news.cnet.com— Apple is in a prime position to enter the gaming industry and solidify itself as a major player. But is Apple willing to do that?
Sep 15, 2008View in Crawl 4
Apple would/could never enter the console market. As a company they know very little about gaming, and care even less about it. Today's consoles wouldn't even fit into their business model. Just look at their terrible track record of getting PC games ported and you'll see why this is a dumb idea.
Where I will agree with the article is that Apple could get into this market if they wanted to; they do know hardware and if they wanted to make the investment they could do it. But what the writer of this article is failing to understand though, is that the only company in the console market that actually makes a profit on hardware is Nintendo. They do that by producing a machine with less horsepower under the hood and they rely on innovations like the Wii controller. The low cost of hardware and their unique hardware has made them very successful in moving units, it is only just now getting proper developer support. In addition to that, and this is key, Nintendo has a stable of well established game franchises. Apple does not have that advantage, they do not have a Super Mario Galaxy equivalent waiting in the wings. As such, they would be forced to either buy franchises like MS did with Halo, bake their own or convince other publishers to support them. To do that, they are going to need hardware that can go head to head with what Sony and Microsoft are bringing to the table, take a look at the third party offerings for the Wii, they're pretty weak because developers have to downscale so much to work on the Wii that it is often not even possible, much less worth the effort. Nor does the nature of the Wiimote help devs make cross platform titles, and no publisher with stockholders to answer to is going to limit themselves to a single platform. Because they cannot rely on existing franchises, that means they can't do it on the cheap like Nintendo does, ergo they either eat a huge loss on every unit they sell and hope to make it back on software sales, or they bring an expensive console to market. If they bring an expensive console to market, they are trying to beat MS and Sony at their own game. Good luck with that, in order to do that you'll need to be very publisher and developer friendly. The evidence from the iPhone development is that they are not that. Not even close. What they are going through right now with the iPhone is not a matter of growing pains, this is the same business model they have always followed. They rule their platform with an iron fist. That is just plain incompatible with being developer friendly and there is no reason to believe they will become dev friendly anytime soon. I don't even need to rely on examples like the podcaster software that they blocked because it "duplicates an iTunes function", the terms of service for the iPhone SDK are nothing short of absurd and suffice to prove my point; devs need to talk to each other to help figure out how to make the silicon dance. Apple is gagging them and tying their hands behind their back for some unknown reason. I don't know if the Apple fanboys were paying attention, but that is how MS won the majority of the computer market for so long, they are, and always have been developer friendly because they understand that the applications drive the hardware and the OS, not the other way around. As far as gaming goes, Sony still hasn't learned that yet going into their third generation in gaming. Look at the abysmal tool set and dev support they offer for the Playstation. Apple would have to commit to a fundamental culture shift in order to make an entry into gaming viable. I'm not holding my breath. This is yet another article about Apple as a gaming platform that is full of hubris and fantasy.
If Steve wants it, things get done. If Steve doesn't care about it, nothing happens.There's a push for gaming on the iPhone because Steve likes iPhone games.There's no push for gaming on the Mac because Steve thinks computer games are a waste of time.
sk8skanjSep 16, 2008
Apple would/could never enter the console market. As a company they know very little about gaming, and care even less about it. Today's consoles wouldn't even fit into their business model. Just look at their terrible track record of getting PC games ported and you'll see why this is a dumb idea.
pyeholeSep 16, 2008
Where I will agree with the article is that Apple could get into this market if they wanted to; they do know hardware and if they wanted to make the investment they could do it. But what the writer of this article is failing to understand though, is that the only company in the console market that actually makes a profit on hardware is Nintendo. They do that by producing a machine with less horsepower under the hood and they rely on innovations like the Wii controller. The low cost of hardware and their unique hardware has made them very successful in moving units, it is only just now getting proper developer support. In addition to that, and this is key, Nintendo has a stable of well established game franchises. Apple does not have that advantage, they do not have a Super Mario Galaxy equivalent waiting in the wings. As such, they would be forced to either buy franchises like MS did with Halo, bake their own or convince other publishers to support them. To do that, they are going to need hardware that can go head to head with what Sony and Microsoft are bringing to the table, take a look at the third party offerings for the Wii, they're pretty weak because developers have to downscale so much to work on the Wii that it is often not even possible, much less worth the effort. Nor does the nature of the Wiimote help devs make cross platform titles, and no publisher with stockholders to answer to is going to limit themselves to a single platform. Because they cannot rely on existing franchises, that means they can't do it on the cheap like Nintendo does, ergo they either eat a huge loss on every unit they sell and hope to make it back on software sales, or they bring an expensive console to market. If they bring an expensive console to market, they are trying to beat MS and Sony at their own game. Good luck with that, in order to do that you'll need to be very publisher and developer friendly. The evidence from the iPhone development is that they are not that. Not even close. What they are going through right now with the iPhone is not a matter of growing pains, this is the same business model they have always followed. They rule their platform with an iron fist. That is just plain incompatible with being developer friendly and there is no reason to believe they will become dev friendly anytime soon. I don't even need to rely on examples like the podcaster software that they blocked because it "duplicates an iTunes function", the terms of service for the iPhone SDK are nothing short of absurd and suffice to prove my point; devs need to talk to each other to help figure out how to make the silicon dance. Apple is gagging them and tying their hands behind their back for some unknown reason. I don't know if the Apple fanboys were paying attention, but that is how MS won the majority of the computer market for so long, they are, and always have been developer friendly because they understand that the applications drive the hardware and the OS, not the other way around. As far as gaming goes, Sony still hasn't learned that yet going into their third generation in gaming. Look at the abysmal tool set and dev support they offer for the Playstation. Apple would have to commit to a fundamental culture shift in order to make an entry into gaming viable. I'm not holding my breath. This is yet another article about Apple as a gaming platform that is full of hubris and fantasy.
terminalpariahSep 16, 2008
If Steve wants it, things get done. If Steve doesn't care about it, nothing happens.There's a push for gaming on the iPhone because Steve likes iPhone games.There's no push for gaming on the Mac because Steve thinks computer games are a waste of time.
timuscaSep 16, 2008
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