back to article Apple's casual Xbox: Apple TV seeded for online gaming

How about this for an online gaming set-up: an 1080p HD TV for display duties, an Apple TV as your console, and an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch as your controller? Text strings spotted within Apple's iOS 4.3 beta release, all prefixed "ATVGames", suggest the company is planning to make this possible, according to a report by …

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  1. Jorge Lopez

    Apps are what's stopping me

    The lack of Apps for this device have been what stops me from getting it. I love Netflix and I love Pandora. I can do Pandora from my Tivo, Netflix and DLNA from my TV, and other apps from my PS3. If Apple moved to provide Apps for the device I would probably drop the "Benjamin" and get one.

    I am finding more and more that my tv media mac is not really used. It is mostly a server of sorts in the living room and everything I am doing is over DLNA to the TV or other devices.

    I love the app revolution to the tv but using a keyboard has become clunky and outdated. If Apple had a nice controller and a list of apps that worked, I would be there in a heart beat.

    1. magnetik
      Jobs Horns

      @Jorge Lopez

      Don't think for a moment that Apple would ever allow a Netflix type app on the Apple TV. They want complete control over the content you pay for.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        WTF?

        @magnetik

        They already have Netflix on the ATV2 - they had it when they announced it.

      2. guybles

        @magnetik

        Apple do allow Netflix on the Apple TV...in fact, it's built into the system:

        http://www.apple.com/appletv/#netflix

      3. ThomH

        @magnetik

        I suggest you check your facts. The Netflix app, provided by Netflix, Inc and available from the US iTunes App Store, is quite popular on the existing iOS devices and there's no reason whatsoever to think Apple would make the AppleTV the exception.

      4. JEDIDIAH
        Linux

        They needed something to sell these things...

        Netflix is Apple's equivalent of Microsoft in the streaming space. It's that competitor they can't ignore because it's too big and it's everywhere and all of their potential customers are already subscribed to it.

        They need something to help sell these things.

        If they just wanted to continue with the Pay Per View model they could have just kept the old ATVs.

        What will be interesting is if Amazon and Vodu manages to pop up in Apple's garden.

      5. Anonymous Coward
        WTF?

        eh?

        I can only assume you're saying that tongue in cheek....?

        http://news.progressivehome.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/144156-netflix_apple_tv.jpg

    2. Matt Gerrish

      Not apps, but XBMC

      XBMC is now running on the apple tv 2

      http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Install_XBMC_on_ATV2

      Seriously considering getting one now - a small £100 box under the TV instead of a full HTPC? yes please.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    TV

    Apple has some glorious (though expensive) monitors and they have entered the consumer space with the iPhone.... why not an actual Apple TV running iOS 4.3 ?

    Bang and Olufsen produce expensive, if stylish, TVs. There is an opportunity for another high-end player in this area.

  3. Rob Moir

    The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

    Can't say I'm sold on this. I like a great media centre that's really good at playing a decent array of media and a great games console that's really good at playing a decent array of games. I'd worry that a "jack of all trades" device will end up doing everything badly.

  4. The Indomitable Gall

    iPhone as controller... Wii too?

    If they're going to make AppleTV into a games machine with an iPod or iPhone as a controller, is the accelerometer sensitive enough to function like a Wiimote? Angry Birds II with a throwing action, anyone?

    1. LinkOfHyrule
      Happy

      the most hardened fanbois :-D

      Hang about - you are suggesting people throw their iPhones? I cant see the most hardened fanbois wanting to throw an Apple device (It just not natural to them) and I cant see the normal Apple customers wanting to throw their very expensive pieces of consumer electronics either (Yes Wiimotes arnt cheap but you don't ruin them by dropping or throwing them at the wall accidentally! - well that's debatable I guess)

      If they are going to go down this route, they need to come out with a dedicated games controller. Controllers will be treated like toys - its what they are - they will be thrown, dropped and even used as weapons against our fellow man during multilayer games. I don't think the iPhone can take that sort of punishment.

      Expect single button games controllers to make a come back any time soon - now in shiny white and with a glowing picture of a fruit on them!

  5. MinionZero
    Pint

    Changing the CPU etc..

    @"ditching the original model's Mac OS X derivative operating system and Intel processor, and replacing them with its A4 ARM chip and iOS."

    That's bad news for developers, as its another round of incompatibility to get past. But then again, at least Java programmers code can still work on the new system ... oh wait. ;)

    Cheers Apple. ;)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      re changing the CPU etc

      There's no bad news for devs as the original Apple TV didn't run apps. The new one is architecturally an iPod touch so no big deal to put apps already developed on it. Perhaps you should check your facts before posting.

  6. Jonathan White
    FAIL

    hmm..

    @MInionZero

    If it's games we're thinking of, the number of iOS games (and indeed games developers) dwarfs the number for Mac OS X by several orders of magnitude. Apple won't mind of OS X developers have to recode some stuff if it means they'll be able to get Angry Birds and Cut The Rope on it Day One.

    1. MinionZero
      Stop

      Good obedient minion...

      @Jonathan White: "Apple won't mind of OS X developers have to recode some stuff if it means they'll be able to get Angry Birds and Cut The Rope on it Day One."

      Said like a good obedient minion. You can't seem to see Apple did this to force developers via their sales system, wise up. If it was Java, it could be sold from anywhere. Any developer could sell it. No, Apple in true control freak fashion, moved nearer a way to control the distribution means on their platforms and that means limiting developers options to more approved Apple development tools and portals etc.. etc.. etc.. Its all about increasing control. Move the platform towards a more closed platform, nearer to it being like a console, and then they let you develop on it, for a cut of your profits.

  7. Sir Runcible Spoon

    Sir

    I already use an iPod touch just as a remote control for my Sonos sound kit, it works great.

    And before anyone says that it's an expensive remote, just see how much the dedicated Sonos remote is. 8-O

    1. JEDIDIAH
      Linux

      Suckers...

      Well, some people buy $300 remotes. They even buy them for the PC. My machines don't cost that much. It's kind of silly to pay that much just for a remote. Plus you might want to have more than one. Then there's always the problem of it getting dropped or broken.

  8. Peter H. Coffin
    FAIL

    iPad as a gaming controller?

    No thank you. I could probably imagine something worse for controlling games with, but it would probably have to have the ergonomics of the original NES controller, weigh at least three kg, and give the holder mild electric shocks.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Kinect

    As a Kinect owner I have to ask, what's a controller?

    1. g e

      Controller

      It's a handheld electronic device with buttons and joysticks on it that allows you to interact with the software.

      Or, in your case, a meatsack

    2. LinkOfHyrule
      Coat

      And...

      As a gamer, I have to ask - what's a Kinect?

      Na only joshing with ya, I remember that thing!

  10. HD Boy
    Thumb Up

    iOS gaming on OS X

    A few iOS games already are available on Mac OS X! See the "HD" versions of Chopper 2 and Pinball (the Pinball Remote App). They allow an iOS device to be used as a gamepad to wirelessly control a Mac version of these popular iOS Apps. Typically, you have to navigate your Mac browser to the game vendor's Web site and download a "Free" wireless server version of the game, though I'm sure these Mac Apps soon will become available in the new Mac "App" store.

    I've been using my iPhone to play these Apps from a sofa in the den for a few months now — on a Mac mini connected to a 58-inch plasma and surround sound system!

    The early, remote games work well and are fun, but you sometimes have to work through an occasional connectivity issue. These, and a few other games are early examples of how Mac and iOS gaming will merge.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      @HD Boy - Convergence

      Yep, I agree. I imagine one of the convergence features of Lion will be to allow it the full OS X client to run native IOS apps (Lion includes touch).

      It seems logical to start to allow users to use gaming applications on the desktop and mobile devices, Sony are heading that way, It's probably the case that MS are heading that way too (though I haven't personally picked up on it someone jump in and confirm it!) so why wouldn't Apple do the same?

      I have to say though that if I were any of those companies, I'd be most confident if I were Apple as their centre of gravity for gaming is mobile. The transition route Mobile>Desktop feels a lot less fraught than going Desktop>Mobile as Sony and MS would have to do.

      Interesting times...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    The stunning thing about Apple?

    It, the Apple that is, seems to take old technology, introduce it to the future with cross device partnership nothing short of excellent.

    I bet HP is regretting a lot (Pocket PC running WinCE 2003 was so almost there I feel sorry for them, HP that is)

  12. Richard Joseph
    Coat

    I really like the all-in-one Apple TV-TV idea...

    ....and they could call it, wait for it, wait for it:

    'iTV'

    well perhaps *not* in the UK ;-)

    That could be the start of another lawsuit (pssst, Cisco Systems own/ed the original 'iPhone' trademark, which they now 'share' with Apple).

    Strangely, I think Apple could/should win this potential trademark battle, ITV hasn't produced anything worth watching in a long, long, time.....

  13. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Cost

    Apple TV then buy an iPhone or an iPad. For the same money you could buy a PS3, Xbox and Wii.

    1. hexx

      not really

      most of the ppl who'd buy apple tv already have another iOS device

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      and and and

      and a phone and possibly a mobile gaming device.

      Forgive the pun, but let's compare Apples and apples ;-)

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