You know what really disappointed me about WWDC this year? It was that the Apple TV wasn’t getting its long-awaited refresh, and we have to wait even longer for a new Apple TV with potential gaming features. But, as much as I want such a device, if only because I’d love to replace my 2nd generation Apple TV with something that can output 1080p and maybe run Sling natively, I don’t know if the idea makes sense right now.
There are two big reasons why I want gaming on a TV. One is that there are so many mobile exclusives that are controller-friendly and deserve to be played on the big screen. I’d love to jump from iPhone to iPad to Apple TV, all with the same experience and progress syncing over. That would require a functional iCloud, but hey, let me dream. The other big reason is that I think it would jump-start premium games on iOS. Free-to-play is definitely the dominant payment model of the near future, but paid games deserve to be a bigger niche than they currently are right now. And perhaps putting them on TV would help justify more people buying them.
Of course, TV gaming powered by mobile OSes has existed in some form for a while now. There was the ballyhooed Ouya. Let me tell you how disliked the Ouya was. I threw a party shortly after Samurai Gunn came out so that people could get together and play the local multiplayer game. At one point, me and a couple other people were talking, and we lamented that we couldn’t play Towerfall because it wasn’t out on PC yet. It was brought up that an Ouya and controllers were available. No one really got excited about doing so, though; it was gonna be work to set it up, and maybe it felt beneath us. We’d rather not play it than, you know, play the Ouya. That’s how rough that trainwreck was. Elsewhere, Amazon’s positioned the Fire TV as a gaming system as well as a streaming entertainment box. Games play a major role in the Android TV ecosystem, with devices such as the Nexus Player and Nvidia Shield console. And hey, at worst, Android actually has native HDMI video output, so any game with controller support can be enjoyed on the TV
And that’s kind of where we see the first hint of why mobile TV gaming hasn’t taken off: the controller support See, Android’s had game controller support since 2010, when Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0, was introduced. You could plug an Xbox 360 controller into an Android device and use it to navigate the OS interface, and eventually Bluetooth gamepads became widely available if you were looking for one. But gamepad support for games where it makes sense on Android has been far from ubiquitous. In fact, many developers didn’t know that Android had native gamepad support!
I blame this in large part to iOS not having native gamepad support until 2013. iOS is still the dominant cultural force in mobile gaming, even if Android has more users. Developers often wouldn’t have any reason to think about gamepad support if Android development was secondary. And the rise of MFi controllers has been choppy at best: the initial batch was mediocre, to where a decent full-size Bluetooth controller took a year to release. And even then, with TV gaming being a suboptimal experience, the prices of good controllers being at least a $50 entry point, you can see where the catch-22 situation develops. Developers don’t see controller support as a must because not enough folks have controllers. Consumers don’t feel the need to buy controllers if enough games don’t support them.
So, I can’t figure out if TV gaming is ultimately viable or not because Apple hasn’t done it yet. There are many features and hardware types that don’t take off until Apple makes them viable. Smartwatches were an interesting concept until the Apple Watch joined the fray and outsold the competition. Flat design didn’t feel like it was really a full-blown trend until Apple went flat with iOS 7, despite Windows Phone and Android already doing so. Android often has features a year or two before iOS does, but it just doesn’t feel like a ‘normal’ part of the mobile experience until Apple does it. So, part of me thinks that mobile TV gaming hasn’t taken off yet because Apple hasn’t done it yet. And an Apple TV with an App Store could make that happen.
Remember that at least at launch, an Apple TV with game support would have plenty of supporters. We saw with the Apple Watch just how much developers and publishers are willing to support Apple endeavors. No one had a clue if Apple Watch apps would be viable or even if they would have a point to their existence, especially with games. A video game console is a far less risky endeavor. Plus, many games would likely work with little effort, especially if they boast controller support already.
Of course, TV gaming might be still a ways away from viability no matter what Apple does. The consoles aren’t dead…yet. The Ouya’s problem is that it was announced at a time of great uncertainty, before the Xbox One and PS4 were announced. In August 2012, the Ouya was a great idea. In June 2013, after the announcement of those systems, and with the Ouya’s previously top-notch hardware now seeming outdated? Yeah, it was doomed to failure. This is especially so when you consider that all the console manufacturers started to open themselves up to indie developers. Plus, the sales numbers on Ouya games weren’t convincing any developers to release for it.
So, it’s quite possible that a game-playing Apple TV is just something the world does not need right now, as much as I want it. Getting apps on the TV would be great; I’d love to just run Sling on my Apple TV, instead of through other solutions, because the Apple TV works well. But who is going to replace their second-generation Apple TV if it still runs Netflix and HBO Now just fine? And maybe TV gaming needs the right introduction, and the power of 2016’s devices would be better than 2015’s, and maybe the console market will be just destabilized enough for Apple to make the proper incursion. Or maybe the rumors are true and we see the new Apple TV later this year, and it’s playing games. I’m ready for it. But maybe the world isn’t.
