According to Forbes, Apple is “preparing an all-out assault on the handheld gaming market.” CNBC’s Guy Adami claims there’s talk that Apple may try to take over Electronic Arts.
There is little doubt that Apple wants to expand the gaming capabilities of its iPhone and iPod Touch. Could Apple also be planning a console via its Apple TV? Time will tell.
So my question for the day is: If Apple does get serious about gaming, which company should worry the most? Feel free to explain why in the comments.
could you please add a 4th company that should be worried?
4. Apple.
thank you.
I’d guess that Nintendo probably have the most to fear because they have the largest share of the casual gamer market and the handheld market.
We’ve had some unusual disruptions in the games market lately (the incredible game sales on iPhone) so I’d say anything could happen right now.
Nintendo,
Apple does not go full on into a market… ever. They’ll take a share of the casual market and leave MS and SONY to slug it out for the performance games… for now.
BRING BACK PIPPIN!
NONE of the above..
as the PC is loosing..
NOT MS…NOT the others..
they want to REMOVE games from the PC, and MANY dont understand that a P2, 2k can do ALLLLLLLL of business in 1 shot..
Sony.
They are already being hammered by Wii, DS, and 360. Many of their other products are not doing well and many people still have bad memories of Sony’s DRM issues.
MS’s core business can support the hardware side quite easily while Nintendo has shown to a very consumer friendly company.
I do see Nintendo partnering with a major phone maker to come up with another killer gadget. They might even call it the DS HEVY.
I could not vote. I think the gaming industry is big enough for another system.
Nintendo has nothing to worry about.
Sony has the PS3 and that thing is awesome
microsoft 360 is awesome
Apple is too expensive and video games are already too expensive 60 for a new release.
Plus the iphone and itouch aren’t exactly the best game system design. Apple TV is a dud.
“Nintendo probably have the most to fear because they have the largest share of the casual gamer market and the handheld market.”-Molloy
I’m with this. The PSP is already a loser. Nintendo has the most to lose.
Never fear. Microsoft plans to launch an iPhone killer by the end of the year and have its own app store.
Let the laughter begin…
I question battery life on a phone. I don’t really want to plug a phone in several times a day for a quick recharge. You may actually have to use it as a phone later in the day. Throw in GPS and wifi and power consumption gets much worse. The ipod touch is another animal all together. It’s made just for entertainment and wifi use. If Apple wasn’t so fanatical to trim a mm or two every chance they get, they could put a bigger battery pack in the phone. Would an additional quarter inch devoted to battery really kill the iphone sales?
9,
“Would an additional quarter inch devoted to battery really kill the iphone sales?”
It depends on how Apple positions it… If they claim the quarter inch is revolutionary, it will succeed. Every fanboi will deride any phone as thinner as being ancient tech.
I can’t believe the poll has Sony as the biggest to worry about. Not that PSP isn’t a great piece of hardware but the software offerings have been lacking.
Maybe there is a segment of consumers that are not serviced by existing game devices:
http://tinyurl.com/c4p2vl
I don’t think any should worry… unless they are incapable of a making a great game.
Well, I assume it’s true.
Unless game producers are different than the rest of the entertainment industry. Movies, professional sports, novels, music, tv shows — it helps the WHOLE industry if there are lots of good titles out there.
You only have to worry if YOU can’t put out good product.
I think I have the most to worry about since every tech blogger will be gushing over this rumor as a segway to chatter aimlessly about other Apple crap. Enough fawning over the damn iphone and the app store all ready. If you need to talk about it, talk about the way Apple screws developers over.
The Mac is a computer for beginners who need training wheels and get confused by 2 buttons on a mouse.
Difficult to say. We know Apples reputation for overpriced electronics, so, will they come out with a device with the same price point as the DS and PSP? My guess is not. How will their licensing be? They are a bunch of assholes, which is one reason why they don’t have any games now.
I don’t think I’ll spend $1500 for a console.
Nobody?
what ganes do the have …Mario ,Resistance !!!! Halo,Killzone
Games on the Mac have always lagged PC releases so I think Microsoft has the most to lose from a computer platform. EA has always released games for pretty much all of the consoles so I doubt that will change.. what will change is Mac’s will be the first platform to get a game released on.
Since a Mac is basically the equivalent of a pink girls bicycle, with training wheels, and leaves trails of little rainbows behind, Apple already has a game platform.
Watching a burly guy use a Mac always reminds me of the old Boot Camp holler: “I have heard that only girls and queers use Macs… you don’t look like a girl, so you must be…”
All I can say is “What kind of dooofus puts an Apple sticker on their car’s bumper?”
I would say Nintendo has the least to lose. They’ve been around for some 30 years now, survived Sega and Sony and Microsoft, and they’ve got first party titles too keep themselves afloat no matter who’s the competition. Also, they’ve got control of Japan, and he who controls Japan, controls the gaming world.
Microsoft has a niche, but because they look at Apple as competition in other areas, they’ll probably try to compete with them. Which will be that standard Microsoft “foot shooting” they do.
Sony is hanging by a thread. They’ll still be huge in Japan compared to Apple though.
Apple has never been a gaming company. When I think Apple, I don’t think games, casual or otherwise. The only games I can think of being on Apple Computers are Blizzard titles.
The idea is SOMETHING like this.
They want to remove GAMES from your computer.
They want you to buy a CONSOLE.
They want to sell you a SPECIAL SERVICE, that you have to pay for to EVEN PLAY a game. This will also happen to ALL OTHER programs..
You will not OWN your software/games/video..but you will PAY for access TO THEM at all times.
You will NOT, have the CD/DVD for the game/program.
YOU WILL PAY for a new system/console every 5 years or LESS.
THERE WILL be special program released on 1 form of system, and NOT others. so that you will need to BUY 2-3-4 different hardware/consoles/computers..
This is a way, to get rid of ownership and STILL charge you for goods and services.
Everyone slammed Sony for the cost of the PS3, anyone honest believe that Apple will produce console or handheld gaming device at a price that will beat Nintendo?
Gaming? Apple? Ha! Just because they are selling plenty of games for their iPhones not necesarily means that they are going to sell more macs.
Methinks the executives are still bitter at their “succesful” Pippin and want to give it another shot.
So the only one who’s going to lose is Apple.
@ Mr Wong …
Apple’s expertise is making small well-designed devices with good user interfaces.
I am no Mac lover, but as I type this I happen to be typing this from Mac Mini with an exceptionally small footprint making it the perfect hallway computer.
The Mac Mini is about the size of a 2 microwave meals with one stacked on the other, plays DVDs has wireless (no need for ethernet cord!) has a speaker has a great OS and can run FireFox just fine (screw Safari) and can use a PC keyboard and a PC mouse and a PC monitor (and PC speakers if I choose).
The engineering is incredible and it is more reliable than Windows and simpler to manage. If it could run all my favorite Windows apps it’d be my main computer, but since it can’t I mostly use gmail, webapps and browse the web with it.
But the thing is a marvel of engineering and I’ve even dropped it and it still works and is uber portable.
Now the Mac Mini is smaller than a GameCube which means it is smaller than an XBox.
But to answer the question posed:
1. Microsoft would not lose. The XBox is well positioned as the high end expensive system with a lot of “games you want”.
2. Nintendo would not lose. The marketshare of the Nintendo DS in the handheld market is mindblowing. The Wii has a unique market that Apple won’t easily penetrate.
3. The big loser would be Sony. I am convinced Apple would EVENTUALLY do very well in the games market (and maybe even leverage itself to get some damn games on the Mac for pete’s sake).
Sony’s handheld market is fairly vulnerable and the consensus is that they really botched the PS3 release/launch/pricing/features/ease of game design.
The reality is that Apple could easily produce an affordable game machine whether portable (iPhone like device) or serious (Mac Mini-esque).
It’s just an iPhone or Mac Mini with an even simpler interface.
Microsoft has managed to be a rather desktop only operating system and they are too large and too obsolete and most importantly too unfocused and too indecisive to develop a small footprint operating system or platform.
26,
I really like objective arguments. Really. Your argument was nothing of the sort.
Developers developers developers. Many people deride MS, particularly monkey boy (i.e. Steve Ballmer) for that, but they are right. MS has always given developers precedence over EVERYTHING. And that is the primary reason why MS is number 1… that and illegal monopolistic practices of course.
Sony “got” the game business. That is why the Playstation brand kicked everyone’s asses. How many PS2’s are out there? 50 million? And Sony is supporting that platform until 2012. Apple supports hardware until the next version comes out. Developers don’t like that.
Nintendo is the casual / kids gamer market, without a doubt. And that is Apple’s demographic. Apple knows it too, and that is why they strip down their system to maddeningly simplistic terms.
In the portable gaming industry, it will extremely hard to take Nintendo’s top spot. They are at the top since the Gameboy.
In the console side, I think that maybe Apple could manage to get in. But it is unlikely.
So Apple will replace Sega/Atari in the competition. Let the wars begin! hehehe