Apple game console by 2013, says analyst

Stephen Withers
Friday, 17 July 2009 04:40

Opinion and Analysis

Apple will add games to the Apple TV in 2012 or 2013, an analyst has predicted.

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan, believes Apple's goal is to turn the Apple TV into an entertainment and internet hub.

It's one thing to take a game console and then add the ability to play videos (essentially the route Microsoft and Sony have followed with the Xbox 360 and PS3), but trying to reverse that order is likely to require a significant upgrade to the hardware.

In an interview with IndustryGamers, Pachter suggested Apple's strategy was to test the water with games for the iPhone and iPod touch (something that's proved successful so far) and then move into console games.

Pachter predicted the launch of a game-enabled Apple TV would happen in 2012 or 2013.

"It's possible that they [will] open the architecture and go for an Apple TV 'App Store' to allow anyone to develop games. We'd get cool stuff like World of Goo or Geometry Wars, but probably not super cool stuff like Gears of War until they bought a few developers." he was quoted as saying.

Given the success of the App Store - 1.5 billion downloads in one year - the first part of that statement seems a reasonable guess. One negative issue could be that you'd expect console-style games to be bulkier than those for handhelds, so the monthly download limits imposed by ISPs in various markets could put a crimp in demand.

Still, some ISPs have deals with Apple that put the iTunes Store into their 'free zone', so that's not an insurmountable problem.

But what about buying one or more game developers? See page 2.