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Um, if Apple makes apps available for the Apple TV and can nail the user experience, they might really have something. A $100 Apple TV with $1-5 games and a lot

Um, if Apple makes apps available for the Apple TV and can nail the user experience, they might really have something. A $100 Apple TV with $1-5 games and a lot of free to play would be such a better deal for most consumers than the $500 consoles with $60-70 games. Also, there is a window for a Steam box to do well too. OUYA might not be getting rave reviews now, but I think it's going to grow into an interesting niche for sure.

Pxtl 13y ago
Steam box is going to be in a very different market - Valve's plan is to have three tiers - a lite ARM-based Miracast client for people who have a gaming PC and want to stream gaming from it to their TV, a full PC with a drive and all the bells and whistles, and a middling low-power solid-state device. The last one, the "better" box as Newell calls it, is the one that will be most directly competing with normal consoles, but since it will still require full X86 hardware and beefy gaming processors, I don't imagine they'll be able to get it under $400.
untog 13y ago
Both Google and Apple have an interesting controller too- smartphones. Games running on an AppleTV and controlled via an iPhone seem like a pretty decent concept.
- programminggeek 13y ago
  The smartphone is not the same as a proper controller with tactile feedback.
  - untog 13y ago
    No it isn't. But it is free. And people have already demonstrated that they're more than happy to use smartphones as controllers, by downloading games and playing them.
    - splawn 13y ago
      Yeah, but when you play them you are looking down at the same surface that the game is on. Its different when you are looking up at a different screen. I tried this out a few years back with an ipod touch and a vid cable and I found the games unplayable.
- smackfu 13y ago
  You can do that today, with AirPlay mirroring. It's not caught on.
  - untog 13y ago
    I feel like there hasn't really been a huge push behind it, though. Apple has never really promoted uses like that for gaming.
atacrawl 13y ago
if Apple makes apps available for the Apple TV and can nail the user experience, they might really have something Completely agree, but the Apple TV interface as it stands is atrocious. To be fair, this is a problem with any remote-to-TV interface, as I've yet to see any platform really come close to nailing it, but there are a ton of issues that should have never escaped internal testing.

Pxtl 13y ago

Steam box is going to be in a very different market - Valve's plan is to have three tiers - a lite ARM-based Miracast client for people who have a gaming PC and want to stream gaming from it to their TV, a full PC with a drive and all the bells and whistles, and a middling low-power solid-state device. The last one, the "better" box as Newell calls it, is the one that will be most directly competing with normal consoles, but since it will still require full X86 hardware and beefy gaming processors, I don't imagine they'll be able to get it under $400.

untog 13y ago

Both Google and Apple have an interesting controller too- smartphones. Games running on an AppleTV and controlled via an iPhone seem like a pretty decent concept.

programminggeek 13y ago
The smartphone is not the same as a proper controller with tactile feedback.
- untog 13y ago
  No it isn't. But it is free. And people have already demonstrated that they're more than happy to use smartphones as controllers, by downloading games and playing them.
  - splawn 13y ago
    Yeah, but when you play them you are looking down at the same surface that the game is on. Its different when you are looking up at a different screen. I tried this out a few years back with an ipod touch and a vid cable and I found the games unplayable.
smackfu 13y ago
You can do that today, with AirPlay mirroring. It's not caught on.
- untog 13y ago
  I feel like there hasn't really been a huge push behind it, though. Apple has never really promoted uses like that for gaming.

atacrawl 13y ago

if Apple makes apps available for the Apple TV and can nail the user experience, they might really have something Completely agree, but the Apple TV interface as it stands is atrocious. To be fair, this is a problem with any remote-to-TV interface, as I've yet to see any platform really come close to nailing it, but there are a ton of issues that should have never escaped internal testing.