

Apple’s Long-Rumored Game Controller May Soon See The Light Of Day - acremades
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/29/apples-long-rumored-game-controller-may-soon-see-the-light-of-day/

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jpxxx
If I may repurpose an old comment of mine:

"The console industry used to sell high-end wedding cakes. Now they sell
wedding cakes, some sheet cakes, and occasionally a pre-boxed slice if there
are leftovers. These are your only options for snacking in the living room.
You order a wedding cake, go pick it up in a few days, and hope it tastes
good.

They are about to find out what happens when piping hot cookies are hand-
delivered in 30 seconds or less to the living room, for free.

The only thing Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have going for them right now is
that the iPhone and iPad are drawing away virtually all of Apple's not-
inconsiderable attention.

Here's how it will work: Apple will release a $99 controller. It'll look like
a SNES controller mated with an iPhone 3GS: 4" standard-resolution multitouch
screen, D-pad, four buttons, two shoulder buttons, and a Lightning port.
(Inside is NOBODY CARES. gyro, bluetooth, Wifi, iOS SOC, battery.) And,
naturally, it will be the least embarrassing looking item in your living room.

You'll take it out of the box, type in your Wifi password, log in to iCloud,
and THAT IS IT.

The Apple TV (of which there are millions already installed) leaps into
action. All the plumbing is silently set up, the App Store icon appears, a
free showpiece game immediately offers to install itself, and Apple connects a
half billion users to the television overnight.

Most of the Wii U's best controller ideas are co-opted, the overall controller
complexity is a scant third of anyone else's, it retains all the power of
touch controls, it requires no complicated setup whatsoever, all the game
state is cloud-backed, dozens of touch-resistant game genres suddenly find a
home in the lowest-walled garden of any shipping console, customers can add
more controllers if desired, and the whole panoply of mobile software can
infiltrate the last screen standing.

The Apple TV is a freaking trojan horse, if Apple wants it to be. Nobody else
has the UX to stave them off, or the ability to hit the price points Apple
can, or their sheer distribution power, or their sheer brand power, or
anything.

Free cookies. Not nut-and-raisin filled wedding cakes. Which one is your kid
going to reach for?"

~~~
IheartApplesDix
So what you're saying is now Apple can share in on the decline of console
gaming market?

What happens when 50 million people plug in an Apple controller that requires
little more investment then buying Apple stuff and plugging it in? You get a
bubble market of casual shovelware games that destroy the credibility of the
entire concept as a serious contender in the industry. You design a LCD (least
common denominator) peripheral with LCD UI and LCD functionality so you can
have a huge, market that couldn't care less about your product and can't wait
to find an exciting risky alternative. Sounds great for quarterly profits
though.

~~~
jpxxx
Well, we can all agree that the $69.99 title-in-a-box model has reached
something like saturation, yes? There's no reason to believe anyone wants to
enter this market, least of all Apple which years ago lost the knack for
selling software titles at $25+.

I think the future of consoles depends a lot upon how large the exploding
Freemium/Recurring models can grow. That pie is growing, and there's no reason
to believe it can't work in the living room as well as it does in the pocket.

So my argument is that Apple can have the biggest slice if they want it, and
that that slice alone may be worth more than Consoles As We Know Them.

~~~
jiggy2011
I don't know, COD , Skyrim, Halo etc still seem to be having healthy sales.

I don't see any reason that you couldn't have these titles on an Apple Console
though. But it would probably depend on Apple making deals with the
developers. I can see EA wanting their AAA titles to be listed on a special
shelf away from all of the dross.

~~~
jpxxx
Yeah, the AAA franchises are doing great, but they're still part of a stagnant
market that's selling into a market that doesn't see the value in what they
consume.

Apple would need to spend a fortune in hardware costs just to enable the
current expectations of AAA titles, and even then they wouldn't be bringing
anything to the table that Sony and MS aren't already.

~~~
jiggy2011
I think it might run the same risk that I think the OUYA does in that case.

Sony & MS will launch new consoles with some jaw dropping must have launch
titles to push sales to "hardcore gamers". At the same time they wait to see
which independent Apple/OUYA titles are becoming popular, approach the devs
and get ports for their consoles.

As the price for the next gen Sony/MS consoles drop the reasons for buying the
other consoles start to shrink because all of the best games are available on
the PS4 anyway.

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DesiGuy421
[http://www.loopinsight.com/2013/03/29/the-rumored-apple-
bran...](http://www.loopinsight.com/2013/03/29/the-rumored-apple-branded-
gaming-joypad/)

Settles that.

~~~
TillE
A denial about a completely new product is something I'd think Dalrymple could
easily get wrong. Unless he's actually talking to Tim Cook, he can't possibly
be aware of _everything_ Apple is doing.

~~~
runjake
Like him or not, he has excellent connections at Apple and has never been
wrong with his yeps and nopes. It's a sure bet he's right.

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atirip
Samsung: our Game Controller is long in the works. Some news outlet: Google is
rumored to be working hard on Android Game Controller, will be called Nexus G.

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hkmurakami
_> This patent from 2008 describes an accessory that wraps around a portable
electronic device with touchscreen (sound familiar?) and includes a standard
D-Pad and button_

Wasn't there a YC company that made _exactly_ this?

