Email: If Apple made a console…

Hi Master M,

I don’t think I’ve seen you mention this idea.  If Apple made a (another) gaming console, who would make the games?  Apple, as far as I know, doesn’t make their own games like Nintendo, so Apple would be reliant on third parties.  But isn’t the main problem with the Game Industry today the third parties themselves?  Apple making a console would be no different than Sony or Microsoft making a console, in that all three companies would be relying on third party companies.  

It’s certainly possible some good third parties will wake up, start making good games, and blow everyone else out of the water, including Nintendo if Nintendo keeps up what they’re doing.  But that won’t have anything to do with Apple, unless Apple gets some exclusive right to that particular company.  Otherwise, it would also benefit Sony or Microsoft or whatever company that has third party games on it.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this idea on any message forum.  It just seems so simple I wonder if I’m missing something.
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You don’t hear it because these people assume video games operate in the same way as the Old Media of movies and music does.The makers of VCRs or Stereos do not need to own movie studios or music studios. However, the makers of game consoles do need to make their own video games.

Music and movies are not integrated with hardware. Music and movies originally exist without any hardware (concerts and movie theaters).

However, video games cannot exist without the hardware. They are integrated with the hardware they are designed. This fact is well known among video game collectors but unknown to everyone else. If you want to play Super Mario Brothers 3 in the proper way, you need to play it on the NES on the original hardware it was designed for. Playing an emulated version on the Virtual Console, on the Gameboy Advance, or Super Mario All-Stars is playing a facsimile of the game. The integrations of hardware and software creates a tactile feel that emulation of any sort cannot duplicate. This tactile feel is essential to the experience. Sure, you can play arcade games on a game console. But it just isn’t the same.

Apple is an integrated hardware and software company (which Apple fans love to remind us about). But Apple is not unique in this. Apple got their integrated hardware and software quality from Atari. What Apple did was change the software from games to firmware and applications (like spreadsheets). And from Atari, we began the fork in the road. One road leads to game consoles. The other road leads to personal computers.

You’re right that an Apple console would be no different than a Xbox or Playstation (Apple would have to buy game companies for their First Party software). Any games that appeared on the Apple console would appear everywhere else.

But here is what I find really interesting. The content of video games is copyrighted. Firmware and applications have no content to be copyrighted. The reason why Apple must keep putting out new hardware is because the software can easily be duplicated.

Apple doesn’t know how to create content. They don’t have to make movies or music in order to become a movie and music platform. But when it comes to video games outside PC gaming, you must be able to create your own video game content to drive momentum of your console.

People say Apple is ‘making inroads into gaming’. I don’t see that at all. I see Apple failing and desperately trying again (only to fail some more). Apple’s approach to gaming is to create app stores and sell games for a dollar or give them away for free. This isn’t premier gaming. This isn’t even disruptive gaming. This is ghetto gaming.

Apple is famous for being an absolute failure when it comes to PC gaming. PC gamers always felt sorry for Mac gamers (all five of them that existed). The people who today are declaring Apple to be any ‘success’ in handheld gaming are those who do not know the difference between PC gaming and console gaming and think they are the same. If gaming was actually valued on the iPhone, the games would be selling for much more than what they are.

What I think the crux of the issue is everyone refusing to recognize the origin of Apple. When people realize where Apple got its integrated hardware/software from Atari and that the difference between Apple and Atari is that Apple replaced games with applications, Apple’s failure to break into gaming really comes into focus.

If Apple wants to break into gaming, it needs to have in-house game studios instead of in-house application writers. But if Apple did that, Apple would no longer be Apple. Apple would become the Second Coming of Atari.