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Apple Racks Up the Gaming Patents
An anonymous reader writes "Evidence has been growing that Apple is developing a new gaming console. Now, there are some possible details about how a combined media/game console might work, based on patent applications filed by Apple in late 2007 and early 2008. Here is some of what we can look for: having your personal music integrated into a title, a 'natural' gesture multitouch interface, and a single online store that sells games, media, and video."
Apple's other attempt to enter the gaming market.
As much as I dislike their products, if Apple goes after the Wii with stong iTunes and iPhone/Pod integration, as a gaming and convergence device, they could hurt Nintendo. The saturated market isn't an issue when you can lower the standard of definition and quadruple the market space (e.g. the "smartphone" market).
They will probably have to kill Apple TV, though.
Leben Sie jetzt die Fragen.
...in the Xbox 360. It's white, has a circular interface on the front panel, and as Apple considers the iPods, the RROD makes it disposable.
Sounds like an a shiny opengl xbox that will most likely cost more...that will cost money every time they update the firmware. They can't get a very good game support on their PCs, and they intend to get support from developers on this? Highly unlikely...
Sounds like something the 360 does right now.
Maybe the patent covers a system whereby you're forced to pay the console maker for the music you want to integrate.
They will probably have to kill Apple TV, though.
To me it seems pretty clear what they want is to dominate casual gaming the way they are starting to in the handheld space (yes I know they are still a long ways behind Nintendo, but there are a LOT of games targeting the iPhone/Touch now).
In order to do that all that is needed is to add some light gaming abilities and controls to the AppleTV. Perhaps it would not look much like what they have today, but I see AppleTV being the core from which they extend into gaming.
I never did think they would do a console before as I thought it made no sense, but seeing as how almost all the games I purchase on consoles now are online smaller games I can see it working. With other consoles still focusing on larger games as a focus Apple could really sweep up the smaller game category. Heck, all they'd have to do is court all of the indie game competition winners going back a few years and they'd have a hell of a system.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
All of the stuff mentioned there could apply equally well to the iPhone and iPod Touch, which Apple have been positioning as proper gaming devices anyway.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
While things work fine for the casual market, for deeper and more complex games that the hardcore crowd will actually want they are going to have to add some buttons. Though its great not having a stylus to loose, the type of screen the current iPhone and Touch use is simply not accurate enough for heavy gaming. The gyros are nice but games that use them are mostly a one trick pony so far. I know Apple is all about slick and elegant but practical would do them alot of good. I'd love to see the iPhone/Touch as a viable gaming platfom, its specs are better than any handheld on the market but its interface cripples it.
The controller has already been released!
Something seems incredibly interesting about the prospect of a game console with an iPhone like app/game store. I could definitely see myself buying one if they do come out, especially if I could easily program my own games for it.
Given that the app store for the iPod Touch uses almost the same business model as the "Community Games" store for the Xbox 360, I'd recommend that you buy an Xbox 360. Like the iPod Touch, the Xbox 360 needs a specific host operating system (Windows) to run the developer tools, and running your code on the console requires a $100/year developer certificate.
Many people [citation needed] use Windows solely because it's how they play their games. With the excuse of "I can't play cool games on a Mac" gone, those "slaves to the game" Windows users will have no excuse, and will switch to Mac.
I think convergence is what's is prompting this. Imagine making the iPhone/iPod Touch a portable gaming console. Remember when we used to carry a cell phone, iPod and DS? Millions of you already have Apple's gaming device in your hand. I can't see any sense in Apple coming out with a dedicated gaming device.
Also, I was browsing the AppStore last night and noticed a couple of games that were previously only on the Nintendo DS (Cooking Mama being one). The graphics/gameplay were identical if not better.
And they want all games ported to Objective-C. For fuck's sake Apple, let us use C++ on the iPhone like a good computer company.
First, separate your game into model, view, and controller components. Physics, AI, and map decoding go in the model so that they're identical across platforms, and anything specific to the iPod Touch goes in the view or controller. There exist bindings between Objective-C and C++, and as an AC pointed out, only part of the view and controller need to be written in Objective-C.
XNA on Xbox 360, on the other hand, needs games to be ported to the CLR. At first glance, this would be a deeper rewrite, as I've read that a lot of C++ code doesn't map cleanly onto verifiably type-safe C++/CLI constructs.
As the other poster noted, the sales are actually better than you'd expect for a niche product.
But the thing you are not considering is that many people use mac minis as home theater systems. They are not technically counted as "AppleTV" units but it has the same effect - people buy a lot of media from iTunes, and many use the same FrontRow software (though many others use things like Boxee).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
After the disaster that was Pippin, I very much doubt that Apple will be going into that business again. Steve Jobs' animosity toward computer gaming is well-documented, and it is unlikely that he would about-face on something like this, as he would have to have done back when this project started.
More likely, this is an extension of the Apple TV into a more full-fledged set-top PC. Jobs hates games, but he's learned the hard way that games sell computers, so of course he's going to have Apple put some thought into the interface. But this will not be marketed as a game console, and ultimately it will not compete with game consoles.
On the other hand, it's good to see that they're leaning towards Wiimote-like gesture-based control as opposed to 1:1 motion mapping. It's the best of both worlds: the abstraction of buttons alongside the immersion of motion.
I was about to dismiss it as unsubstantiated speculation, but I just saw an article claiming that Apple may want to acquire EA. That would fit in VERY nicely with designing their own game console, which I imagine would replace AppleTV.
Wow. Apple buying Twitter would be silly, but Apple buying EA could totally change the landscape.
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It is original because now Apple is doing it.
Love sees no species.
You should definitely read this then. The rumor on the street is that Apple might buy EA. Now, I know better than to listen to these types of rumors, but if that did happen, they would suddenly have a lot of games being written for them. Who knows if this is true or not, but it is makes a hell of a lot more sense than Apple buying Twitter of all things.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
You guys are about to learn what I learned 10 years ago: Discrete devices work best.
That is true, and that is what geeks prefer. I preferred that myself once.
But you are soon to learn a more powerful truth. That the general populace prefers convergence when it works. "Normal" people (and I use that term neutrally, not implying anything wrong with being abnormal!) do not want to have two or three devices to charge if possible. These people will happily sacrifice a few things to carry less and not become The Batman.
The cycle is that you have a dedicated device until the general devices get powerful enough to absorb the specific.
This is true of course primarily in the mobile space, for fixed location devices I think people will generally either prefer or have neutral preferences on quality devices that do one thing well (like using a receiver vs. having an all-in-one entertainment system). But when carrying stuff space and weight are all premiums that people will sacrifice a lot to improve - not just true in electronics ether, just look at hiking gear...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
"When asked during the EMI conference call about the potential of lifting DRM from video, Jobs said: "Video is pretty different from music right now because the video industry does not distribute 90 percent of their content DRM free. Never has. So I think they are in a pretty different situation and I wouldn't hold it to a parallel at all."
http://pcworld.about.com/od/copyright/Jobs-unlikely-to-push-for-lift.htm
So he did not say it is"good" for movies, but this quote is almost certainly what the GP is thinking of.