm, but untill then nothing compares to mouse and keyboard for fps, mmos, and rts (or tbs) consoles already tried to steall that.

They don't need to. PC gaming got thrown into a death spiral when 99% of what you wanted to do could be done on a laptop and people made the move to them. Outside of old schoolers who just like desktops and CAD a people, read a minority, laptops are taking over and the qualities people want in a laptop don't make it suitable for gaming. It's not the 1990's anymore, the ideal platform for PC gaming (large desktop) makes about as much sense for most people as snail mail and horse drawn buggies.

Consoles also did steal FPS and I can tell you why. Again, laptops. You can say it looks like on a console, and there is no kbm, but that doesn't matter. It looks worse on a laptop and the controller is good enough. All the people I know that used to play FPS on the PC don't now. They play on console, and if the FPS weren't on a console they wouldn't go back to the PC. It simply won't run on the type of hardware they buy now.

Current game manufacturers won't let Apple into the console space,

Nobody wanted to let Sony in, oops, nobody wanted to let Microsoft in, oops! Nobody wanted to let apple in and the iphone and ipad are doing really well for game sales. People game on what they have. Consoles themselves have a history of new players jumping in and taking out the old ones. Atari, SEGA, SNK. It really comes down to brand image and power, which apple has.

Plus people game on the platforms they have now. Hence the iphone and the ipad. I think the 3Ds and PS Vita are better portable gaming products, but the point is moot. My work phone is an iphone, my personal tablet is an ASUS transformer prime, these are with me constantly. And both of them have extremely high quality games to play going back and from work, at the hotel, and on the toilet. There is no reason to get another portable.

Getting into the "console space" by which I think you mean on the TV in your living room? Transformer Prime already does that via HDMI and will take a blue tooth controler as well. If apple wants into the console space all they have to do is pull something off with apple TV talking to the damn ipad and enable bluetooth controllers and apple is in the console game.

but, the majority of established studios that dev games could also refuse to work with Apple from the start

The majority of studios already do work with apple. The majority of games on my iphone are made by capcom, konami, square enix, and CAVE. These are the same companies that make the majority of games I like on consoles. Short of the ones that Sony and Microsoft have bought outright, they are already onboard with iproducts.

Besides, these companies aren't loyal at all. They jump to who's selling the most units and where the money is. All those years, 8bit and 16bit era with Nintendo and SEGA weren't worth a warm bucket of piss for loyalty once the PS1 came out. And despite the phenominal ride they had with Sony for the PS1/2 era they went and stabbed them in the back again with the xbox 360.

Don't kid yourself here. The big names already make games for apple and are making money hand over fist and have never been loyal to anybody in the past.

The console business model of having a one off custom designed cpu + gpu that stays the same for 5-10 years is hopeless.

It's working pretty well for them. Also their arcade guts lasts longer, SEGA is still selling NAOMI kits with new games and the Atomiswave kicked on for a while. Both of those are dreamcasts.

[Manicdan]

^i agree with alot he said.

the industry changes drastically every decade or so. we should actually be expecting a new competitor soon.
although i worry what apple would release. it might be like the Wii, a pathetic and weak console that just looks pretty and small and works a little differently. except apple would sell it for 999$ because "anything cheaper would just be a bad quality [insert product name]" as they've said before

[Sparky]

an iphone 4s has similar gpu power to a ps3/360 and they seem to make do.

[crash5s]

I think you're thinking about this the wrong way if you think "dedicated console". Apple is already in the video game fight without a dedicated anything. The iphone and ipad have been taking it to other handhelds. In fact, the iphone has managed to do something nobody could manage to do up till now, give Nintendo a run for their money in the portable market. Companies like Capcom, Konami, Square Enix, CAVE, that were known for putting out exclusives on Nintendo portables and the ports of their best games that everybody wanted. The iphone is now getting exclusives from them that are not on Nintendo portables. In addition the iphone got two of the biggest game ports everybody wanted but never landed on a Nintendo portable, Chrono Trigger and Secret of Mana. That's in addition to a lot of the ports released for Nintendo Portables and the games released over PSN/Xbox Live/Wii Ware.

Apple is stealing Nintendo's lunch money here and pantsing them in the locker room through the same game devs that used to always back Nintendo. And they did it without even releasing a true portable console. They did it by cranking out a phone that could play games and having them sell like hot cakes.

As things sit right now you can already stream the content from an iphone or ipad to your TV via an $99 apple TV. And the content is pretty good. Sadly they are still stuck on the touch screen for stuff, but they are a simple blutooth controller away from finalizing the move.

Is it a console, no more than the iphone is a portable console. Will it compete with consoles, sure.

EDIT- Here you go

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