On a list of history’s greatest bummers in the gaming industry, the way Apple played their cards with the Apple TV has to be somewhere near the top. We spent years speculating what a game changer it would be if Apple added the ability for third party developers to create games for the Apple TV. We weren’t alone either, industry heavy hitters like Valve’s Gabe Newell recognized the potential that Apple was sitting on. Back in 2011, while on a panel, he said, “I suspect Apple will launch a living room product that redefines people’s expectations really strongly and the notion of a separate console platform will disappear." As details started to emerge on the absolute earliest of official iOS game controllers, pundit across the internet were connecting the dots that Apple was about to make a huge play in the living room that would change everything.
In September of 2015, Apple revealed the 4th generation Apple TV, and with it, tvOS. For the first time, third party developers could freely release their own apps on the Apple TV App Store. Unfortunately, and we would later hear rumors that this was a policy change made at the absolute last second, all games and apps on the Apple TV would need to be played with the Siri remote. Apple made some half-hearted attempts to position the 4th generation Apple TV as a gaming device, but the controller situation was so absurd that the only games that were even that playable were simple iOS ports that could be played with often laggy touch or tilt controls.
Over time Apple would relax these restrictions and allow developers to release games that required MFi controllers to play, but by that time, the damage was already done. Late last year Apple teamed up with SteelSeries to do a Apple TV bundle which included a SteelSeries Stratus MFi controller and a download code for the Apple TV Minecraft for $40, which was a ridiculous value, but far too little far too late. As of September 24th, Minecraft for the Apple TV was discontinued:
The 10 year old mentioned it on Sunday. Didn’t see the splash screen then but here it is… pic.twitter.com/XYQ2TirzM7
— mac-interactive 🇬🇧🇪🇺🌍🌌 (@macinteractive) October 9, 2018
It really goes to show just how few people were even playing Minecraft on the Apple TV too, as this news is only breaking this morning, even though the game has been discontinued for over two weeks now (with the message presumably popping up before then). Historically, Minecraft has been the gold standard among gamers for what constitutes a “real" gaming platform because it’s a game almost everyone is interested in playing. Even Minecraft coming to the Switch was a big deal, as the game has close to 100 million monthly active players still.
The fact that so few people are playing Minecraft on the Apple TV that Mojang is pulling the plug on the project is unbelievably depressing- Particularly if you were around for all the initial speculation. As the iOS App Store was skyrocketing in popularity, it seemed reasonable to wonder what might happen if Apple did the same in the living room. A few years later, we have our answer: Following a series of incredibly confusing decisions by Apple, one of the most popular games in the world can’t find enough people to play it on the platform to even be worth supporting.
With Apple’s current stock price, it’s hard to argue they aren’t doing things well in an overall sense, but when you stack up all these little things like the Apple TV, the iOS 11 App Store redesign, the way Apple allowed the freemium giants to take over the App Store (effectively killing what was the hottest and most creative platform for indie devs), and so much more, it’s mind-blowing how much potential Apple walked away from. I’m not sure who you even blame for this either, as I know inside of each of these departments at Apple there are incredibly passionate people working on each of these projects. No one on the Apple TV team ever had a meeting where they decided, “You know what, let’s make gaming on the Apple TV bomb."
But, I suppose we live in pretty depressing times anyway, so what’s one more thing.
I really wanted gaming on Apple TV to work. I wanted ports of all my favorite classic games, and iCloud sync so I could continue my save files on my iPad / iPhone.
But that was before the Switch. Now I just want all my games on there.
We're on the same page.
It’s amazon what a fumble apples made of it all as really with an appleTV, iCloud saves and iPhone they effectively had a switch type setup long before the switch was actually a thing - you could game out and about on the iPhone then when you got home, load the same save on the appleTV and continue - Nvidia shows with the shield range how to encourage developers to make AAA games for Android, if Apple had done the same, well, it’d be healthy gaming platform with minimal effort on their part
Just put fortnite on their and problem solved
This is something apple should make happen.
I don't think that would really save it. Everyone already has something that plays Fortnite, and pretty much anything will play it better than Apple TV.
If that's what you think, but it will be the cheapest way to play it. Xbox PS4 phones cost more than apple tv
Apple has never pushed gaming to the forefront of their marketing agenda. It has and always will be a side note to Apple (a mention here and there) until someone higher up decides different. They’re much more interested in the fashion / visual design of their products. They make a ton of profit with what they prioritize so who am I to tell them any different.
I wish they would put more resources publicly towards gaming since gaming and the App Store are very popular despite Apples best efforts. Their “appocalypse” ad during one of the keynotes a while back tells you all you need to know about their position towards the “apple gamer”.
Side note: Not saying they shouldn’t have made 64 bit mandatory but they could have handled it with much more class then what they showed by creating a stupid ad mocking people who put a ton of money into their App Store.
If it wasn’t for the gaming I wouldn’t be mainly an iPhone user. Gaming on an iPhone is a better overall experience.
Gaming on AppleTV to me is a bonus, not the defining reason that I have one. I don't personally use it, however it seems to me the way forwards is to work with Valve, Sony, and the upcoming XBox cloud thingy, Shadow, and all the streaming services out there to get apps on AppleTV so that it becomes a gaming machine with all those services and not one defined by the software that exists exclusively for it.
There are a lot of games gone: Geometry Wars, Skylanders..
Disney Infinity left the Apple TV shortly after it came out.
Don't know if Guitar Hero is still supported...
Really sad!
I like having Steppy Pants, Crossy Road, and Pac-Man 256 on the AppleTV. More would be nice, but that's honestly enough.
As a developer with a game on IOS and AppleTV i agree it's been a missed opportunity. It's too bad because based on my testing the AppleTV 4k is a real powerhouse compared to the previous version.
The fact that the Apple TV didn't just ship with iOS and automatically work with all of your apps with controller support is really dumb.
A real shame how Apple never supported games well on Apple TV. This is one of the rare times I regret buying an Apple product. I really hoped my huge iOS game library would be waiting for me on the big screen whenever I wanted.
Back to Steam and PS4 gaming on the TV for me then. And iPad gaming is still where I'll mostly play my stuff.
damn this sucks! I think part of this may have been that you had to re-purchase the game on tvOS even if you have it on iOS. At 4 times the price for the TV version, it hardly seemed worth it when you could just airplay or continue playing on iPad. It's like when developers used to charge again for an iPad version of a game.. Personally I'm not going to pay again, I feel like the Apple TV is the same platform as my phone and ipad (I know you could argue it's not, but that's just how it feels to me given everything else is so seamless) so I never bother to buy a game again if it shows up on the TV store. If the game supports both I'll play it on the TV though
Apple, it's never too late.
Partner with some great game developers and bring back some life to tvOS gaming :(
Hope not as I am playing some great games on it like Dandara, Inside, Forma.8, Evoland 2, the Alto games, Suzy Cube, Transistor, and Morphite. Also looking forward to Sky assuming it ever gets released.
Apple screwed the pooch hard here. I was a very dedicated iOS gamer but with the the fizzle of Bioshock and later the 64bitpocalypse, I stopped giving them money. They seem to see gaming as a disposable pastime.
Now I have a Switch, I haven't looked back. A shame, but I suppose they aren't a company that desperate for money so it's something that they didn't bother capitalizing on. If anything, Apple these days seems bloated on it's success and is lacking direction.
I hate to sound like a revolving record, but when Steve Jobs left this world, any kind of innovation he brought to the company also left Apple.
Is there a way work around to download this and install it on the apple tv somehow? I paid for the iOS version so it could show as "purchazed", right? What a pain.