
Google And Apple May Bring Us A Console War We Didn't See Coming - drone
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/06/28/google-and-apple-may-bring-us-a-console-war-we-didnt-see-coming/
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baggachipz
"It’s hard to imagine Google and Apple not delivering a product with ten
thousand percent more refinement, so it may be the case the Ouya won’t be long
for this world."

L O fucking L. Especially in Google's case, their MO is to always throw the
half-baked product out onto market, call it "beta" for 5 years, and make it
good eventually. That's not bad in itself, but the author has no idea what
they're talking about. Apple will start with a small, lacking-functionality
("on purpose") product, have it be incredibly closed, and polish it up for the
second release (if any). Judging by their history with Apple TV, I wouldn't
count on a homerun here either.

Did Forbes hire a 12-year-old fanboy to write this?

~~~
myko
Wouldn't Android and Google TV/Nexus Q be Google's foray into this space?
Seems about right on schedule for a homerun on their part.

Apple TV doesn't need much to become a huge hit. Open up the SDK and the App
Store, allow control of games with iPhone/iPad and with a good performance
boost it certainly has potential.

~~~
baggachipz
Google TV is still a steaming pile (I've owned one for a while now), and Apple
TV has no industry support. It's just an expensive Roku with fewer
channels/apps. As others have said, Google stands to gain nothing from this,
especially when other manufacturers are already making an Android console.
Apple could, but they have been rudderless since ol' Steve went.

~~~
sandis
How is Apple TV "just an expensive Roku"? $99 certainly is not a high price
point. Not to mention that Apple TV actually costs $0.99 less than Roku 3.

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tmzt
Well first I would argue that we did see this coming: AAA games make money but
so do casual and free-to-play games. Wii established the precedent, and follow
on devices such as the Ouya expand the market for console devices for casual
games. Also, Roku 2 shipped a version with a game remote and Angry Birds.

My concern is that it is too early for Google to introduce an Android gaming
console, without establishing a standard for games to be developed against.
The first Ouya's have sold out (to the chagrin of the presale buyers), but
customers don't need the confusion of multiple incompatible consoles at this
stage. Having a different market application is probably fine, but the
developers need to be able to publish to multiple markets and still customize
the games for the for the console they are targeting.

I believe that actions taken by Google at this stage could prevent Android
gaming consoles from becoming established, and they should be willing to defer
to the first mover, Ouya, in order to build an economy of compatible Android
gaming consoles later.

~~~
simonh
What's in it for Google?

There's always been a reasonable argument that it benefits Google to have a
diverse mobile device ecosystem, in which open standards compliant browsers
and apps that can access Google services are a baseline feature. Their
nightmare scenario was a world of locked down mobile device platforms with
browsers hard wired into proprietary web portals and services that cut them
out of the loop.

TV is a different medium though. It's useless as a web browser platform and
Google app style services have never worked will on them either. The control
interface is just too clumsy. So as a general web and services access platform
it's not that attractive.

What TV is good at is video presentation and games. Google's never going to
make any money on games, either on mobile or on a TV platform. They do have
youtube though, so that's really the only viable route they have towards
revenue on the TV.

The problem is, nobody making an Android based TV device has any incentive to
include a youtube service on it except Google. If Samsung say produced an
Android based TV device, what's in it for them to support a Youtube app?
Better to strike a revenue sharing deal with Netflix, Hulu, HBO, etc. They
could revenue share with Youtube, but then Google is only getting a slice of
the revenue, instead of the whole lot from Google's own TV device.

Google is already getting squeezed out of their own Android ecosystem by
companies like Samsung and Amazon rolling their own default apps and services
for their devices. On an open Android platform on the TV, that effect would be
considerably magnified.

~~~
Pxtl
Google makes money off the Play Store, I imagine; a TV is a good Play Store
client.

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programminggeek
Um, if Apple makes apps available for the Apple TV and can nail the user
experience, they might really have something. A $100 Apple TV with $1-5 games
and a lot of free to play would be such a better deal for most consumers than
the $500 consoles with $60-70 games.

Also, there is a window for a Steam box to do well too.

OUYA might not be getting rave reviews now, but I think it's going to grow
into an interesting niche for sure.

~~~
untog
Both Google and Apple have an interesting controller too- smartphones. Games
running on an AppleTV and controlled via an iPhone seem like a pretty decent
concept.

~~~
programminggeek
The smartphone is not the same as a proper controller with tactile feedback.

~~~
untog
No it isn't. But it is free. And people have already demonstrated that they're
more than happy to use smartphones as controllers, by downloading games and
playing them.

~~~
splawn
Yeah, but when you play them you are looking down at the same surface that the
game is on. Its different when you are looking up at a different screen. I
tried this out a few years back with an ipod touch and a vid cable and I found
the games unplayable.

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gmu3
I think it is a little unfair to oversimplify the Ouya to just indicating
"people were indeed interested in a cheap console that plays phone games on
their TV." In addition, one of Ouya's biggest draws was its openness which
Google and Apple will have a harder time competing with than just releasing a
cheap console with better polish.

~~~
megablast
You really think many people care about openness? People care about $99
consoles, and $1 games.

~~~
pezh0re
As someone who purchased the Ouya during their kickstarter, the openness was a
huge deal to me. It's the same thing that makes me long for a Valve produced
Steambox. Give me something that I can tear apart (both hardware and software)
and do my own thing with it.

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mullingitover
My take on this, and maybe I'm wrong, is that Apple and Google have some
really cool knives in development, and they're hoping to succeed with them
when they jump into the long-running console industry gunfight.

~~~
embolism
Bringing knives to a nerf-gun fight.

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zeckalpha
"Google has now set its sights on making its own Android-based video game
console. The kicker? This is supposed to be in response to Apple doing the
very same thing."

Who knew Apple would ever have an Android-based device?

~~~
jere
_Zing_

>I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this
wrong. I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm
willing to go thermonuclear war on this.

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socialist_coder
Apple announced their controller standard as well so we will see more and more
iOS games come out that support the controller.

I have been saying this same thing for about 2 years now- the age of consoles
is almost over. A Sony/MS box is not going to be the thing that delivers your
living room entertainment, it will be a mobile device, ipad, or set top box
from that same ecosystem.

Disc based games need to die but Sony/MS won't let them quite yet.
Android/Apple are coming into the living room gaming arena from a completely
different perspective that fits better into the current times. 100%
downloadable, integrated with your smart phone / tablet, no more 5 year
product cycles, etc. The advantages for being able to just ignore 3
generations of past consoles and come up with something completely new are
huge.

Now we just need to see what the Steam Box is going to do.

~~~
jmduke
_Disc based games need to die but Sony /MS won't let them quite yet._

No, the gamer demographic won't let them die.

Microsoft had a push in the right direction with the moves they were
experimenting with for the Xbox One: unfortunately, they had to backpedal on
them because people were too outraged.

~~~
anthonycerra
I disagree. MS didn't explain the value prop well and weren't courageous
enough to take a stand. If they wanted to get rid of discs, they should've
done so. Discs and downloadable content are two completely different
paradigms. It's no doubt that MS wants to go the Steam route, but by mixing
the "rules" for downloadable content with physical discs, they made a huge
error.

Gamers didn't see the XB1 as a move towards disc-less consoles. They saw it as
additional rules to their current disc-based paradigm.

Removing HDDs and optical drives from laptops was a bold and risky move by
Apple, but it worked. MS had the chance to show leadership in consoles, but
chose to play both sides instead.

~~~
socialist_coder
Exactly. MS failed in the PR battle. Completely and miserably failed. They had
a great idea and its unfortunate they caved in so easily.

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coldcode
Forbes never sees anything coming, or even stuff already here. We should stop
paying attention to them.

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yalogin
If (when) Google develops the console, they are developing the software for it
as well. What is stopping Ouya, Roku or Samsung from integrating this directly
into their hardware and circumvent the need for an additional box altogether?
This is not a console war between Apple and Google, more competition between
Apple and Android since I think again the big winner will be Samsung here.
Also its not a war but just a continuation of what's going on in the mobile
space.

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Zigurd
The real market opportunity is games that are fun.

You do not need to realistically model blood and brain-matter splattering or
how sweaty arm-hair behaves on athletes in order to have fun.

And it's not a hardcore vs. casual dichotomy, either. Exploitative in-game
purchases in casual games are as bad as all the bloody war games.

