Apple AAA gaming console

[rntongo]

I've been using the new M1 Macbook Air which replaced my pro and I'm seriously impressed by its performance. I've never had a machine thats this quiet, powerful, portable and affordable. I just can't stop imagining that with Apple's prowess at building modern processors, they could possibly build a AAA console with a gaming service as a replacement for their Apple TV. It could retail at a higher price($700-$1000) than even current gen PS5 and Xbox Series X and still sell well IMHO. And developers would be more than willing to make games on the platform or put their software onto the platform. Some games would be part of a subscription and others would be for outright purchasing. So my question is, would you buy a $700 Apple console?

 

[Serene]

And developers would be more than willing to make games on the platform or put their software onto the platform.

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This seems like a leap. Especially if it's not an x86 architecture. Would require a lot of workflow changes for those developers.

 

[kikuchiyo]

I would but given trends - Apple's historic disinterest in gaming, plus recent high profile flops by tech companies trying to get in on gaming, including Google's Stadia, Amazon's everything-but-Twitch, and Apple's own Apple Arcade, this is like asking us what we will do during the heat death of the universe.

The M1 is a fantastic debut for Apple, but 1) it's a major pain in the ass for developers on Sony and Microsoft (I don't know what it would be like porting from Switch to the M1 since they're more similar, but there's a reason the chip isn't in the bigger MacBook Pros, and desktops (other than the mini which has always essentially been a headless laptop) - they're not ready to put the tech to use on things that need that much horsepower. Similarly almost assuredly Apple would use Metal as their graphics system, which outside of the Apple ecosystem is not well used (and I assume completely unused in the game industry outside of some Mac only developers).

 

[Ruck]

I mean, what is a terrific launch lineup? None of my favorite developers would ever come anywhere near this thing at launch and I already have a PS5 and can play Assassin's Creed on that

 

[Maple]

No one is paying $700+ for an Apple gaming console with a significantly weaker GPU than the PS5/Series X and no major exclusive games.

It would just be an insanely overpriced machine to play your iOS games in 4K.

 

[Faceless_Caesar]

Apple Arcade had a decent lineup that fizzled out almost immediately after launch.

 

[the7egend]

I already spent 700$+ on an Apple console to play AAA games on, it's my iPhone and I can play them thru Luna, Stadia, Xbox, or PS remote play.

 

[Rick44-4]

Is this man pulling my leg? Who would buy this that isn't an apple shill lol.

 

[MrRob]

Yep.

 

[formasymphonic]

For $700, the hw & lineup of games would have to be spectacular (and more importantly exclusive) for any portion of the market to buy in...

IMO what's more likely is that we are getting a next gen AppleTV at say $300 and is somewhere around an XBSS in perf. Games will be whatever is available on iOS and Apple Silicon Macs.

 

[Obi Wan Jabroni]

Sony had the global mindshare and market share of the industry cinched after the PS2 era and yet they discovered quickly with the PS3 that price point matters.

So no, a thousand-dollar console would not do well, even by Apple. In reality they would probably get creamed if they tried and entered the console market.

 

[rntongo]

I mean, what is a terrific launch lineup? None of my favorite developers would ever come anywhere near this thing at launch and I already have a PS5 and can play Assassin's Creed on that

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Just thinking if they invested in some developers to make games spanning different genres. On a side note what do you think about Valhalla I'm thinking of buying it but haven't enjoyed non linear games in a while.

 

[oofouchugh]

Why would anyone buy an Apple Console when part of the appeal of Apple Arcade is that it works already on an Apple TV and their entire gaming strategy has been on the affordable side of things with cheaper software on iDevices?

 

[shinobi602]

If it had the most spectacular exclusive launch lineup imaginable, sure, maybe at the lower end of that.

Otherwise hell no.

 

[Lump]

Apple already believes in their hardware for running games. The current Apple TV isn't great at running 4k games but their latest iPhones and iPads can run games like champions.

The real question is whether they'll ever make a controller, or JoyCon-esque whatevers for iPhone / iPad. That's when you'll know whether they're serious.

 

[Niklel]

What kind of hardware and, most importantly, games they'll need to have to justify $700?
They couldn't even provide a good line up for their Apple TV service.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

Of course not.

 

[Deleted member 56752]

I mean. It's not feasible. They'll never have the developers necessary to make a dent in the industry. It'd take like... 20 years. Smarter to just focus on mobile imo

 

[Palette Swap]

I'm knee deep in their ecosystem but don't see this ever happening. Like, what exclusives would they bring to the table?

Plus, I think it's a misread of the situation to think a console would or should be an AppleTV successor. The AppleTV's job was to blow set top boxes out of the water.

 

[NinjaScooter]

There is really nothing in it for Apple to chase this market.

 

[Turbocharge]

I worry that any dedicated gaming hardware that Apple released would be flooded by iOS shovelware ports very quickly - making at difficult for quality titles to rise to the top of the stores.

I see this to a smaller extent on the Switch. I'm amazed at just how many titles look like simple flash games.

 

[Ouroboros]

No. The only way I'd buy is if it had excellent exclusive Japanese developed games. And that just ain't happenin'

 

[Ruck]

Just thinking if they invested in some developers to make games spanning different genres. On a side note what do you think about Valhalla I'm thinking of buying it but haven't enjoyed non linear games in a while.

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I thought it was way too long but probably better than Odyssey. If you're not into Ubisoft open world games then you might not have a good time cause it's definitely another one of those lol

 

[giapel]

That's not how the console space works.
A console is not a lifestyle accessory like an iPhone or a Mac. Nobody's willing to pay premium to shove something under the telly that ultimately is going to be a worse experience. Triple no in my eyes

 

[PopcornMegaphone]

If they have stuff I really want to play, than yeah.

 

[dunkzilla]

No one would pay that for an Apple console. I say that as someone heavily in the Apple "ecosystem".

 

[DeoGame]

Define excellent launch lineup. If it means a ton of third party support, then Stadia had that out of the gate too and I didn't bother.

What I need is either insanely good exclusives or insanely good value (which $700-$1000 for a system is gonna be hard to deliver). Otherwise, I already own the other systems. Why bother.

 

[AndrewDean84]

No

 

[Atolm]

For 700$, it better have new AAA exclusives of every Sega and Konami IP

 

[Lyriell]

I couldn't imagine anything worse than Apple muscling their way into a market they've never cared about, potentially killing an existing player that cares about what they're doing just so people can boast about their stylish console that costs too much.

And of course they'd bundle sonething like gamepass into their apple pass shit at a huge loss, hurting their rivals like they do with spotify etc.

 

[Trace]

Maybe if they bought out Sony and every major Japanese developer and had them exclusively make games for this console.

But that's about it.

 

[aliengmr]

You forgot to add the Apple premium, which would bring it to $1700.

In all seriousness, an Apple console with just a respectable line up wouldn't dip below a $1000. Not about to pay a premium just because its Apple.

 

[dude]

Never. I work on mobile games, and from my experience with publishing on the App Store, I just don't believe they'd bring anything good to the console gaming space.

 

[ghostcrew]

If it had a terrific launch line-up? Sure, I like Apple hardware.

Can't see it though.

 

[Creed Bratton]

Apple has been "serious about gaming" too many times in the past with nothing of note following. I don't care how good the launch titles are--I wouldn't give any company with a meh reputation when it comes to gaming that much money.

 

[jack.]

They should call it the Pippin Series X

 

[TheGhost]

Depends on who they buy?
If they buy Activision, Bungie and Dice? Then yeah I would

 

[Ushay]

They would have to do something truly magnificent in hardware, exclusive software AND price.

That's a hard no from me.

 

[rntongo]

If it had the most spectacular exclusive launch lineup imaginable, sure, maybe at the lower end of that.

Otherwise hell no.

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I'm just wondering considering how good their HW is right now, on 10th gen systems it could be a viable system to add alongside a playstation and Xbox. More variety for gamers. Their ARM processors would also be great for cloud gaming. Much better performance per watt than x86 and possibly RDNA instruction set.

 

[lexony]

If it is an appealing piece of hardware with good services and the lineup of games is good, sure why not?

 

[Deleted member 5725]

It would depend on the games. If there were some "holy shit I gotta play this!" types of games, I would probably buy the console just to play those games and possibly sell it afterwards.

 

[cowbanana]

Not in a million years. I bought my last shitty Apple product years ago. Got tired of their planned obsolescence and them just being generally a garbage company.

 

[balohna]

If the launch line-up is truly terrific and/or has some amazing killer app (like a Super Mario 64 or a Halo: CE level game), maybe. $700 is a bit steep.

If it's like a PS5 level launch, where there are a handful of biggish exclusives and the usual third party multiplatform stuff? No.

I'd probably be slightly more swayed by unique hardware too, like a Wii level paradigm shift. With good software to back it up. But this is all hypothetical. I'd buy a paradigm shifting console with great exclusives even if it was made by KFC or Hyundai or Boeing.

 

[thecaseace]

This wouldn't happen but taking your hypothetical at face value...

Whilst this console could hypothetically have a good launch lineup one thing platform holders without a pedigree in gaming have found out is that it's hard to do and takes a slot of time and effort.

I can't think of a reason off the top of my head why Apple would be successful with a good launch lineup and good hardware. They'd still need longer term support both in third and first party offerings, so I'd say no.


Also that $700 price tag would be to steep for most people used to consoles, Apple fans would buy it but not then that's a different market segment.

 

[Deleted member 91227]

Nope. Not unless the landscape changes anyway. I already struggle and fail to keep up with things I want to play on Playstation, Xbox and Nintendo so I just couldn't justify a fourth platform.

I also got over an FOMO of needing access to everything. Even owning those three consoles I never play all the games that interest me in a generation. Just not enough hours in the day with work, life and other hobbies. So I'd only buy one if it replaced one of the three current ones, or had such a compelling library of exclusives I decided to buy it over one of the existing console platforms.

That said, $700 is a bit high for me unless it had a killer line up and feature set to be my main platform. Hard to see that with how much I love many Sony and Nintendo IPs (and to a lesser extent Xbox with Gears, Halo, Forza and Ori).

 

[rntongo]

I couldn't imagine anything worse than Apple muscling their way into a market they've never cared about, potentially killing an existing player that cares about what they're doing just so people can boast about their stylish console that costs too much.

And of course they'd bundle sonething like gamepass into their apple pass shit at a huge loss, hurting their rivals like they do with spotify etc.

Click to shrink...

Now this is what I wanted to hear as well. Yeah that would suck. I was thinking more about the technology trends because sooner or later they're going to have a the hw to support such initiatives especially for cloud gaming. I wish Sony had some way of investing more into cloud gaming since thats the inevitable future instead of relying on MSFT. Because I think Sony would be the most vulnerable to such a move.

 

[LegendofLex]

My limited experience trying to get Mac games working on Mac tells me it's absolutely not a good idea to put any eggs in Apple's basket as a gaming platform.

 

[Mesharey]

No thanks, we'll eventually get the console for $1000 and the controller for $500, and each cable separately for $100.

 

[Pancracio17]

I probably wouldnt get it unless I had leftover money. A console from an unproven manufacturer would be at the bottom of the priority list.

 

[Blayde]

I don't see Apple selling a dedicated gaming machine. Why would they? They have plenty of other devices that can run games. Closest thing you'll see is maybe a pumped up Apple TV, but it's not going to be $700.
Apple could have a pretty cool gaming eco system if they put any real effort into it. But for whatever reason they just keep flirting with the idea, but only go as far as teasing then doing nothing.