Can We Trust Apple To Make a Good Games Console? 174
An anonymous reader writes: The Apple TV took center stage at the company's recent press event. It's getting its own operating system, better support for watching movies and listening to music, and full integration with Siri. All to be expected. But Apple is also pushing for the device to become a hub connecting mobile gaming with your TV. This article questions whether Apple has the chops to become a serious contender in living room gaming. Quoting: "[T]he subtext was clear: Apple thinks it can take on Nintendo for third place in the console market. The problem is, even while it's parading game developers on stage, it's still not clear if Apple actually wants to take on the console market. The inconsistency within the company when it comes to games is painful to see, and shows no sign of abating any time soon. ... The iPhone is the largest games store on the planet, and it's managed by a company whose attitude to the medium is 'go write a book.' That hasn't stopped magnificent art being made for Apple's platforms, but it has stopped some, such as Sweatshop HD, which was pulled from the app store in 2013."
As opposed to... (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo?
There are so many stories about those three stuffing customers around, it's not even worth a citation.
Re: (Score:3)
Because I'm bored...
Sony
http://www.techhive.com/articl... [techhive.com]
Microsoft
http://www.escapistmagazine.co... [escapistmagazine.com]
Nintendo
http://arstechnica.com/tech-po... [arstechnica.com]
http://toucharcade.com/2014/05... [toucharcade.com]
Re: (Score:2)
And also histories from them holding back.
World is not perfect, but with competition at least we have a chance.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
One thing for certain, the price will be higher than everyone else's.
But so will the quality and the App selection.
Now what?
Re: (Score:2)
Except the new Apple TV is weaker than all of the current and last gen consoles.
Doesn't matter. It can run iOS Apps, and they can't. That means, in about two ri three months! it will have 1,000 times the Apps than all the other "consoles" combined. And what you have not taken into account is that not everyone wants to play games, watch video or listen to music. And once we get out of those applications, "consoles" are pretty much "done".
Google tried this a couple of years ago. Didn't have the "ecosystem" together. Amazon is kinda trying it now. No App support to speak of. Roku, WD Li
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
True enough. However, one thing we can trust them to do is make an expensive games console.
...With more games and other Apps available in the first month after launch than the rest of the consoles and set-top-boxes combined.
Now what?
Re: (Score:2)
I know it's a popular idea that Apple's products are "too expensive" but the numbers are:
- AppleTV $149
- Xbox One $349
- PS4 $399
- WiiU $299
So the game console it much cheaper. The games will likely be cheaper, too, given Apple's pricing model (which is much more developer friendly than the disk-based consoles).
Career in prophesy... (Score:2)
Re: As opposed to... (Score:2, Interesting)
Youre joking, but you made an interesting point.
Its all about original content, and Nintendo's got boatloads of it. Mario, Zelda, pokemon, just to name a few. Xbox and PS have some as well, but most most content is shared, so people can afford to get either an Xbox or PS4. But if they like any of Nintendo's brands, they must buy Nintendo because pretty much all of that is exclusive.
Now what will Apple have? Unless they can create original content, they've got nothing. And the games made for iOS don't count,
Re: As opposed to... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I think this is about right. There are several problems, and several good things:
-200MB limit is a good thing. Downloading stuff tends to be painful in the first place, especially when you are used to a almost instant gratifiction that is the iOS and background downloads of apps. 200MB is also a lot looking from historical sizes: Games before the PS2 era was generally 40 to 100MB after compression(and the rest of CD's was filled up with uncompressed video), so 200MB can be a lot
-Cloud saves.... but also str
Re: (Score:2)
also, a wiimote or pro controller are lightyears more sophisticated than the tiny apple remote. (and mfi-controller are not standartised) and a single big ps4 game would be bigger than the available storage on a 32gig apple-tv. i don't think they are taking gaming seriously - they are just throwing stuff at the wall to see, what sticks. the big three have nothing to fear from this. but it will probably comprte with the few gaming customers of amazon fire tv, roku and ouya
According to the SDK, the largest thing you will be allowed to load into memory at one time will be 200 MB; but they have a "paging" system worked out (one of the reasons that TVOS is NOT exactly iOS), which is geared toward staging and downloading content that is larger than "allowed". Time will tell how seamless that works.
Re: (Score:2)
Now what will Apple have? Unless they can create original content, they've got nothing.
Just like with the iOS games (and other Apps), Apple, per se will create little in the way of "content". That will be up to the droves of third-party Developers.
And don't you worry; Apple was VERY smart to have an SDK available on day minus 30 or so; so when the new AppleTV actually hits the shelves, there will magically already be a bunch of Game Titles ready to hit the market alongside it.
Touchscreens don't make good controllers (yet) (Score:3, Informative)
A Touchscreen as a remote control for something else means you are not looking at it
This makes them fairly useless for most games
Someday, we'll have touchscreens that can alter their shape, and give good tactile feedback - respond more like a button, or at least sem-solid gel-filled bump
but now, even using a touch screen for simple NES games on a separate bigscreen is a pain
Re: (Score:2)
There will be standard game controllers for the Apple TV. I suppose those would do OK, once games support them. http://www.apple.com/tv/games-... [apple.com]
Still, I think Apple is aiming more for the "casual" gaming crowd.
Re: (Score:2)
There will be standard game controllers for the Apple TV. I suppose those would do OK, once games support them. http://www.apple.com/tv/games-... [apple.com]
Still, I think Apple is aiming more for the "casual" gaming crowd.
I took a short cruise through the AppleTV SDK the other day, and I am almost sure one of the APIs is geared toward handling dedicated Game Controllers.
Re: (Score:2)
Nobody fucks customers and developers like Apple. No one else even comes close
Relative to what, exactly?
Citation, please. And please no "I can build some bullshit whitebox computer with no warranty for half of what it costs to buy a Mac Pro". That doesn't count.
And I'm especially interested in how, exactly that it is that Apple fucks Developers. They know the Walled Garden deal going in (which doesn't apply to OS X Devs), it is the same "split" as everyone (I think MS is ever-so-slightly different), and it is an environment where the users aren't just interested in how much shit
There are "good consoles" (Score:2)
Consoles just seem to have become a way for software companies to have even greater control of the customer.
Re: (Score:2)
. PC gaming barely sells anymore
http://siliconangle.com/blog/2... [siliconangle.com]
25 billion in sales. I wish I could barely sell at that level.
Re: (Score:3)
Ouya bombed because it was shit. They didn't DO anything, just rolled a bunch of half assed Android crap together and called it a console. No marketing. No Content. No developer push. Just a fucking kick starter and the idea that if you make something, shitty or not, magically people will follow your bandwagon because 'OMG Linux!@R!%@!@%!'
Then reality slapped them in the face. No one who buys the bottom of the barrel cheapest thing they can get ... then proceeds to buy games for it, even at $1.
And tha
Candy Crush on TV (Score:4, Insightful)
Is iPhone a "good" gaming platform? I doubt anyone would rank it "good" on any objective measure, BUT millions of people play games like Candy Crush on it every day, simply because they have it on them and was bored.
The Apple TV remote have accelerometer and gyroscope, simple Wii style games is entirely possible. Rotate the remote control sideways and you have a simple controller, touchpad as directional pad and buttons in the middle. More complex games can be handled with Bluetooth keyboard and even a mouse/touchpad.
Would it be a "good" gaming platform? I doubt it, but I also won't doubt that many people will play games on it simply because it is there. If one can just switch over during the commercials to tend your virtual farm for 30 seconds and flip back, why not?
Re: (Score:3)
This was pretty much my thought, too. I don't think the Apple TV will be a very good game platform, but I also don't think Apple is particularly trying to make it one. I think it's more like they're trying to make a good set-top box for consuming media. They can sell their own iTunes store content. They can allow HBO and Showtime to sell their content, and take a cut of those sales. By some accounts they're trying to broker a deal where they can provide a subscription service to allow access to live TV
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly. The new AppleTV's forte is it'll run apps. S
Re: (Score:2)
And everyone's saying "micro consoles don't sell well" - well what examples do you have?
Also the AppleTV has been selling well-- at least well enough that they keep selling it-- for several years now without playing games at all. When it started, it *only* played iTunes content. Now it plays HBO, Showtime, Hulu, Netflix, and an assortment of other content sources (including sports packages). I don't think adding a few games will hurt its sales.
Re: (Score:2)
Phones are a popular gaming platform because, as you say, people always have them to hand when they are bored. Because of that they can forgive crappy controls and a tiny screen.
At home they are going to want more, especially control wise. Developers have already been taking to Twitter to complain that the Apple TV controller is not up to scratch, and being very different from touchscreens it means games will need to invent yet another control system. The fairly low size limit on games means that only mobil
Re: (Score:2)
I believe a low end console could work, with two controllers shipped in the box - maximize value for the customer. Two major launch titles (I don't know, something in the Contra, Castlevania series, Street Fighter, whatever?)
Perhaps an 8cm bluray drive (without licensing/codecs) and physical presence in the stores of games sold in small boxes. Graphics API, use Vulkan.
I would like to say, fuck networking : the best consoles did not have a network interface (the Dreamcast had a dial-up modem that never got u
Re: (Score:2)
iOS is a good gaming platform for what it is. When I have 20 twenty minutes of downtime while I ride BART or MUNI, I would't fire up Arkham Knight, even if my iPhone were capable of running it and had an adequate way to use the touchscreen to control it. But I'll toss around some Angry Birds or Tetris blocks and be happy for the distraction.
Whether or not that translates to the home on the TV, I don't know. I have a PS4 and an iPhone for that to cover both hardcore and casual games. Though it will be i
Re: (Score:2)
NO. (Score:2)
And I mean NO.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple has a history of telling their audience during keynotes that Apple will take gaming seriously, and not acting like it does. So indeed, NO.
Well... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry, sorry, if you want the more specific version, I'll save you an extra link to click: Here you go [wikipedia.org].
My sincerest apologies for any inconvenience.
Re: (Score:2)
See the worst racing game ever [youtube.com] too, examplifying problems with the console. It has horrifying controls/physics and collision detection, so that was a game rushed out or with no attention to quality. That's a tech demo not a game - though there is nifty car painting and so on.
It's slow. Looking like everything done on CPU and sent to a dumb framebuffer. Feels like a 486 DX/2 66 and a dumb graphics card. The whole competition had custom graphics hardware of course. Maybe with a faster CPU (with on-board L2 ca
Can't trust them to make a AppleTV (Score:2)
Latest gen is 2k not 4k while it's clear the competition and the market are releasing 4k units. That it can not store local movies as well is annoying. How many of us have kids who watch the same thing over and over and we watch our caps die a quick death?
Seems like they feature froze it in 2012.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple has been Google-esque in their AppleTV beta device they released so many years ago. It's cool, it's slick, and it's useful...but it has been essentially abandoned with no development and no universal content.
No storage? NBD. Nothing has/needs storage these days except for those with poor internet connections. If you think Apple cares about you, you will be sorely disappointed. Yes, I've been in slow-internet hell and, yes, it sucks. It won't get better. Streaming is where everything is going. And you
Re: (Score:2)
That it can not store local movies as well is annoying. How many of us have kids who watch the same thing over and over and we watch our caps die a quick death?
You are familiar with iTunes Home Sharing, right? You download the movie/show/whatever once to a PC that's on the same WiFi network as the Apple TV, start Home Sharing, and away you go - get the content over your WLAN with no need to use up your Internet caps. No storage on the Apple TV itself (other than for buffering) required.
Why is trust an issue? (Score:2)
Why do we need to trust them to do anything? Let the market decide: if it's an awful experience (see: Ouya), it either won't last or Apple will pour resources into trying to make it suck less -- which based on their track record is pretty much a coin toss.
Tangentially, why do people get so caught up in issues of "trust" and fanboidom with these things? If something sucks, let it suck. If it's awesome, partake.
Re: (Score:2)
Trust was a terrible word choice in the headline -- as if there was some kind of community standard for a good game consoles, and making a bad one was a violation of that standard. Trust is also a two-way street, meaning you have to buy one up front before it's known whether it's good, participating in the trust relationship instead of participating in a fact-based decision.
I think the reality will be that the Apple TV will mostly be what it is now, a media consumption device. Apple is making some effort
Re: (Score:2)
It's true that consumers don't have to "trust" anyone to make a good console. Even if you go by the reasoning that they'll dump some money on the console with the promise that there'll be good games in the future, you'll still have to pay for those games. Consumer trust on a brand is useless for the consumer, they won't get anything in return, there's no reciprocal relationship, the brands only cares about the consumer's money, and the consumers only get what they pay for.
Developers however, they have to tr
hold yer horses! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm still waiting for them to make a good phone! *ZING!* :)
Maybe (Score:2)
As long as I can tell Siri to watch my back in the game, I'm OK with it.
The game might suck, but it will be esthetic.
Why apple would even do that? (Score:2)
It's a market that already have a lot of competition and a very steep entry bar, that requires a lot of exclusive games to work, and publishers willing to do exclusve games and actually talented studios willing to sell are very, VERY hard to find.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
And then apple "reinvented" the phones, creating a whole new market to themselves.
If apple was ever to "enter the gaming market", they would create their own market, instead of competing with the big three, that is what they already kinda did with the phones.
The real question... (Score:2)
Would you trust Apple to date your sister?
They're letting you play iOS games on your TV. (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: They won't, but they may wish they had (Score:2)
They're not competing with consoles (Score:4, Insightful)
I watched the announcement and I don't remember any mention of other consoles, why you should buy an AppleTV over other consoles, or how games are better on an AppleTV versus other consoles. It was more 'You can already play cool games on your iPad and now you can play them on your TV! With friends! And motion control!"
At most, Apple may be going after the audience who bought a Wii as their first console because of the casual party and sports games. It's not competing with the PS4 or Xbox, instead it's picking up the casual gamers left behind when the Wii fizzled. Those people won't buy a PS4, but they'd get a cheap set-top box that displays their movies and photos and now also let's them play motion-controlled bowling with friends. Yes, they're also offering combat games like Warhammer, but it's still aimed at people who are happy playing combat games on iPads, not Xboxes.
I just don't see the AppleTV being marketed as a gaming platform, it's an entertainment center that has games as one of its features. If you're more than a casual gamer, you'll play most games on your desktop or have a PS4/Xbox on the shelf next to it.
Of course you can (Score:2)
When Apple comes out with their console it will be "revolutionary" with features "never seen before". You may not believe it now but just wait and see what they tell us when they release it. ;-)
Re: (Score:2)
It will feature Three Dimensional Graphics, never seen before anywhere.
The Third Dimension... another Apple Innovation!
Re: Of course you can (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know (Score:2)
But I do know that it will be shiny and have only one button!
Pippin was a failure! (Score:2)
It's not up to Apple (Score:2)
It's up to companies making controllers and games.
But Apple hasn't made what they consider to be a games console - it's a home App Box. What you do with such a thing is up to you... It's actually got pretty exciting hacking potential since anyone will be able to develop apps for their own home for free now that there's not a $99 requirement for local device testing.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting, when looking through tvOS docs initially I missed the smaller size limits. But as you say you can load a lot of resources after launch, so it doesn't preclude some fairly graphically intense games... still not as many as "real" consoles would have.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's up to companies making controllers and games.
But Apple hasn't made what they consider to be a games console - it's a home App Box. What you do with such a thing is up to you... It's actually got pretty exciting hacking potential since anyone will be able to develop apps for their own home for free now that there's not a $99 requirement for local device testing.
If people wanted hacking potential on a set top box they've had it for ages. The difference in this product (compared to other apple products, that is) is that it's relatively open...ish. I'm interested in seeing how lower walls in the garden works out for them.
No (Score:2)
Who else (Score:2)
If someone could be trusted to take an existing class of device and turn it into a product that's everyone wants and that sets the design rules that everyone will copy for the next 10 years, it would be Apple.Usually they do things right that are so obvious that the existing designers didn't event know that they were doing something wrong as they simply took the current ways for granted.
I'm not the usual Apple fanboi. I well know that "Apple" or Jobs never invented jack. But I give them credit for being the
Re: (Score:3)
If someone could be trusted to take an existing class of device and turn it into a product that's everyone wants and that sets the design rules that everyone will copy for the next 10 years, it would be Apple.
The problem is that nobody wants a more locked-down game console. What we want is a more open one. Give it a games mode where it refuses to multitask or whatever, that's cool and seems obvious. But I don't want to be forced to acquire my games through an Apple store...
Pile on the scorn, it doesn't matter... (Score:2)
Geeks through the ages have always predicted failure after failure of products because the products were not "good" enough, or as good as something the geeks wanted. For years computers sold almost exclusively on spec's. But the best personally computers early on were Atari and Amiga and commodore, yet, none of them are still around to any significant degree.
TVs sell on specs, game consoles sell on spec's, gaming PCs sell on specs. Everyone loves to brag about the "best". But, look at all the AAA games and
Re: (Score:2)
People set themselves up for disappointment when they compare Apple products to the competition based solely on the performance metrics, and expect Apple's effort to be utterly destroyed. There's room for plenty of players in the console space.
We can say games on the Apple TV will "suck," the Android offerings may be "better," that the Apple TV won't hit some FPS or polygon/shader benchmark, but these considerations are minuscule in light of the basic market realities:
first /. rage post in 10 years (Score:2)
Wasn't "Sweatshop HD" pulled in 2013... (Score:2)
Wasn't "Sweatshop HD" pulled in 2013... because the developer of it, "Littlecloud", went under in 2013?
In other words, this had more to do with no place to send the checks, than it had to do with Apple being "mean"?
No. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Ouya was a joke.
It was a shit console with shit games made by shit developers. Just because it made a bunch of Android and Linux fanboys wet doesn't mean its was ever a good idea.
Mobile ports work fine on a big screen in some cases, when its intentional, which is why you'll find iOS users that use AirPlay to display games on the big screen.
You've pretty much shown that outside of being an ignorant fanboy, you have no idea what Apple has already done or why they are different from all the other Me Too!'s ou
Re:Far too late in the game...pun intended (Score:4, Interesting)
Nobody buys an apple for gaming
There are an order of magnitude more games available for iOS than all gaming consoles ever invented put together. Thing is, the games tend to be a different "sort" of game than your typical console gamer wants. Is that a bad thing? The Wii sold far better than expected due to its "casual" nature, but eventually ran into a problem of underpowered-ness. Now we have a device with the graphical chops, brand recognition, relatively open App Store compared to other consoles, and a huge existing base of code easily ported. I think they have a shot, but don't see it as an either/or thing.
Re: Far too late in the game...pun intended (Score:2)
Re: Far too late in the game...pun intended (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
in the keynote they were pushing the appletv remote as a wii-like "wand". it even comes with a wrist strap so you don't break your tv. it showed one of the steelseries xbox style controllers as the canonical controller. too bad it won't come with one in the box.
Re: (Score:2)
The AppleTV can use third-party Bluetooth 4/LE controllers (See this link [apple.com]). I'm sure plenty of folks will come out with all kinds of controllers for it. The bundled one seems okay for a lot of casual gaming, buy buying more controllers isn't going to break the bank on a $150 console with $1-5 games.
AppleTV also has an interesting storage system to deal with the 32GB problem. The "core download" for any game has to be less than 200MB, with amounts above that loaded in 64-512MB chunks that are available on
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I think the biggest problem Apple has is that it's dependent on 3rd party indie developers to produce games for it's platforms. It's not clear that that strategy can work for a living room console - the fact is Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all invest heavily in 1st party titles, or console exclusives and those titles are console sellers that sell ridiculously well (over 15 million units for things like Halo 3 for example).
So with Microsoft you have Halo and Master Chief, with Nintendo you have Mario and Li
Re: (Score:2)
Remember, some people said that when Sega and Nintendo owned the whole market and Sony came along. Still more said it when Sony and Nintendo owned the market and Microsoft came along.
Re: (Score:2)
Microsoft was already the king of gaming on the PC, also had a development team, and they still took two full console generations to get it right.
Apple is more known for portable media consumption than living room interactive content. A full-blown gaming console isn't really a natura
Re: (Score:2)
no matter what, the apple tv will be successful for its streaming tv. gaming and iot hub are just added benefits. both will have time to grow and be supported.
Consumers saturated with TV streaming options (Score:2)
I don't doubt many people will use it for streaming movies or TV content, or just Itunes music but it gets silly how many devices are made to do such a job. Imagine you're running a smart TV with a {DSL box or cable box}, a game console and perhaps a bluray player : you have four computer devices that claim you want to use them to stream stuff with!
Or play media from your own hard drive or network.
Re: (Score:2)
well, jokes on you because apple tv is already a great success, and the new model extends what is being currently done. I'm interested to see the new "app centric" approach and the app store. tbh not that interested in the games myself. sometimes i like renting movies from itunes.
Re: (Score:2)
You're missing Apple's strengths. They have many millions of very happy customers, and (by a wide margin) the largest and most vibrant eco-system of digital content delivery (iTunes, App Stores) with the largest collection of content (music, video, apps). And now, for $150, those millions of of people can expand their relationship with Apple, which is already their phones and tablets and computers, to their living room. You say that Apple doesn't have a franchise to roll out to serious gamers, and I say tha
Re: Far too late in the game...pun intended (Score:2)
The Ouya didn't fail because of the marketplace and people said the same thing about the XBOX.
Re: (Score:2)
It's far too late to try and introduce a new console to the market now, just look at the ouya.
Xbox, playstation, nintendo and PC have the market majority when it comes to games. Nobody buys an apple for gaming so what exactly do they plan on running on it? Mobile ports no doubt which, as history has shown, don't translate well when moved from a small touch screen to a large screen and controller.
I hope you put some salt on those words, so they are more tasty when you have to eat them in a very short while.
Developers are already lined-up to start trying-out the stuff they are already developing for the AppleTV.
I'll be the servers that are hosting developer.apple.com are white-hot from all the downloads of the TVOS SDK [apple.com].
In fact, I would be willing to be big money that some of the people who are AppleTV hating on this very site are busily studying TVOS right now.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Apple iOS has a market share of 14% versus 83% Android, so there is no way they are the number one in mobile gaming. Perhaps in a parallel universe where Apple kept innovating, but not in this earth.
They do have the financial backing to push anything onto the market and get a decent 10% market share, that much is true. (Apple has been hoarding money for more than a decade.)
Re: (Score:3)
1. How many of those Android devices are low end crappy phones with horrible GPU's that can hardly play Angry Birds.
2. iOS users spend a lot more than Android users on apps.
3. If you look at developed countries -- iOS is much higher. No one cares about selling apps to people who are buying $50 Android phones.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple iOS has a market share of 14% versus 83% Android
I seriously question that "statistic".
And even if it IS true for the "I am a phone, and have a few FREE apps" users, the typical iPhone/iPad user has LOTS of PAID Apps (some in the hundreds!), so it more than makes-up for all the ghetto and child Android customers that have their shitbox plastic Android phones. THOSE are the ones that inflate the marketshare numbers; not the relatively few that can afford Samsung phones that are as much, or even more, than iPhones.
Re: (Score:2)
In terms of device unit sales, you're right that Android sells more, because these days there are lots of cheap Android phones sold as "feature phones", meaning that they're used to make calls and perhaps take photo's, but not as "smart phones" - no web browsing or apps. So not relevant as a market for games.
In terms of app sales, iOS wins. The result is that app sales for iOS are much more than Android, and growing. http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/... [techcrunch.com] .
So if you're picking a platform to sell games on, you're
Re: (Score:2)
Any serious gamer will stick with console or PC. Any one already in the Apple eco-system might take enough interest to give it a shot. The thing that turned it from "Whatever" to "Maybe" for me was that Plex just announced they will support it. I don't really have any time or much interest for games any more so a good all in one media player that is at least as good as my phone at games and can use the phone as a controller might be cool. I have a Roku now that came with Angry Birds. I played it once. Not really an interest but I appreciate that it can do some simple games and might work for a family situation (kind of targeting Wii use case)
I'm kinda with you. I loaded a few games on my iPhone when I first got it, and went "That's pretty impressive for a phone"; but I played them once. I, too, am interested primarily in whether it will make a viable HTPC, so I can retire the hulking, liquid-cooled, G5 tower that serves as my ersatz HTPC with "Front Row" (don't laugh!), and the horrible NetFlix and Hulu apps in my LG TV.
And if Plex is going to be better-behaved on AppleTV than it has been in the past on OS X, I will be all over that!
I just
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I actually had one of these I got dumpster diving in Cambridge, MA. Can't remember the name of the company...Spyglass maybe...but it was clearly marked as a demo/development unit only. I just wish I could find it and donate it to that guy with the Mac museum.
Re: (Score:2)
Newton and Pippin were both literally 20 years ago. It's like saying that the Xbox One sucks because of MS Bob. Similarly, the "jailbreak over the internet" OS was 6 revisions ago.
Re: (Score:3)
Remember when you could "jailbreak" your iphone by just going to a website? You know "jailbreaking" the device is gaining full root access right?
Sure, xbox has the RROD and such... but Apple never had the newton and other total failures?
What happened with apple's previous console?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Remember when you could root somebodies Android by sending them a MSM? That was fucking last month, and still works on 90% of all Android phones.
Remember Ouya? Well, people can at least remember Pippin 2 decades later. Hardly anyone had even heard of the epitome of Android gaming.
Super dated info there (Score:2)
Yes, the AppleTV comes with max 64GB, but you got everything else wrong.
The maximum app size is *2GB* not 200 MB - and has been for some time. That's only for the initial download bundle...
What you are also missing is on-demand resources - you could have a game of infinite size that loaded levels on demand.
iOS can also unload less used resources in apps and re-load them later, so the 64GB is not as constraining as it first seems.
That said I don't think you will see as many texture-heavy monsters lie Bloodb
Re: (Score:2)
200MB max app bundle size, 2GB max resources used at any given time, 2.2GB max initial install size, 20GB max hosted resources size.
All they've done is moved most content to the on-demand category, and the OS will download or delete that stuff as required to manage local storage.
Re: (Score:2)
Games were 20GB in the year 2000? News to me, few games were more than 700MB back then, since multi-CD games were pretty rare.
I don't think Apple is going to succeed this round, but I don't think it has anything to do with media size. I think it's because they're falling into the same trap that all these other companies trying break in are falling into (Ouya, nVidia, MadCatz, Razer, etc). The problem is that they're trying to leverage mobile games and hardware to get started, but that just doesn't cut it. M
Re:How is the PS3 a failure? (Score:2)
The PS3 wasn't a failure. Sure, the first couple of years it was considered a joke for being horribly expensive and notoriously hard to program, but it outsold the 360 everywhere but North America with global sales estimated at 85.83 Million to 360's 84.90 Million. [vgchartz.com]