Over the past few months, we’ve been seeing
rumors of Apple working on a gaming console,
which could apparently compete with the Playstation
5 and the Xbox Series X.
Now a lot of you guys are gonna laugh at that,
because gaming isn’t really Apple’s strong
suit.
But I’ve been digging through Apple’s
developer videos and I’m seeing Apple do
things that they’ve never done before in
terms of gaming, and then if you add certain
rumors and leaks that have been going around,
I’m convinced that Apple is gonna make a
huge push into gaming very soon!
So in this video, I’m gonna discuss the
current problem with gaming on Apple devices,
I’m gonna talk about this rumored console
and what I think it’ll end up being, I’m
gonna tell you why it finally makes sense
to expect Apple device gaming to make a huge
comeback, and I’m gonna reveal everything
I found in Apple’s developer videos that
lead me to believe that all of this will happen.
By far, the biggest problem with gaming on
Apple devices is that it just hasn’t been
worth the effort for a lot of game developers.
Of course, the gaming market for iPhone and
iPad is huge, and it’s been growing over
the years, but that’s just not the case
for the Mac and for the Apple TV.
In order for a game developer to bring their
game to the Mac or the Apple TV, they had
to build their games using the Metal framework,
and to do that, their entire team had to be
using Mac computers, so that’s a big investment
for a company that uses Windows machines for
their game development.
And if they did make that investment, they
would run into an issue where the market isn’t
big enough to make it worth it.
In this article from Fast Company, Raw Fury
Games created an Apple TV version of their
game, Kingdom: New Lands, and 5 months after
launch, they only sold about 600 units on
Apple TV compared to 54,000 for the iOS version.
Minecraft: Apple TV edition was released in
2016, but it was actually discontinued in
2018 so they could reallocate resources to
the platforms that their players use the most.
Only a couple of months ago, Valve ended SteamVR
support for macOS so they could focus on Windows
and Linux.
Back in January of this year, the developers
of Rocket league ended support for macOS and
Linus platforms because it was no longer viable
to maintain the game on those platforms.
So what we’re seeing is a trend of developers
ditching the Mac and the Apple TV, and the
main reason is that they have to spend a lot
of extra time updating and fixing bugs specifically
for those platforms.
But that’s not the only reason why developers
are avoiding these platforms. For example,
on the Apple TV, the Siri remote is incredibly
limiting and simply doesn’t work for a lot
of games.
Yes, other game controllers are supported,
but according to Gordon Van Dyke from Raw
Fury Games, not a lot of people buy additional
controllers for their Apple TV, so it kills
there ability to bring their games to that
platform.
So what can Apple do to fix this?
Well, a developer named Patrick Hogan told
Arstechnica that Apple needs to do three things
to fix gaming on the Apple TV.
1. Include a full-featured gaming controller
with every Apple TV.
2. Market the Apple TV as a gaming platform.
And 3. Spend money on funding exclusive games
for that platform.
And as far as the Mac, Apple needs to figure
out a way to finally make it worth it for
developers to bring games to the mac.
And based on everything I’ve seen in the
Apple developer videos, it’s obvious that
Apple is making some major moves toward fixing
these issues, releasing a new gaming console,
and making a massive push into the gaming
market.
It all started last year with a few very important
changes. The first was that Apple finally
brought PS4 and Xbox one controller support
to all of their Apple devices. And the iPad
Pro finally started getting some great games
that supported controllers like Fortnite and
Call of Duty Mobile.
At the same time, Apple released their cross-platform
Apple Arcade which works across all of their
platforms and of course, supports game controllers.
But this year is where Apple is going all
out.
For starters, they’re bringing keyboard
and mouse gaming to the iPad for game categories
like first person shooters and MOBA games.
This is gonna play into gaming on the Mac
which I’ll get into in just a minute.
Gaming on Apple devices is limited to using
the Metal framework, and for the first time
ever, Apple has opened up their Metal developer
tools to be used in Windows 10, so essentially,
game developer studios that use PCs for their
entire team can now finally build games for
Apple Devices without having to invest into
a full set of Mac computers.
Apple is also going big on game controller
support this year, adding support for new
controllers like the Xbox elite wireless series
2.
And they’re adding a ton of new sensor support,
like haptic feedback, rumble, new motion sensor
support including the Jyroscope, PS4 controller
light bar support, battery level support,
a new API which automatically switches between
controllers on the Apple TV, and the most
important thing of all, game controller input
remapping support.
So basically, Apple is setting up full-fledged
controller support for the first time ever.
Now yes, all of that new support sounds great,
but how is Apple gonna convince developers
to start making games for all of their platforms?
Well, it all comes down to their new Apple
Silicon.
As you all know by now, Apple’s Macs are
going to transition away from intel processors
to using their own custom built ARM64 chips
instead.
The most important benefit in terms of gaming
is this:
So basically, on day 1, Apple Silicon macs
will be able to natively run iPad and iPhone
apps. Don’t believe me? Listen to this:
And if you’re wondering how a touch-based
app will work on a Mac, Apple will take care
of it automatically.
So basically, the point that I’m trying
to make is that every iOS or iPad game should
be able to run on Apple Silicon Macs, with
very minimal changes.
And if a game supports a mouse and keyboard
on the iPad, it’ll automatically gain the
same support on the Mac.
And if you’re wondering about how a game
built for an iPhone or iPad UI will run on
a Mac, Apple has that covered as well.
Last year, Apple introduced SwiftUI which
allows you to create user interfaces across
all of Apple’s devices all at once.
So now, instead of learning different UI code
for each platform, Apple has consolidated
it all into one, which is SwiftUI. So you
can build one app for one platform and it’s
now many times easier to bring it to the rest
of Apple’s platforms, since it shares a
lot of the same code.
And on top of that, in March, Apple finally
added Universal Purchase for Mac Apps, so
when you buy an app or pay for an in-app purchase,
it works across all Apple platforms by purchasing
it just once.
And this year, Apple has fully redesigned
the Game Center with new features like tracking
achievements, leaderboards and profiles, and
it works across all of Apple’s platforms.
They’ve also made updates to ReplayKit to
the Mac which allows you to have in-app screen
recording, screen capture and even live streaming
of your gameplay, and it even works with buttons
on game controllers.
So what I’m ultimately leading to is that
for the first time ever, every Apple device
runs on Apple Silicon.
This is huge because a game developer can
create a game just one time and use SwiftUI
to make minimal changes to the code so that
the game looks great on every Apple device,
including the iPhone, the iPad, the Mac and
the Apple TV.
And when you buy or download a game, you get
to play it on any Apple device, including
your in-game purchases.
And the updated Universal Game Center means
that your in-game progress can be saved across
all of your platforms.
And since each of them now has full-fledged
controller support, you can use one controller
to play them all.
And since all of the platforms run on Apple
Silicon, online multiplayer cross-play between
these platforms is possible on third-party
games just like it already is with Apple Arcade.
What this basically means is that the gaming
market for each Apple platform is gonna be
merged into one massive gaming market.
This is gonna have huge benefits for gaming
on the Mac, since it’ll instantly have access
to a massive library of mobile games.
The most important change of all is that game
developers will no longer have to create,
update and fix bugs for multiple platforms.
They simply do it once and do minimal code
adjustments for each platform, making it take
much less time than ever before.
Now a lot of you are gonna say that mobile
gaming isn’t real gaming, but what you need
to understand is that this transition is just
the beginning.
Because the different Apple platforms will
be merging in terms of game development, there
is gonna be more incentive than ever before
for game developers to create new demanding
titles for Apple devices.
And because Apple’s chips are becoming increasingly
more powerful with each year, and Apple’s
Metal 2 is now adding high-end features like
Ray Tracing, developers can now create really
great AAA-title games for Apple devices.
So basically, all of these new features that
Apple has added over the past year, and especially
at this year’s WWDC, are signaling a massive
move from Apple to reenter the gaming market,
so with all of that said, let me show you
guys how I think Apple is gonna handle this
big push into gaming.
Sometime later this year, they’re gonna
announce a new Apple TV with a very powerful
Apple Silicon chip that is gonna have a dedicated
cooling solution, and they’re gonna market
it as a gaming device.
**screenshots of Apple TV leaks**
There’s a good chance they’re also gonna
release their own Apple-branded gaming controller
which could be included or bundled with the
new Apple TV, and it’ll support every Apple
device like the iPhone and the Mac.
At the same time, they’ll show off how switching
to Apple Silicon has allowed them to enable
crossplay multiplayer which allows you to
play the same game on any Apple device whether
you’re at home or on the go.
They’ll also talk about how it’s easier
than ever for developers to create, update
and fix bugs for each of their platforms all
at the same time instead of having to dedicate
lots of time and resources to support all
of the different platforms.
They could even work with a major AAA game
developer to bring a massive popular title
to Apple Devices to help market their new
push for gaming.
And with time, as gaming on the Mac and the
Apple TV continues to grow alongside iOS gaming,
more and more developers will start to bring
their games over to Apple platforms.
And thanks to the advancements in processor
performance and Apple Silicon technology,
Apple devices will be able to run more powerful
games than ever before.
So there you guys have it! That’s how I
think Apple is gonna make a huge push into
the Gaming market starting later this year.
If you disagree with me, let me know your
thoughts down below in the comments, and if
you enjoyed this video, go ahead and tap the
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