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[Speculate On!]If Apple Enters Into the Console Market
Bamelin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Industry Standard wrote:A trademark extension filed last February with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is one of the strategy's biggest tells. The filing extends Apple's trademark in regards to:
"Toys, games and playthings, namely, hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games."
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/05/07/apples-games-strategy-looks-beyond-consoles-and-imac?page=0%2C0
Would you buy an Apple handheld console?
First off no major announcement has been made or anything like that ... this is more or less speculation based on some trademarks filed by Apple awhile ago.
I'm subscribed to emails from Cnet which I sometimes skim over ... today I got an email from them linking several articles exploring the idea of Apple entering into the mobile game market. The trademark quoted above is the basis for this speculation.
I suppose it really doesn't come as a surprise that they would be exploring the idea of a handheld gaming system given the success of Ipod, but the thought of a full fledge system makes me salivate.
I wonder though, is the industry big enough for another player in the console market? I think the handheld console market is abit of a different animal and there is room for another player ... particularly as Apple has that "mass market" appeal that would lasso in many casual gamers ... especially if there was a Ipod built into the handheld console.
Handhelds aside though, I'm not so sure the market could sustain another player in the console market. I'd really like to see them try though ... the current console war has seen awesome titles released on all systems, I can only imagine how much better it would get should Apple decide to make a play ...
Far more likely though we'll see an Apple handheld console sometime down the road. I know I'll be in line on launch day.
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If Apple makes a console with the same philosophy as their computers, it will be twice as expensive as the average console and have five games.
Not sure though whether or not the average man would buy into the concept. We all saw how the convergence of gaming and mobile phone went (Ngage) ...
But if Ipod was to make ALL new ipods come with their new gaming platform built in maybe that would force adoption?
Mac/Apple have never been massively entwined with games, they aren't really seen in that light, we might end up with an awesome looking, stylish hand-held but with very little games.
Sometimes I Stream Games: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/italax-plays-video-games
...and the world will be theirs. A WiiPod to every child.
or Brawl. 4854.6102.3895 Name: NU..
This.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
If only Apple had anything to bring to the table, there. I can't think of a thing Apple could lend to Nintendo. Did you see the numbers for the DS? I guess if Nintendo wants a superfluous shot of money, they could get it from Apple.
in which case I don't expect them to be able to do much better than they did the first time.
Nintendo's been blowing the world out of the water by using Apple inspired designs. Now imagine if they actually had Apple designs.
Oh, and let me plug my iPod into my Wii to play my music as a custom soundtrack including iTunes-purchased tracks (just to stick it to the Xbox).
Very true. lol pippin.
or Brawl. 4854.6102.3895 Name: NU..
True. But personally I think that if they do decide to make a stab at gaming again it will be with a handheld system.
Their last attempt was a full fledge console in the 90's and yes it flopped. This time around though they have a much better entry point using the Ipod brand. I can't help but think that there are alot of casuals that would hop on board with an Ipod/Handheld Gaming system hybrid.
Multi-touch?
An Ipod gaming system would be competing against the PSP.
And I'm sorry, I just don't think an ipod could compete with the PSP in terms of gaming. Just like how a PSP couldn't compete against an ipod in terms of music.
Okay, I thought about it, and I'm on board. But you have to promise me one thing:
Multi-touch drifting.
To see them apply that kind of enthusiasm and innovation to the handheld market would be awesome. If they used the same kind of marketing that they use with their other products, it could drive video games to an audience that Nintendo has only began to tap into.
Oh, come on. You don't think that a handheld made by Apple, with Apple's marketing support, could even compete with the PSP?
I'm not saying it'd be total domination by Apple, but there would certainly be healthy competition. At least from the hardware side of things.
Some of us just want to forget that the Pippin ever happened.
I just don't see it. Sony has a lot of experience in the console world by now, and the PSP has a library backing it by this point.
Apple is very new to gaming. We've all witnessed microsoft's mighty struggles with gaming... I just couldn't expect better from apple, especially in the handheld market where nintendo rules with an iron fist and Sony has a clear niche cut out. There's just no room for them.
Don't forget shitty Justin Long ads about why Sony, MS, and Nintendo are stupid and broken even though 90% of humanity use them.
Infinity Mog 21 and over Free Company Sargatanas Server. Recruitment currently closed.
I disagree. Sony and Nintendo's handhelds only appeal to people who are already gamers. Yeah, the DS has sold a lot (for the record I don't think anyone has a chance of touching DS sales) but a handheld by Apple has the potential to appeal to an audience that has remained largely untapped by any gaming console ever. The Wii is a pretty good example, but I think that a handheld by Apple marketed in the right way can penetrate even further into that audience.
I see what you're saying about Apple's developer relations, but they haven't really tried to make relations with handheld gaming companies because they don't have a reason to. If they really wanted to make something like this work, they've got the money to make friends.
Sales never before seen in the gaming world? You need to tap the breaks.
Apple has sold 150 million ipods. That's an amazing feat... but nintendo has sold 190 million gameboys. And then another 70 million nintendo DSes.
And then Sony has sold 35 million PSPs.
So who are they trying to sell to? The mass consumer market for handheld gaming belongs to nintendo - this is not in question, they outsell the ipod. The rest is handled by Sony. The current ipod has a stranglehold on the mp3 market.
So what would an ipod handheld bring to the table? Where are these phenominal numbers going to come from, and what will apple do to make it sell better than nintendo's line of handhelds, to the point where developers will flock to it?
My friends and I are always saying how Apple is good with details in their devices. So if we look for areas in Nintendo's hardware that are lacking in the "details," we can find where Apple could help them.
One of the main gripes I've had with the Wii are the batteries. They use plain batteries and plain batteries only. There's no official recharge method like with the 360 or PS3. It's arguable whether PS3 or 360's charging solutions are better. Personallyl I prefer PS3's simplicity, or lack of options, whatever you want to call it. There's no need to buy extra equipment to make it chargeable from the PS3.
Nintendo, on the other hand, makes it so you have to buy a 3rd party peripheral that is of questionable quality. I really don't see why the Wii couldn't have allowed you to just plug the Wiimotes into the USB ports in the back to recharge them.
LoL - Renon DeSaxous
Apple don't need to make a new gaming handheld. They have it already, it's called the iPhone / iPod Touch.
The iPhone is actually more powerful than a PSP, except possibly when it comes to the video chipset. It's got more RAM, a faster CPU, a slightly higher-res display, and so forth.
Controls? Well, Apple probably doesn't even want to start competing directly with Nintendo and Sony, at this point, which is why they're going to aim mostly for games that use the multi-touchscreen and the accelerometers in the iPhone as controls. That's more than versatile enough for making compelling games. It just means that "traditional" games that require many buttons, D-pads and analog nubbins won't be the focus of this platform. That's only going to turn off the closed-minded part of the hardcore gaming crowd, while the rest (well, those who can afford an iPhone or iPod Touch, anyway) of the world will be having fun.
Nintendo has proven that simplified but immersive controls make for fun games using the DS and especially the Wii. Now that more people than ever are playing games, it's time for Apple to try.
And to those who say Apple should stick to what they know, that's a really stupid thing to say after they basically brought the company back from the brink of annihiliation by entering an entirely new business (portable music players) and have been having huge success with another new business, namely cell phones.
If they don't have to spend any time designing new hardware, and can instead release a polished, powerful SDK/API, they can turn the iPhone / iPod Touch into a viable gaming platform sooner than you might think.
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Because this dodges the problem that Sony has of "when the built-in, non-user-replaceable LiIon batteries wear out, what do you do".
It'd likely be something called like "iGame" or some shit, and people would buy at first just for the 'i' in front of it.
Like the huge iPhone push, and then no one wanted them (or did, but didn't want to drop $500 on a phone.)
The machine, if a portable, would probably try to use the iPhone's touch screen ability, but having tried games on the thing, I can't say the screen is very responsive compared to the DS's screen.
If a console, I can see them going one and only direction: Digital Distribution. Having a hub similar to iTunes, or the failed AppleTV, you can only download games, no physical copies (or perhaps physical copies as an option, but being installed and not requiring the disk in the drive). Apple has made tons and tons off of iTunes, so they'd probably bring that philosophy to game distribution. Wether they could ever actually get industry support from developers remains to be seen (the seem to have good relations with EA and Epic, at least).
Well lets start tearing your claim apart bit by bit.
First up, it doesn't have a more powerful CPU. It has a faster CPU, yes, but a 333 mhz MIPS processor will outpreform a 412 mhz ARM9. It does have more ram - 128 mb vs 64, but the PSP's XMB OS unloads upon booting up of each application. That is, it doesn't constantly run. By contrast, the iphone's symbian OS cannot be unloaded, and occupies a large portion of it's RAM.
Now your claim that it's video chipset is slightly underpowered is an understatement to say the least. It uses a modified and out of date PowerVR architecture - we're talking pre-dreamcast architecture. By contrast, the PSP utilizes a proprietary GPU based largely off the emotion engine. The PSP's GPU frankly runs circles around the iphones.
About controls - Nintendo almost assuredly wouldn't have built up it's 70 million userbase with entirely touch controls. There is a large chunk of it's games catalog which forgoes touch controls entirely. We're not at a point where traditional game controls can be chunked out - even the wii uses fairly standard control schemes from time to time (biggest example being brawl).
Finally, you say it's stupid to claim that apple should stick to what they know because they've had success with their ipod... but by doing so you ignore the complete failure they've experienced in other sectors. Namely the apple TV, which is bombing currently.
Not to mention that the iphone has sold 5 million units in 4 quarters. in it's first 4 quarters, the PSP sold 4 million units in europe alone. So if you're using the iphone as a basis for how apple can compete against the current handhelds... then it's not doing too well.
The Gameboy had a 17 year product life, the iPod has had 7. Also, and MP3 player is always just an MP3 player. It will always play MP3s at its most basic (with extra features, of course) where as something like the Gameboy had two completely separate generations (basic, and advance) with games that were completely incompatible, forcing users to upgrade if they wanted to play Gameboy games. Yes, the iPod went through multiple revisions, but if I had a generation 1 iPod, I can still play the same MP3s that my generation 6 iPod can play. There isn't as much of an incentive to re-buy hardware with an iPod as there is with the Gameboy line.
The DS has mass appeal, for gamers. And it has pulled in some non-gamers as well. But look at what Apple did with MP3 players. They took an incredibly niche tech device, and turned it into a marketing phenomenon. I consider myself tech savvy, and 5 years ago I was not in the slightest bit interested in owning an MP3 player. Today I use my iPod every day, and I couldn't live without it.
Apple knows how to tap into the mainstream market, which is a market that has remained largely untapped by any gaming company. Apple knows how to make a tech device that is user-friendly. They know how to market those devices to a very large audience. They know how to drum up cultural capital (which is probably their biggest boon). In essence, Apple is extremely good at marketing their products. They could market a shit sandwich, and your hip neighbor would munch down two every day.
Well, first of all, the average lifespan of an ipod is between 2-4 years (and you'll notice one of those sources is apple itself) so there IS incentive for people to rebuy their ipod - in that 7 year strech, most people (myself included) have had their ipod break on them.
Second, the ipod HAS seen major revisions - most noticably the inclusion of videos.
It should also be noted that apple's success with the ipod came with virtually no competition. When the ipod launched, who was it's main competition? And even what little competition there was didn't have a large head start on apple - apple got in on the opening ground.
So why should their success with the ipod (which came with virtually no competition) translate into success in an incredibly competitive, overcrowded market? By contrast, nintendo HAS had constant competition and has still sold admirably. Needless to say, nintendo can outpreform competition in the handheld market.
you say this, but again, the DS, which has been out for a little under 4 years, already has 50% of the ipod's life time sales. So why will apple sell better? Where's this proof that they can market to the mainstream better than nintendo (or sony, who enjoyed even better success than the ipod with their walkman line in the 80's and 90's). And how come this incredible success hasn't translated to their other products, like laptops or apple tv?
This was my first reaction. If SOMEWAY you could have an iPod with UMD game support, it would be so much win.
PS2
FF X replay
PS3
God of War 1&2 HD
Rachet and Clank Future
MGS 4
Prince of Persia
360
Bayonetta
Fable 3
DS
FF: 4 heroes of light
It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that more and more games of various types are going to be available on stuff like the iPhone and the iPod. Nobody's disputing that. You can buy Sonic the Hedgehog for your iPod, for goodness' sake.
Those games, of course, aren't going to be the same types of games you'd play on a PSP or DS. You're almost certainly not going to see, like, God of War on your iPhone.
What's more, it's doubtful that Apple is going to launch a full-scale gaming device. At least not anytime soon. There was a huge wait for the iPhone, remember, and Apple in general is conservative when it comes to introducing an entirely new type of product.
What we might see is the US developing a market similar to the market for cell phone games in Japan.
We should start a movement to reintroduce the pippin to the apple crowd.
They'll be forced to use it because it's an apple product. It'll be glorious schadenfreude.
Oh gods. I thought there couldn't be any worse fanboys than what already exist...
I WAS WRONG.
There were quite a few MP3 players out on the market when the iPod launched. Thing was, they were all marketed towards enthusiasts. The current gen of handhelds has marketed more towards people who aren't gaming enthusiasts, but let's be honest - the vast majority of people who own handhelds are gamers. The vast majority of people who own iPods aren't audiophiles, I can tell you that. Same goes for the iPhone. A good portion of people who own one aren't tech nerds. Apple is incredibly good at generating mass appeal.
The DS has 50% of the iPod's sales in little over half of the iPod's lifetime. What's your point? The DS is selling slower?
All I'm saying is, if Apple were to try and get into gaming, they'd do better than you give them credit for. Apple is very good at marketing, generating buzz, and generating cultural capitol. That translates into sales.
They'd be the best fanboys.
All coming in. Talking about how their system is better than the other ones because it has a dedicated graphics processing unit, and wireless controllers, and all you have to do it put the disc in and it'll load it up right away and work.
Steam: pandas_gota_gun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF9s3TpncAo