Apple's iTV as a game console

by Blake Snow { Sep 25th 2006 at 6:30PM }

Business Week further explores the possibility of Apple getting into the games industry by way of their upcoming iTV set-top box. Keep in mind the device lets users wireless stream downloaded iTunes content from desktop to TV using a hard drive. From the article:

"A plausible argument by Roughly Drafted's Daniel Eran has the iTV being held just long enough for Apple to introduce 802.11n, which would allow 200 Mbit connections to an access point, nearly 10 times the a/g variety and more than enough to stream DVD-quality content wirelessly from a Mac (and possibly a PC). That would help explain the inclusion of an HDMI connection on Apple's new device. As Eran points out, you don't need an HDMI connection if you are simply streaming downloadable 640X480 content."

In addition to fatter wireless bandwidth and possible HD support, the article examines a recent Apple filed handheld patent for "multiple touch-sensitive devices" (wireless controllers or souped-up iPods?) and Steve Jobs former involvement with Atari. You can take the man out of games, but you can't take games out of the man.

[Thanks, KBeat]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Stu L Tissimus @ Sep 25th 2006 6:38PM

It was discovered earlier today that the most recent 24" iMacs have an 802.11n card in them, making this rumor even more plausible. I still doubt that Apple will get back into the games business, but whatever. See:

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/25/core-2-duo-imacs-sporting-802-11n-cards/

iceatcs @ Sep 25th 2006 6:47PM

If apple back on the gaming world. They might have a great chance to kill Wii or Nintendo if possible.

otakucode @ Sep 25th 2006 6:54PM

OK, so the iTV gets enough bandwidth to stream true DVD-quality video. How does that lead one to believe it might become a games console? Yes, the iTunes store now carries very simple games. I could see an argument that those particular games could also be played on the iTV. But is it being suggested (I believe it is) that more significant games could become part of the equation?

For such a thing to be practicable, the iTV would need to have significant processing power. Streaming some MPEG-4 video and spitting it on a TV takes only a dedicated chip and some support stuff. Providing the interactivity necessary for games requires processing power. Offloading the processing obligation to your Mac would be impossible because of latency issues. The processing of input, change in gamestate, etc would all have to happen in the iTV box. Unless it is going to be much more powerful on the processor, memory, and video fronts than has previously been mentioned, it's simply not possible.

Bones3D @ Sep 25th 2006 6:54PM

Pretty unlikely... the Pippin never made it off the ground, so why would Apple attempt this again now? The Mac gaming market is already in an odd position as it is with the new intel macs able to play PC released titles using bootcamp and a copy of Windows.

Also, it sounds like Apple wants to make the iTV an inexpensive multimedia dumb terminal. Any box capable of playing a modern PC game title with any level of quality would probably cost more than Apple's intended price point.

If anything, this is merely someone pulling at straws based entirely on the inclusion of new gaming option on the 5G iPod.

32_footsteps @ Sep 25th 2006 6:59PM

High five to Bones for making the Pippin reference before I could.

Given that Mac gaming isn't even what PC gaming is, I wouldn't be holding my breath for a system running Mac software as a gaming device.

FSK405K @ Sep 25th 2006 7:07PM

They'll have extremely large versions of iPOD Tetris. Oh joy.

Bones3D @ Sep 25th 2006 7:14PM

Oh, one side note... if Apple were to go more with an Xbox Live Arcade approach, making the games like what they're releasing on iPod available to the iTV, this could have *some* merit. These games are small, quick to stream, and could easily be adapted from the iPod click wheel to a front-row remote.

More interesting potential, is that the iTV versions could be made to support multi-player over the internet. From what I've seen of the 5G ipod games, multi-player would definitely improve the experience.

Nanka @ Sep 25th 2006 7:17PM

Dream on. The HDMI connection is there too display hi def photos and movies. Not just downloadable content.

IMHO this machine is gonna rock. Cant wait for my 24' imac :D

mountain_rage @ Sep 25th 2006 7:25PM

If it is somewhat of a videogame system this is how I percieve in its funcitonality. The games will run off of your computer then stream the video information to the hub and display it on the tv. The hub will then pick up signals from a remote and retransmit them to your computer. This could be what the magazine is pondering.

Tom @ Sep 25th 2006 9:57PM

iBox

epobirs @ Sep 25th 2006 7:40PM

It should be remembered that Jobs' primary accomplishment at Atari was getting Wozniak to do all of the real work.

The Pippin came and went during Jobs' long exile from Apple. He had zero involvement in that product.

jc @ Sep 25th 2006 8:06PM

Gaming is a huge industry, and the bulk of it is moving to the big TV... the same HDTV you watch movies on. Apple is already doing quite well in the personal entertainment end of things, and it appears they are heading full steam to the home entertainment market... why not include videogames?

I suspect they should start small tho. First allow the iPod games to be playable on the iTV, it would be great to play a few games of tetris while waiting for your PiratesIII movie to start downloading.

Honestly, I doubt we will see this in the near future, but I do think it is a good idea. (how about a joint nintendo venture???)

I remember the 20th Anniv Mac... it was too slow and too expensive, but they learnt their lesson, and now make the iMac. How about the Mac Cube?? Again, they made it faster, smaller and sell it for less money as the Mac Mini. Who's to say they can't learn the lesson from the Pippin and get it right this time?

Even if this is just all speculation, I am looking forward to the iTV and the basic features alone... anything else is gravy.

ill trooper @ Sep 25th 2006 8:22PM

The hurdle here is that most people do not see Apple as a 'gaming' company, but rather a lifestyle and 'professional' product company.

As the owner of 9 Macs over the years, starting with my old IIcx and then a IIfx, moving on through Quadras and G series machines, currently working on a G5 and a MacBook Pro, I stopped worrying about gaming on Macs a long time ago (Vette, Beyond This World, Marathon the final fading memories) and focused on console gaming and the PC I put together to play the Batllefield series. Sure, it's a viable concept, this 'iTV as a gaming device,' but I don't see that iTV box being capable of tangling with the 360 or the PS3, or even the Wii.

I don't see Apple trying to coax developers to make games for an iTV, rather, I see Jobs arriving at 10am at PC game developers offices and explicitly outlining how 'easy' (I don't really know; this is a hypothetical here, don't bust my balls!) it is to go the extra distance to make the games being written for Windows work on OSX on Intel machines...

That way, any Mac could play games, certainly at television resolutions.

If we need to keep bringing up the Pippin, why not mention wonderful stumbles like the 'Bob' operating system from Microsoft, or the Virtual Boy from Nintendo? Even market failures, if survived, can teach a company a good lesson about what people want, and prepare them for the next round.

foobob @ Sep 25th 2006 8:26PM

the power of the Apple brand. the games of the Macintosh. the coolness of games for non-gamers. 'nuff said...

will @ Sep 27th 2006 6:28PM

1st- wow 802.11n sounds nice. but every thing in my house is g. and im not gonna upgrade just for the itv.

2nd- does any one know if this is tied to one itunes account or if multiple accounts can use this.

monkeysan @ Sep 25th 2006 10:40PM

I would simply ask folks to read the actual article.

Most of the criticisms expressed here are addressed in the piece.

Yes, it's a lot of what-ifs, but remember that iTV's generation times are likely to be MUCHO shorter than the console folks. I'm not suggesting that Apple's gonna come right out of the gate with a device to compete with PS3 or X360.

Instead, I think that Apple may have a route to the Holy Grail of Digital Convergence in our living rooms that both Sony and MS have completely missed out on so far, despite their loud promises.

Cheers

Aaron Ruby

mike @ Sep 26th 2006 1:19AM

why would apple want into the game console market? yuck!

ppfffft... way to destroy about 25 yrs of 'coolness'

talk about a strawman argument... the term 'bigger fish to fry' comes to mind

Next-Gen-Gamer @ Sep 26th 2006 4:08AM

Pippin

I rest my case

010111 @ Sep 26th 2006 6:34AM

"802.11n, which would allow 200 Mbit connections to an access point, nearly 10 times the a/g variety"

a and g are both 54Mbit varients. 200 divided by 54 doesn't equal 10. not using any normal earth math.

"enough to stream DVD-quality content wirelessly from a Mac (and possibly a PC)."

they already said iTV would work on a PC running iTunes as well as Macs... why the parenthetical "possibly"?

those two errors alone combined with it coming from some genius at Business Week looking to fill inches tells me this article is probably 80% imaginary.

Aaron Johnson (CyKiller) @ Sep 26th 2006 11:24AM

Is it me or everyone not getting the point of the article. Please go read the entire article before making a bunch of rumors sound even worst. If you don't think you have made a comment then this is not reffering to you.

Some have speculated that the iTV may also be destined to get one of Intel’s Conroe-L processors, which it would need to process the HD content Apple eventually wants to sell over iTunes. "Further, according to some, it’s very possible video card drivers could be written so that graphic output data could be sent to a network port instead of the monitor connected to the card. That opens the possibility of using iTV and a wireless controller to remotely play Mac/PC games (*cough* WoW *cough*) in your living room."

That should bring on a new discussion....

CyKiller

monkeysan @ Sep 26th 2006 4:06PM

Your comments: "a and g are both 54Mbit varients. 200 divided by 54 doesn't equal 10. not using any normal earth math."

Well, 010111, your math is right, but your using bad data.

a and g are indeed 54Mbit variants, *theoretically*. Typically they achieve somewhere around
25Mbit.

The n variant has a theoretical maximum of 500Mbit, but typically will achieve around 200MBit.
Let's do the math then:

Theoretical maximums-- 500Mbit/54Mbit = ~10X
Typical maximums-- 200Mbit/25Mbit = 8X

The above is why I reported "nearly ten times".

As to the following:

"enough to stream DVD-quality content wirelessly from a Mac (and possibly a PC)."

You said: they already said iTV would work on a PC running iTunes as well as Macs... why the parenthetical "possibly"?

I'll tell you why I said that. Even though it's been reported elsewhere that PCs running iTunes can use iTV, we still don't know what's inside iTV, it's not definitive, since the product won't ship till as late as Q207.

Given that I was using the ability of iTV to stream DVD-quality rather than simply near-DVD quality (which was all that has been announced), I didn't think it was accurate not to qualify the statement. This is especially true given the leap I made regarding the possibility of writing video card drivers that send the graphic stream to a network port rather than the monitor out connection on the card itself.

You said: those two errors alone combined with it coming from some genius at Business Week looking to fill inches tells me this article is probably 80% imaginary.

I'm not a genius at Businessweek. I'm a genius who has a column at Next-Gen that was syndicated by Businessweek.
I don't care how many inches they do or don't need, and I have no control over whether they use my work.

The article is imaginary. It's speculative. But if you don't think Apple will use this platform, if successful, to *at minimum* include interactive content and casual gaming in their business model, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

The article was really about Trojan Horses as pimped by Sony and MS. My point was simply that both have so far failed miserably to achieve that goal.

I think that Apple may be in a much better position to make gaming a ubiquitous option in our living rooms.

I'm *not* saying that they will *kill* either Sony of MS or even try to compete with them directly.

I many people are making assumptions having not read the original piece and taking what I wrote out of context.

Cheers,

monkeysan

Bruce @ Sep 27th 2006 4:06AM

I do not see Apple getting into the games market, seems to be too far away from what they want which would be more mainstream stuff like media center devices. They currently do not have game support in their computer line so getting people to develop for a new console seems too far fetched.

Also Job's hand in Breakout was getting Woz to be hired, nothing else.