Introduction

Out of all the products Apple makes, the AppleTV is the black sheep. This little media box, basically an underpowered mac mini running Front Row, was Apple’s second little foray into the living room; the first being the Airport Express, another neglected child.

Steve Jobs admitted as much, calling the AppleTV a “hobby”. Of course, direction-less products tend not to go anywhere, that is axiomatic. Apple’s strengths have never been in innovating a market as they are not quite that entrepreneurial. Rather they reinvent post-nascent to mature product markets, eliminating cruft and flaws. Whether it is MP3 players or personal computers or mobiles, they understand that perfection is an ongoing process that requires a steady hand, strong vision, but also some beautifully timed bold leaps. Therefore, I proffer a suggestion for the AppleTV, a suggestion that would reap dividends for the Mac platform as a whole, while keeping the more experimental nature of the device.

It is time for a bold leap into another market… That hypercompetitive, cut-throat gaming console market.

The Market

The gaming market is a mess. I would suggest that there are two sub-markets: the hardcore gamers and everyone else. The Xbox 360, PS3 and computers all vie with one another for the hardcore gamers with the occasional play for the “everyone else market”, and the Wii has gone the other way, aiming for the casual gamer, at which it has had outstanding success.

But the split is an artificial one. There is no reason why a gaming system can’t be friendly to use, deep with features, and appealing to both audiences. And Apple, with the AppleTV, can be the one to show us the way.

If there is one gaming system that shares a similar philosophy with Apple, it is the Wii. It is relatively easy to use; possesses a lovely, if slow, interface; and dares the beginnings of an advanced, gesture-based user interface. Where it all falls apart is Nintendo’s generally piss-poor networking experience.

The Xbox 360 has a somewhat busy interface, a reasonably good online interface, and excellent online matchmaking.

The Rules

Go right now and try and buy an Xbox. Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you get back in about four hours with your head full of the confusing permutations of configuration. Did you choose an Elite? Did you get the “Go Big” package with the Elite? Does that Elite possess a Falcon chip, or did you decide it would be better to wait for Jasper? Or maybe you got an Arcade, or a “Go Pro” package. Which one is which again?

Now go buy a Wii. Well, that was simple. One system, no weird bundles, no choices in hard drives, no confusion. Sound familiar? Choice is bad. Especially when the base system is an under-featured pile of crap designed to squeeze more money out of those trying not to spend more.

Rule One:

There shall be only one… configuration.

Now you have both systems, so let us go get some games. Pick two roughly comparable games, like Halo 3 and Metroid Prime III. They are both FPSs, showcase AAA titles, and they both have the number three in the title. Play both for a few minutes each. Which one, after you got used to the controls, did you find yourself contorting your body around? Which one so immersed you that you lost yourself in it?

Yes the Wii control system is just that much better. Of course, I expect Apple to do it better.

Rule Two:

Minority Report was a bad movie. But gesture-based controls are still a good idea.

Let’s go find some friends. (You have friends right?) Both systems have different, rudimentary ways of doing this. Wii uses friend codes which are sort of like trying to remember super long phone numbers in the days before everyone just had mobiles. Xbox lets you pick a user name, and then links it to a Microsoft Live/Passport account.

Both let you add friends and have basic profiles. The Miis add a lot of fun and create an avatar in which you become emotionally vested. The Xbox system features typical computer amenities like chat. Neither leverages the social networks you would expect in this day and age of rampant different Wii codes for each networked game you play? Major, major anti-kudos on the Wii.

Rule Three:

MS almost did something right. That means nobody has an excuse. Make social networking easy, integrated, and pervasive throughout your properties.

The Wii, in its primitive and unconsidered way, has “channels” of content. Some are brilliant, like the Virtual Console, which lets you buy old games you already own for $5. Which saves you the effort of blowing all that dust off your Neo Geo and finding all the related crap. Worth every penny baby. You get a media browser that sort of works using a utility like Wii Transfer.

The Xbox is an almost full-fledged media device, just lacking a CableCard slot and DVR functionality. You can buy HD movies and TV shows, browse your music and photos, and basically do everything you would want. (as much as it hurts to say this: why would you buy an AppleTV again?)

Rule Four:

Media Access- for relaxing times, make it Suntory times. No, actually just make it HD. And have wicked online content to download.

One last thing… Go over to the Xbox Live Arcade and start playing Lumines. You like it? Go buy it. First, you end up spending MS points, a crafty way to make sure you don’t realize you are spending real money (800 points = $10). So you buy the game only to find out it is a demo. Yes. Downloadable content means decontenting games and then selling people the stuff in bits and pieces. The announced Halo 3 map pack is pretty much the same deal. Beatiful Katamari (a rehash of the original with nothing new added) actually but the so-called downloadable content on the disc, and you just pay to unlock it.

Can I say that this leaves a bad taste in mouth? That instead of becoming infatuated with my Xbox 360 the way I would normally with an Apple product, it keeps it frontmost in my mind that they are trying to get to my wallet.

Rule Five:

Sell complete games. Expansion packs better offer a ton of value and not just be stuff you stripped from the game.

Advantage Apple

So why would Apple enter this market? What do they gain out of a hyper-competitive market where hearts are broken, careers are smashed, and generally nobody who works in the industry actually has any fun?

1. The Money.

   Well, there is a ton of money in video games. More like 7000 metric tons for 2005. Oh, and that is a lot of macs to sell to the kids of the world. Plus another outlet to sell iTunes TV and music.

2. The APIs.

   Apple puts some development resources into 3D optimizations, gains more system optimizations, gets to experiment with gesture based interfaces and all the other coding that would go into such a project. Think there isn’t more cruft in the OS that can’t be excised, tweaked, and optimized? Think again. Plus, they expand .mac even further with gaming and social networking derived from, but not tied exclusively to, the gaming console. And the gaming engines, just think about the gaming engines!

3. The Glory.

   No more Apple sucks for games. The Apple media hub strategy starts to really hit. Jobs gets to add to his genius by conquering yet another market and gaining a huge foothold in another (remember the afore-mentioned social networking thing?) And having a game system, to some extend, actually enhances the business-like nature of other macs, after all, you have a product for gamers.

The Hardware

Use as much standard hardware as you can. Why support more platforms than you have to? You don’t need to be the highest graphical level, you just need to be competitive.

Take one AppleTV. Bump up the processor to something competitive for the timing of your market entry. Add in an appropriate, relatively high-end 3D graphics card. 802.11n built-in. HDMI. Consider a physics engine. 200GB minimum hard drive, because there won’t be a disc slot. None. (Yes this is controversial, but just sell the games via iTunes and avoid the whole distribution mess. This is razor and blades.)

The harder part is controllers. The Wii nunchuk controllers are okay, but don’t contour to the hand well (why didn’t they make it a Tivo-peanut?). Perhaps the resurrection of the Power Glove in a more svelte form? Wrist bracelets might work. Something advanced, but logical and simple is the way to go. This is an Apple core competency and a lot should be expected from you here.

The Software

The System.

Well Mac OS X, of course! The core components are there in the form of Core libraries and OpenGL. Apple needs to assign a special-ops team for game development on OS X (which I will call the Hit Team). These guys should be heavy-hitter programmers who can put together a package that makes DirectX look so primitive that developers will develop for the Mac first, and then worry about porting. They should be the tooth fairy, popping into random game studios, working some magic and vanishing without waiting for a thank you, they should be wonderful!

The Network.

Here is where you leverage existing properties and tools the most. .Mac should get split up into at least two tiers: gaming and premium. I am not a huge fan of choices, but the cost of .mac is much more than Xbox live. The next step is to add or buy a social-network, maybe with the OpenSocial platform being developed by Google.

Halo sets a gold standard in matching online play. This is the barest baseline of the networking experience that you should aim for.

The Games

Content, sadly comes late in this article, despite being the most important thing. There are a bunch of major groups you are aiming for, and there are a couple of ways to go about it.

Content is important — witness Halo 3 singlehandedly increasing 360 sales through the roof — but content is also becoming more ubiquitous — increased development costs have led to developers making titles multi-platform. So if content is important, exclusive content is king. And there are several ways to go about doing this:

1. First party titles (or, the Nintendo Way).

   If you just happen to have a resident game genius like Miyamoto Shigeru, then you might just pursue this path. If you have someone who cares about game design and balance and is able to balance the casual and the hardcore to such a high levelof refinement, then, of course, you should let Shigeru be Shigeru (just as we should always let Jobs be Jobs).

2. Purchase your talent (or, the Microsoft Way).

   Imagine you find a bunch of brilliant guys, cranking away on a game for another platform. The demos are mad crazy exciting. People think about the game and salivate. And you have a ton of money. Buy the game development house, make them shift development to your platform. And profit. (And yes, this is the story of Halo, once a Mac title so very long ago.)

3. Lease your way.

   The cheapest way to get an exclusive is to just lease it. You basically bribe the developer to keep the game exclusive for, oh say, six months through the holiday season. By then the hype dies down a bit and you are onto the next title.

Since Apple does not have a Shigeru in house that we know of (nor a Will Wright, Tim Schafer, or Sid Meier), The first is out for now, the Hit Team may become a breeding ground in the future, but for now, methods 2 and 3 rule. So:

First go buy or rent a bunch of AAA-talent. I mean the newly freed Bungie. If you can buy them, great. Hell, get them involved early, as in today, and ask them what they want in a gaming system and do it. I would also suggest Sakaguchi Hironobu. Give them huge xServe development platforms for free and iterations of the gaming box. Send the Hit Team over to help them with anything they ask for, whether programming advice or optimization of code or getting a better cappuccino. Make them know you in the Biblical sense.

At launch, you need 4 titles. Just 4. But they should be the best damn versions of each title imaginable:

1. The pack-in: A good set of party games.

   If the Wii just had a slightly better and more ambitious Wii Sports, it would have been sufficient to justify the entire console purchase. But lack of online play, expandability, and some other iminor ssues have kept it from being that title.

2. A First Person Shooter:

   Mandatory in this day and age. Make it cool as hell, so much so that it, alone, sells a million titles.

3. A Japanese RPG:

   Also mandatory. Alphaville is big in Japan and you want to be as well.

4. Football:

   another necessary title. Sadly you will have to go to EA, an unimaginative hack of a games company, to get this made with the licenses that are essential. Send over the Hit Team as consultants and make that title be innovative and shine.

Ding Ding Ding, the first round looked strong, Apple has come out swinging hard, but old MS is Foreman, still out there selling grills like nobodies business. So second round:

1. A racing game:

   hyper-realistic, lots of different modes. Season campaigns and online racing. There is not too much you can do to be innovative in this genre as far as I can tell. But I could be wrong.

2. A Music title:

   Whether it is DDR, Rock Band II, a DJ simulator, Sousaphone Hero, or whatever, be there and be ready. Sell the peripherals and make some bank on it.

3. More party/Nintendo style games.

   This is essential. Nintendo’s failure to come out with sequels and expansions to Wii Sports is almost criminal at this point (and no, that crappy pack-in with a controller does not count).

It would be classy to offer a free “classic” game once a month for download, much like the free iTunes track is now. Maybe Arkanoid one month and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the next?

In Conclusion

Is this all just a dream? Maybe. It is asking for a big commitment from Apple in resources . But here is the beauty of it: the parts can be set up pretty stealthily for a long part of the way. The .mac improvements are easy to hide in the adoption of the OpenSocial platform. The additions of gesture based controls reflect the fact that the Wii has initiated a new age of computer interaction and could be added across the entire computer platform. Negotiate in secrecy with a select few game developers for the exclusive titles and to get feedback about the gaming API, which you will just hide under the name of Core3D, a niche technology for 3D rendering software.

Then, there is a WWDC. Perhaps 2008, but more likely 2009 to get all the pieces in place. And you, Steve Jobs, you get up and relax that RDF cause you don’t need it. And you say….

“We have one more thing… and this one is for the kid in all of us…”