Why the Future of Gaming Has an Apple In It
Posted by Jas Kao
Let’s put on our future goggles and gaze into the definitive* future of Apple gaming.
(*As accorded by me. Have your own thoughts? Let’s hear it.)
The future of gaming for Apple is unique and definitely stands apart from the gaming scene with PC’s and consoles.
However, let’s be honest here, most hardcore gamers will stick with their PC builds or consoles as opposed to buying a Mac. They know that with the money they spend on a Mac, they can build a decent gaming rig that is fully customizable or buy 2 of the current gen consoles. On a Mac, the customizability pretty much ends as soon as you hit that purchase button, aside from perhaps changing out the hard drive or upgrading the RAM, though the hardware inside of the new iMacs is substantial enough to handle any current game thrown at it. Until the day when Macs can become more customizable in the after-market stage of purchase, or perhaps offer a legitimate console, the future of gaming on a Mac will, for the most part, reside in the hands of casual gamers, which is by no means a bad thing.
But this may change in the next 10 years or so.
In an interview with Phil Harrison, the former Sony president of Sony Computer Entertainment’s Wordwide Studios, he believes that Apple will have a pretty good chance to be the game industry.
Yes, I said BE the game industry.
His reasoning behind this is that fact that the proliferation of Apple devices is astounding and that they all are in the same ecosystem. The iPad alone has sold more than 15 million units and the most reported activity on the iPad is gaming. And now with the iPad 2’s new ability to stream games onto the TV through AppleTV to provide console-like gaming, it’s pretty much inevitable that Apple will make a more serious move into the gaming industry.
Can you imagine an Apple console? Or an Apple gaming computer?
The Apple “console” may not be far off in light of recent news, though it probably would be more of a mobile gaming device that could act as a console if need be. As technology advances, they could beef up the hardware in the iPad even more in the next few years to provide some real gaming capabilities. This is probably where it’s headed anyways, if the current trend continues. Reader Jason Kenney made a valid point about scales of market where the mobile gaming model is by far more profitable than the current mainstream gaming model.
An Apple gaming rig also would be easily feasible, though probably less likely to happen. However, I wouldn’t put it out of the realm of possibility for Apple to unveil a new line of Apple computers similar to Dell and their Alienware. And if Apple were to apply their design aesthetic to a gaming computer, it’d be a far more visually pleasing gaming rig than PC builds which generally become a hodgepodge of hardware and cables.
But would anyone buy Apple gaming products?
Most certainly! Apple has a huge loyal user base. These days I’ve seen more and more people owning Macs and getting rid of their PC’s. Just going to a college classrooms proves this, because if you take a look at all the students sitting down, you’ll see that a majority of the laptops have that lovely, glowing Apple logo staring right back at you. This was not the case a few years ago when I clearly remember mostly PC laptops sitting comfortably on most people’s desks.
With their market share of computers rapidly surging higher, the penetration of Macs in the computer market may eventually even become the dominant computer of choice.
My fellow Mac gamers, we may see Apple make some exciting changes in the gaming industry in the coming years!
Does the future of Apple gaming take a different path when looking through your own pair of future goggles?
