Is Apple TV going to follow iPhone/iPad in terms of gaming?

[Ivo]

I think that iOS on iPhone and iPad is a major gaming platform, if not the biggest by some relevant measures. I haven't kept close track of it but I think mobile games (that is with Android as well) were set to overtake console games in 2015 in terms of revenue.

I wonder if Apple TV is going to gain a significant place as a "living room" platform for games, as iOS devices did with mobile phones and tablets as "handheld" platforms.
I've stated before in the forum that I think Apple is Nintendo's biggest rival in that context.

There are strong distinctions between the "handheld" sector and the "living room", as noted in this good article:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/09/w ... -apple-tv/

I think we tend to underestimate the impact of this kind of thing. iOS and Android gaming are huge, and before that happened most people dismissed it in much the same manner (and many still do).

It may be obvious now to say that the iPhone had the "stealth advantage" of being acquired for other purposes (making calls and such) and it isn't even such a big surprise - the same kind of thing happened with many home computers back in the day and they were major gaming platforms (at least in Europe).

If the Apple TV catches on as a living room device, it won't be due to gaming, but if it is there already I don't agree with the title and conclusion of that article, that high end game consoles have "little to fear". PC gaming seems to be more resilient going forward, at least to me, but there is a significant risk to traditional console gaming.

Bottom line is that games are what matters for gaming and even with mobile gaming many high-profile developers already downsized their console-bound efforts to divert into mobile.

[isiolia]

At this point, I kind of doubt it. The hardware is certainly good - likely a good bit more capable than, say, a Playstation TV. Like that article links to though, storage is very limited (the link in the article claims a 200MB app size limit, and all cloud sync'ed data). So, seeing anything on the level of modern AAA games seems unlikely. Even if the rest of the hardware could run games on the level of the Wii U (and I wouldn't be surprised if it could), storage is going to cripple it.

For smaller stuff, I still don't see it taking off. Mobile does a -ton- of business, no doubt, but I think a very big factor with that is how it tends to be consumed. Quite a lot of it is casual gaming in a true sense. A few minutes here, a few minutes there, just as a way to pass time. It's a niche easily filled by a device that you've got with you all day every day. When it's a matter of deliberately sitting down in front of the TV to play something, preferences might be a bit different.

Plus, this isn't exactly unique. Many TVs can do the basic streaming/etc that an Apple TV does for no extra cost. Some have app stores, or can stream games via Playstation Now. Consoles can all do streaming as well, there are already Android "consoles", and Playstation TV, etc.
More or less, this isn't a new niche, it's just Apple's (expensive) offering in the segment. So, as of yet, there's not a lot of reason to expect it to change the market.

[TSTR]

iOUYA

[RyaNtheSlayA]

I'm sure it will be more popular than the FireTV but I don't think it will do much. But I didn't think phones would do much to the market either.

[fastbilly1]

If the unified search approach works, this could be a major step forward in media. But I do not see that happening.

Ill be interested if it can run kodi/xbmc. But if it gets hacked and the USB-C port gets OTG and HID support and it can run retroarch/libretro, then I will definitely get one.

[arcadifvid]

only if nintendo bought apple.

[Anapan]

This should be a poll, but I hate apple products despite the fact that I've rooted a bunch and seen the vast library that's available on them. I've been plugging my Android phone into my TV and using a bluetooth controller, keyboard & mouse for years to continue my handheld emulation games (if it gets serious I transfer the save file to a console with a flashcart).

Edit your OP; I'm interested!

The poll probably won't include people's casual games, so a link to a study would also be interesting. Most anyone's smart-phone is capable of so much more than the consoles we love from 10 years ago...

Ulao's USB Bliss-Box controller adapter may in-fact have some impact on this - it'll make any compatible OS use any-and-all controllers. Too bad it's still so unknown. I'm already using a CronusMax on mostly all my compatible consoles and PC's.

As far as cellphones and tablets go, I really have no idea how the market and trends are going. All I know is it convinced my heroes who programmed my favorite games in my youth to embrace the mobile market, and stop supporting consoles. They are happily making more money than they did in their previous positions. Where is the gamers' money going right now?

[fastbilly1]

Ulao's USB Bliss-Box controller adapter may in-fact have some impact on this

Unless the images online are incorrect, there is only one USB-C female plug on it. So unless it supports a USB-C OTG cable for HID, or if someone makes a USB HID to BT adapter that works with controllers, I dont think this will be applicable.

It is the first thing I thought of aswell.

[racketboy]

I would love to see this happen to an extent.

Already seeing the stuff about Guitar Hero, Skylanders, Disney Infinity, etc.

It might end up being more "casual", but almost more like Apple's take on the Wii?

[Ivo]

I'm personally ambivalent. I don't have any consoles more recent than the Dreamcast, and enjoy mostly gaming on the PC, but I really enjoy handhelds with dedicated controls (up to the DS and PSP, not yet on the 3DS and PSP).
I really want to get a Wii "soon" (in the next 5 years?) to enjoy many of the exclusives there.

I'm perfectly happy with retro games (often more than with more modern ones), and truly believe there are already many more quality games created, of the types I like, than I have time to enjoy up until I can't play games any more - so while I follow this kind of thing, I'm not too personally invested in what happens.

It seems to me that even on the console front the amount of worthwhile "exclusives" (or "killer apps") is decreasing with each passing hardware generation, and that trend appears to be irreversible with costs for "AAA" exclusives increasing faster than the part of the game industry involved with dedicated controls can cope with. Nintendo is resisting that and still has plenty of exclusives, but I wonder for how long.

The games with most brand recognition nowadays are available on phones/tablets. Minecraft is huge (which is great I think) and was gobbled up by Microsoft (which I think was a really clever move).
Merchandise you see is not so much Nintendo / Microsoft / Sony exclusives but possibly Disney stuff, I'm not sure how much Skylanders is in terms of brand recognition, but what I see around is stuff like Angry Birds that made it really big on iOS / Android.

I mostly care about good games without any particular brand loyalty, so if there are very few exclusives I think it would be better to have things merge together in the console front.
I'm not sure if Apple TV would lead to that or not, certainly Apple can compete on size with Microsoft and Sony and if Apple TV starts to look like the way forward, Microsoft will make something similar that is Windows based instead of another Xbox-like machine.

They all copy each other in iterations if they think it works, it is part of the process of progress.