Do you think Apple will make game console?

[Ibaorus]

Hi guys, I was wondering about whether Apple will make game console to compete with Xbox and PlayStation, and then I stumbled upon this article on Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Bandai_Pippin

Apparently, they already made a gaming console called Bandai Pippin and it was released in 1996 !

So, do think Apple will release another game console ? If yes, what kind of specs do you want it to have ? Like, maybe 16 GB or RAM, Apple custom 2GHz 8-core processors ?

 

[velocityg4]

I could see some emphasis on game support for the Apple TV. That's about it. No special high end hardware just simple iOS like games.

 

[roadbloc]

No. Ever since the failure of the Pippin and the loss of Halo, Apple has taken its bat and ball home with serious gaming. Their focus on mobile gaming appears spot on and maybe the AppleTV can extend that, but I doubt they'll have any desire to enter the serious gaming market.

 

[Yakibomb]

No I don't see them making a console again in the future. As said above I could easily see them revamping the Apple TV to support games but they wouldn't be anything close to high end consoles games

 

[TimelessOne]

Nope. Apple will not enter a market unless it will make them 30% profit off the bat. Catch is to enter that market it cost billions and you are looking at 5-10 years to break even.

Take Microsoft for example. The original box they never planned to make profit on it. Microsoft even said their best case they where looking at 5-7 years to just break even and that was best case.
It cost them billions just to enter and that was over 10 years ago. It cost a lot more now just to be a new player.
Now Microsoft looked at it as a very long term investment and it is starting to may dividend. It is a key part of getting in your living room. Something apple never has figured out how to do it right.

 

[ucfgrad93]

No. Ever since the failure of the Pippin and the loss of Halo, Apple has taken its bat and ball home with serious gaming. Their focus on mobile gaming appears spot on and maybe the AppleTV can extend that, but I doubt they'll have any desire to enter the serious gaming market.

Agreed. I don't think we'll ever see a game console from Apple.

 

[Jessica Lares]

No. And I don't feel like the Apple TV will become the platform for games either.

 

[Pakaku]

If they can't even take Mac (PC) gaming seriously, what makes you have any faith in console gaming?

 

[maflynn]

Yup, they made the pippan and even a digital camera as well.

I'd say why make a game console now, when they're so successful with the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch? In essence, these replace a game console. Plus, what would it take to compete against Sony and MS, and will the projected profits be enough to justify it. I'd say no.

 

[TimelessOne]

Yup, they made the pippan and even a digital camera as well.

I'd say why make a game console now, when they're so successful with the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch? In essence, these replace a game console. Plus, what would it take to compete against Sony and MS, and will the projected profits be enough to justify it. I'd say no.

I would disagree that they are replacing gaming consoles.

The games that are played on the iPhone/iPad ect are what I would call quick games. They hurt things like the game boy but have no effect on consoles which is a complete different ball part in types of games.

 

[0007776]

At the most they will update the Apple TV and come out with an appstore for it that includes some games, but I don't see them trying to compete at all with actual game consoles.

 

[lowendlinux]

If they can't even take Mac (PC) gaming seriously, what makes you have any faith in console gaming?

Console gamers tend to be different than PC gamers, different needs and demands. If Apple wanted to play in gaming then the console would really be the only way to go. I do think it'd be a fools errand though.

 

[0098386]

Can't see it to be honest. Maybe a few years ago I thought that's where they were heading. But here we are slap bang in the future with flying cars and no Apple console.

Maybe it's not what they're after? Mobile gaming and console gaming are two entirely separate beasts. I could imagine them setting up an internal game development studio for mobile games, with some spilling out onto consoles.

 

[maflynn]

I would disagree that they are replacing gaming consoles.

The games that are played on the iPhone/iPad ect are what I would call quick games. They hurt things like the game boy but have no effect on consoles which is a complete different ball part in types of games.

For the serious gamer, you're right. For the average consumer, I'd say that the iOS games have already eaten into their bottom line.

 

[TimelessOne]

For the serious gamer, you're right. For the average consumer, I'd say that the iOS games have already eaten into their bottom line.

I would again make the exact same argument. They are in 2 very different fields and they have zero effect on one another. The only thing that could even remotely be hurt is things like the Gameboy. Console have zero effect. They are complete different ball parks no effect whats so ever.

Casual games (games that you need to kill 5-10 mins) are where the iPad, and phones do great. Kick that up to something like 20-30 mins where you want to sit down yeah not going to grab the mobile device for playing a real game.

 

[Jessica Lares]

They want us to get the MFi controllers and just play on our iOS devices. I have one and I'm pretty happy with it. I know a lot of people aren't, but it's going to get better. We're going to have hybrid games that are good with both touch and physical controls, and I don't necessary think it's a bad thing.

I don't think they want to bring storage options back into the picture and that's the crucial part of making gaming work. Everyone right now is doing 8GB, but that's just laughable when you're dealing with a single game being 300-500MB to a whole GB now. It's going to get worse now with the iPhones needing bigger assets.

AirPlay isn't the answer either, or is streaming. It's hard enough to play multiplayer on an Xbox without lagging (or so the yelling in the other room about it makes me assume ).

And yeah, console gaming is completely different to mobile.

 

[Southern Dad]

If Apple was to decide to make a gaming system, I believe that it would be more like the Wii than the Xbox or PS3/4. The games would be more family friendly and more "timeless."

 

[Tech198]

"The Apple Console"


I don't think Apple's in that space, the tablets filling that gap. Who wants to sit in front of a screen playing games, when u can do play the same game on iOS on the move ?

 

[maflynn]

Casual games (games that you need to kill 5-10 mins) are where the iPad, and phones do great. Kick that up to something like 20-30 mins where you want to sit down yeah not going to grab the mobile device for playing a real game.

I see my kids spending a lot more then 5 to 10 minutes playing games on their iPod Touches. I think iOs has had a negative effect on consoles, and will continue. I think games that are geared towards teenagers, that are in-depth will always be best on a console, but many of the other types of games have been replaced by iOS.

 

[grahamperrin]

A patent, a guess, a hope

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My guess/hope

If there's private Apple work on gaming hardware, maybe five years before anything is made public.

I hope that Apple will properly address concerns about existing products before additional diversification. The recent trend of squeezing whilst scaling hasn't worked out particularly well.

 

[pdjudd]

I personally doubt it. The market itself doesn’t seem to tolerate many competitors. Right now, realistically, there are only 3 competitors and only one of these three has been around since the 80’s. The rest date from the 90’s and beyond. During that time there have been many entrants and many exits (Sega and Atari being very notable). It is very costly to get into console gaming and requires a lot of investment from a company to get into this market and most companies don’t have the endurance.

Take Nintendo. They have been in the market for over 30 years and over that time they have been incredibly successful. Lately, not so much. The Wii U isn’t a knockout success and the 3DS is only successful because there isn’t really any dedicated handheld competitor (Mobile devices don’t count). Otherwise they are struggling against competitors. MS is successful because they were successfully able to parlay their PC game development (a very different business) to console gaming and even then they lost a ton of money with their consoles over the first few years.

Yes Apple has a ton of money and yes they are successful in mobile gaming. But that doesn’t mean that Apple has the appetite to burn through the necessary amounts of cash to develop and sell the hardware in a very competitive and mature market where their competitors have a couple of decades of experience. Not to mention that the market is vastly different than mobile gaming. MS at least had the advantage of PC gaming being already established giving them credibility (plus they made games too - something Apple does not do). I would argue that the types of games are similar enough for MS to bridge easier. Apple doesn’t have that advantage. Most of the iOS games are nowhere near what gamers want on a dedicated console.

Apple is pretty smart. They already know that the console market is saturated - and many established competitors have been forced out. Competitors that were much better off than Apple would be. It is way more effort for Apple than is worth it and too long of an investment for them (and their stock price) for them to risk. Combined with their history of the Pippen and I conclude that the console gaming market is one that is too unique for Apple and not close enough to what they specialize in. Apple would be essentially starting from scratch in a crowded market. Not really for them.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Take Nintendo. They have been in the market for over 30 years and over that time they have been incredibly successful. Lately, not so much. The Wii U isn’t a knockout success and the 3DS is only successful because there isn’t really any dedicated handheld competitor (Mobile devices don’t count).

3DS's competitor is the Vita and the Vita failed because the 3DS has all the killer games.

The business model of consoles = games sell hardware. Software has all the value and hardware is just a vehicle. To the point hardware is put out at a loss and recouped via game sales.

As a company that couples large hardware margins with budget sw pricepoints, Apple can't apply this business model to consoles. It's the opposite of what they're used to. On top of that, they have no clue how to make a game.

 

[pdjudd]

3DS's competitor is the Vita and the Vita failed because the 3DS has all the killer games.

I was aware of the Vita, but as you point out, they aren’t really a competitor. I wasn’t trying to exclude them but rather to dismiss comparisons to people trying to compare the 3DS on the same level as the iPhone/iPad or iPod Touch.

The business model of consoles = games sell hardware. Software has all the value and hardware is just a vehicle. To the point hardware is put out at a loss and recouped via game sales.

That’s what I was going for but you put it better.

As a company that couples large hardware margins with budget sw pricepoints, Apple can't apply this business model to consoles. It's the opposite of what they're used to. On top of that, they have no clue how to make a game.

Indeed. About the only company that doesn’t sell at a profit is Nintendo (and I don’t think they sell at too much of a profit). The only reason that they can is that their first and (I guess) second party games (first party licensed characters made by other companies) are in general highly desired and they don’t rely too highly on third party franchises as other console companies do.

But as you point out, Nintendo can do that because they know how to make games that people really want to shell out lots of money for. Apple isn’t known for that at all. They don’t make any games themselves and their mobile games pretty much have to sell for really low prices to sell and they don’t have franchises to back them up. It’s not what Apple is good at doing. MS is good at that practice which is why they do that.

 

[Liquorpuki]

Indeed. About the only company that doesn’t sell at a profit is Nintendo (and I don’t think they sell at too much of a profit). The only reason that they can is that their first and (I guess) second party games (first party licensed characters made by other companies) are in general highly desired and they don’t rely too highly on third party franchises as other console companies do.

With the Wii U pricedrop from way back, the hardware no longer sells at a profit. I think it's something like one additional game has to be bought for the model to become profitable. When they release a Wii U slim or whatever though, the reduced component costs from age should make the hardware profitable again.

Other than that I agree with everything you wrote

 

[pdjudd]

With the Wii U pricedrop from way back, the hardware no longer sells at a profit. I think it's something like one additional game has to be bought for the model to become profitable. When they release a Wii U slim or whatever though, the reduced component costs from age should make the hardware profitable again.

Other than that I agree with everything you wrote

Really? I didn't hear about a price drop. I have seen bundles (the bundling of one game) but I wrote that off as standard behavior for Nintendo. I always had the price pegged at around 300. But I guess I was mistaken.