The real key here is exclusive games, and while Apple at least showed off a few, they’ll need more than a port of a year-old iPhone game and a minigame compilation to get gamers interested. Just before the event kicked off, Apple’s senior VP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue cheekily hinted at the Apple TV’s imminent launch.
“The new remote offers limitless possibilities for brand-new gameplay”, Carter added.
Get in the gameIt’s a similar path as the original Nintendo Wii, which had a lot of hype early in its life cycle as consumers and developers flocked to its innovative, simplified motion controller. It’s developed by Harmonix – the creator of Rock Band – and is a collection of rhythm games that use the Apple TV Remote’s accelerometer and touch surface to thwack opponents with balls. In the U.S., you’ll be spending $60 for each new game you want to play.
Apple TV is expanding in the games business. Its main targets will be casual gamers who love playing games in their smartphones and tablets. Buried in the fine print of their developer hub is a caveat that the Apple TV won’t have local storage for apps, meaning you’ll have to store all of your save data in the cloud. Even the current Apple TV looks portly next to an HDMI stick from Roku or Amazon. A simple puzzle game to start with, or a Pokemon spin-off perhaps. “While there will undoubtedly be plenty of happy Angry Birds fans slingshotting away on their 60″ HDTV, I’m unconvinced simply moving games from mobile devices to the living room will do much to disrupt the embedded, traditional consoles. In fact, rumors this week suggested that Apple would make the new Apple TV a games console in its own right, even positioning it as a rival to the PS4 and the Xbox One.
The Apple TV remote, with touchpad highlighted. Nintendo thinks about gaming the way an artist like Alan Moore thinks about the comics medium-as an art form first and foremost.
In the run up to the next edition of Apple TV, it is worth noting that since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, a whole new industry of casual gaming has emerged and grown rapidly.
As reported by New York Times, the Cupertino company won’t just announce the Apple TV, it will also introduce a major change to the product which may include all the required gaming components. And of course, it probably supports third-party controllers.
While it’s not likely that Apple or any other company is going to bump Netflix from its dominant perch anytime soon, the competition is clearly getting tougher. And that tether? It’s not included with the Apple TV.
In this regard, it is the Apple TV upgrade that is perhaps most important for AAPL investors as it is widely expected to bring Apple into the hotly contested realm of console gaming – a domain that Apple has long left to competitors such as Microsoft and Sony. Crossy Road, which is basically tag-team Frogger with a wider selection of animals and is precisely the kind of repetitive gaming experience that characterized the original gaming consoles-your Ataris and Intellivisions-because they were in turn modeled on coin-op games that were designed for the sole objective of eating up quarters.