Is Apple the Future of Gaming

The economy is in the slumps. All of us, or at least a bunch of us, are feeling it. Obviously we hope it gets better and statistics would suggest that over time it will, but for now our economical situation is not the greatest it's ever been. I don't want to be all doom and gloom and say we're teetering on the brink of a "Borderlands" landscape where we're all (literally) fighting to survive, but I will say many of us have had to cut the fluff out of our budgets and sometimes video game spending is the first to go.

If you read the headlines at Game Informer or any other video game industry news outlet, no doubt you've seen the stories about the financial crunch that some of our developers and publishers are going through. Just off the top of my head without looking up the actual stories, I recall reading about THQ suffering some pretty major losses that have affected titles they have (or had) in development. And it's not just limited to the small or medium fish; the big fish are taking their lumps too. Sony is reporting major losses, and although you can contribute a lot of this to the Playstation Network outage and subsequent costs associated with the recovery initiative, the truth is a financial loss to the company will certainly affect the consumer as well as we see higher prices, projects shelved, support diminished and/or some other unforeseen consequence as the company attempts to recoup some of its losses. Will it affect development of the next generation Playstation or the recently announced PS Vita? Nobody can predict with absolute certainty, but at this point I'd say it's quite possible.

Right alongside Sony is Nintendo, another big fish feeling the pain and suffering of financial woes. Nintendo has taken a double Knock Out punch that has left them seeing Stars. First, there was the abysmal reception of the Wii-U at E3 that sent their stocks tumbling, followed up by the somewhat surprising price cut of the 3DS that can only be a product of poor sales. It's interesting, the 3DS, in all of its technological wonderment, appears to be failing miserably. Honestly, besides what I've read at Game Informer, I've never seen, heard or talked to anyone that has one. I know they're out there, I just haven't run into one. There are a few sources reporting dizziness as the culprit for poor sales and lukewarm reception, but could a more likely explanation be that consumers / gamers are reluctant or simply can't afford to spend $250+ (prior to the price reduction, the cost of the DS and a game would put you out closer to $300) for Nintendo's latest high tech gadget? Again, it's impossible to say with absolute certainty but it is quite possible.

If there is one company that has weathered the turbulent economic storm with seemingly impervious affect, that's Apple.

Apple, with their iconic iPhone and PC tablet slaying iPad, is becoming a force to be reckoned with. As recently reported, Apple is officially the world's largest smartphone maker and has more cash on hand than our own federal government (assuming you're a U.S. resident).

TechCrunch has the story, which states that Apple has come from being near default just 15 years ago (that's only 1996!) and now has more real money than the U.S. government. At least partially to blame is the record-breaking success Apple enjoyed during the third quarter of 2011, in which it pulled down better than $28 billion in revenue and moved 29 million iOS devices, including 9.25 million iPads. Just about the rest were iPhones, which drove the lion's share of Apple's revenue gains.

There's no doubt that the iPhone and iPad are encroaching in on portable gaming territory. With Sony and Nintendo already reeling from their financial losses and Apple making money hand over fist, this situation very well might escalate to a point where Apple is the King of the (portable gaming device) Throne.

Now, I don't think I'm any kind of expert analyst or industry leader, but this is a subject I've blogged about before (Apple, their current success and future role in the video game industry) and it seems to be getting closer to becoming a reality.

In my previous blog on this topic, I included discussion on Valve's decision to support Apple by releasing Mac versions of all of their products, including the feature rich and very popular Steam client, which for those that don't know, is akin to Xbox Live or the PSN.

Did you know you can play Portal 2, World of Warcraft and Duke Nukem Forever on a Mac?

Did you know you Bioshock Infinite is scheduled to be released on the Mac?

If Apple's global conquest of the portable gaming market continues unchallenged, could we potentially see the demographic of gamer using Apple appliances transcend from casual gamers playing Angry Birds on an iPad to hardcore gamers?

I will tell you that I consider myself a hardcore gamer who loves Angry Bird and after playing it on an iPad I instantly wanted one.

But hardcore gamers won't be satisfied (at least not in the long term sense) with gaming on the iPhone or iPad; they might be temporarily amused and entertained, but that enthusiasm will be short lived as the gravitational pull towards a more powerful system draws them back in.

Hardcore gamers require hardcore gaming machines.

Is Apple satisfied with all of the money they're making off of the smart phone and tablet PC market or can we ever expect the vicious rumors we've heard over the years of them producing a video game console of ever going to come true?

Apple has demonstrated the propensity for creating innovative technology that captivates and mesmerizes even the most hardcore and tech savvy geeks; they have implemented a very profitable and successful business model that focuses on a low price point and quantity of sales, a scheme that has resulted in a real rags to riches testimony for the company; and they are branching out and developing relationships with the biggest names in the video game industry including companies like Ubisoft, Valve, Electronic Arts, Blizzard, Activision, 2K Games and a whole library full of others.

Is there an iBox or an iStation on the horizon?

Nobody can predict with absolute certainty, but anything is possible.

If that ever happens, everything changes.