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Comment iRig? (Score 1) 45

Ten reasons why I think Apple will/must release a gaming console fairly soon:

1. It is an extremely lucrative market. http://au.gamespot.com/news/6209281.html (e.g., Nintendo: US$18.5B revenue, $5.6B profit) and one that Apple has so far lost out to the PC on. No one buys a Mac for gaming.
2. Having said that, games are still already being written for the Mac. It's not like a new player is entering the field with no momentum or knowledge
3. Mac sales are increasing compared to PC sales and the market is expanding
4. Competing with Microsoft is important (and fun, come to think of it)
5. iPhone has had a halo (Halo?) effect on gaming with Apple
6. iTunes App store is so damn successful as a distribution channel
7. iPhone game sales are extremely high - many new and existing games companies are developing for a Mac platform
8. iPhone is OS X at heart. It would be relatively easy for games developers to write one game and deploy on iPhone/iPod Touch/Mac/iRig with little modification
9. Media centres are becoming extremely popular. Current gaming consoles are migrating towards being the media centre in the households. Why would Apple want the kids in the house determining how movies are downloaded and watched? Unless Apple provides a media centre that defeats all, many households will use PS3/Xbox etc. and take huge potential revenue from Apple
10. The ATV, while hardly actively developed, has proven immensely popular and demonstrated that an Apple built media centre will sell itself

Another way of pieceing all this together is this:

Apple only needs to update the video hardware in its existing ATV/Mac Mini to create a complete home gaming and media centre. It can link to both PCs and Macs for its overarching media control, or alternatively act standalone. It has a pre-existing distribution channel for games, movies, TV shows, software updates, etc. that could be switched on tomorrow. In one fell swoop, Apple could swing existing large gaming developers over to the OS X platform and provide them with an immediate three-pronged presentation channel: mobile devices, desktop Macs and the gaming console.

An Apple move into this market would almost immediately create a huge swing towards the Mac in the average household. At present, there are only three things that prevent widespread adoption of Macs: 1. Cost of entry, 2. Lack of enterprise adoption, 3. Lack of gaming buy in. (Things like less software, lack of familiarity etc. are just follow-ons from these.)

The second point isn't going to change rapdily, but the third would be eliminated completely once the iRig was introduced. Further, if the iRig was introduced at a price point similar to the other gaming consoles, suddenly Macs would be competing in the well-and-truly sub $1000 bracket and item 1) would be blown out the door.

So as far as I can see it, the only thing the introducing a gaming console *doesn't* do is increase adoption of OS X in the enterprise. You can't do *everything* with a single product release, but, hey, 95% is pretty cool for hardly any effort.

The only thing Apple will be spending their time on right now is thinking of what it's to be called! iPlay, iRig, etc. Actually, they'll probably have to come up with a nonsense name like drug manufacturers: Apple Xelf, Apple Quapi. Or perhaps just Apple Q or Apple Pi (symbol) - pretty cute.

Just having a look at .com names that are taken and free (held), I'm figuring something more like Zen or Xen - simple and cool. Or perhaps somehow blend in a Prince-like "symbol" - the Apple Pi (fun) or Psi (ironic).

Anyone think of a cool name for a set top gaming box for Apple?

Quelg

Games

Ubisoft CEO Expects Set-Top Gaming, New Apple Hardware 45

GamesIndustry reports on comments by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot about what to expect from the coming generation of gaming hardware. In addition to greater integration between game hardware and set-top boxes, he said he doesn't expect Apple to stop with the iPhone as a platform for games. "We will see more customers coming to the videogame industry, and they will not only come to the basic consoles like we have today, but they will start also to come on all the boxes that you see under the TVs. TV boxes will be more powerful, and with accessibility, will help to take more people. So we will see more consoles on which we will be able to put product." Guillemot continued, "... because you saw new interfaces with the Wii, with the Wiimote, and also with the DS, with the stylus, what we see for the future is that there will be also big announcements in interfaces. And it will not only happen on consoles, but it will also happen on those TV boxes as well."

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