Cognition Dissemination: Where Does the Apple TV Stand?

If you happened upon some video game websites and blogs dedicated to covering Apple products recently, you’ve likely found news pieces and editorials discussing Apple TV rumors. You likely also stumbled upon, and are perhaps sick to death of, speculation suggesting its arrival could herald the end of “traditional” gaming consoles as we know it.

The all-consuming dominance of Apple in the tech world is a secret to nobody, including those aware of their products’ quality, and others who tend to avoid them for an Android or Windows-powered competitors. However, if the company planned on seriously invading the world of core gaming, they could.

Their dominance means they’d have an easy time recruiting developers to create games, as they’d support a system with a massive chance of being a success. Those aforementioned articles became so prevalent that it felt like the big three would legitimately have something to worry about. Shockingly enough, not everything you read on the internet is based on facts, but I’m sure they enjoyed the temporary traffic boost.

That means yes, you can rest easy. The Apple TV presentation featured on the recent stream showed an Apple with no intention of seriously investing in gaming. Though some intriguing software was shown that could take advantage of the device’s “unique” feature set, many consisted of ports that control well enough on mobile devices, or can already be played on other platforms. Both Rayman Adventures and Transistor qualify as games already available on other platforms.

(I said “unique” sarcastically, because some devices, and their feature sets, were presented as if Apple created them. Many were previously introduced by other devices from competitors. While that’s unsurprising coming from a company’s presentation, some people frighteningly buy nearly everything the company says with certainty.)

The device will also work with iOS-compatible controllers, though not every game will work with one. Like most things Apple, expect each option to cost you a pretty penny. That includes the Nimbus Steelseries Controller being made for it, which will cost $49.95 — admittedly a standard price for a gaming controller these days.

Thinking about it, the device isn’t too dissimilar from the hodgepodge of microconsoles released from various hardware manufactures in the last few years. Of course, this particular one will have access to Apple’s large library of movies, music, and games, along with their traditional sleek and potentially usable interface.

Ouya proved years ago that demand exists for an inexpensive system with similarly cheap games, with a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter that made nearly $8.6 million — still the sixth most-funded campaign on the service. A pity they botched the delivery so hard that the brand had to be sold to Razer a few months ago after it was deemed unsalvageable. While other manufacturers have tried, none have been successful, including Amazon with the Fire TV (which could receive an upgraded model soon). Perhaps Apple will finally be the company to capitalize on its potential.

Thinking about it, it’s hardly surprising that this won’t be a serious gaming device. Apple, and others, would have nothing to gain by entering the “AAA” blockbuster-driven market at this point. Though companies already within the market are doing okay financially, it’s not the most profitable business around.

Entering now would be a massive burden to anyone financially, even Apple, given the amount of money they’d need to invest into significant first-party exclusives. Yesterday’s conference proved they still have no interest in developing games internally. It would also be tough to tell if they could make the money they invested back over time, especially with some companies barely profiting on their titles, and the Apple TV’s unsurprising lack of an optical drive. To put it simply: This isn’t the long-awaited reemergence of the Apple Pippin gaming machine.

With how some games can be controlled, the gaming approach is reminiscent of one Nintendo took with Wii nearly a decade ago. The TV will come with a remote capable of being used with motion-driven games, though with only one, games obviously won’t play the same as they did on Nintendo’s system. It will be priced at $150 for the 32GB version, and $199 for the 64GB one, making it affordable for the “casual” audience who doesn’t care as much about gaming as some of us. If Apple can convince enough developers to jump on board and create unique software that takes advantage of its interface, they could have something special, and establish a living room phenomenon like Nintendo did almost a decade ago.

But that will still be far easier said than done, especially considering Apple doesn’t have some always-reliable in-house teams to support it. We’ll see more between now and its October release timeframe, though it will likely suffer from the traditional launch software doldrums. Depending on how Apple handles marketing and support, it will either surf the blue ocean waves to Profitville® or become the first Apple initiative in a while to sink into oblivion.