This article is from WeChat official account:nut shell (ID: Guokr42), author: shrimp balls Jun, head Figure from: vision China
This year’s WWDC conference has just ended, and the specter of a rumor quietly spread among global fans: Apple is finally going to challenge the dominance of Microsoft and Sony in the game console business(Nintendo: Do I deserve to have a name?), Prepare to launch its own game console to fill the last gap in Apple’s product matrix.
The “Apple game console” is very big when you think about it. Will it disrupt the global interactive entertainment industry just like the iPhone disrupted the mobile phone industry?
Pippin’s big failure
However, even hard-core Apple fans, or game enthusiasts, may have forgotten a fact: As early as 1996, Apple launched a game console called Pippin. This host was released ten months before Jobs returned to Apple, and it sold more than 40,000 sets within one year after the release……
In contrast, Nintendo’s N64 console sold about 400,000 units in three days… Then in 1997, this console was stopped by Jobs. Since then, Apple has never touched a game console again for more than 20 years. business.
Pippin, which had a very futuristic appearance at the time, had a disastrous sales | https://www.vjgamer.com.hk
Pippin only provided 6 games at the time of launch, and only 18 games in total can run on Pippin. Moreover, most of the games released on Pippin are little-known games, and some names are quite copycats, such as the following Racing Days.
Compared with the similar racing game (right) on the Sony PS of the same period, Racing Days is not only rough and rigid, but also not buggy less. See the bottom of the car on the left “wearing a model” (cover your face)? This is a treatment that will only be available for real 3D large-scale games 20 years later.(error)……
Racing Days, a racing game that is unbearable….. | https://www.vjgamer.com.hk
Well, some games may be used to make up the number(Hey, hey, there are 18 in total and how many make up?), then we Take a look at Pippin’s “Escort” game, which uses the action game of the famous IP “Dinosaurs”, “Dinosaurs: ZEO”:
What is this game? Zeo is inGo straight on this street, and then fight the mobs, the story is gone. The scene doesn’t change much. I am the greenest cub on this street. From time to time you can still see his twisted legs as if they were broken (Just broken!).
The IP of Dinosaur Team is considered to be destroyed | https://www.vjgamer.com.hk
If you want to increase the picture performance in pursuit of a better picture, congratulations, you got the ultimate experience that you can only enjoy on the PC side… It’s no wonder that Pippin is Run through the built-in MacOS. You can clearly see the familiar operation interface after booting:
For a console, the type, quantity and quality of games it can run are extremely important: Why do players spend time on a new game console that a player has spent money to buy? Always to play a certain game, right? This is like buying a new Apple mobile phone and always calling (It seems something is wrong)?
Many game consoles that died immediately after release were not due to poor performance, but because players considered that there was nothing to play even if they got them, they would naturally not consider buying them. Of course thatThe number of games in the era cannot be compared with the current one, but even compared with other consoles of the same period, Pippin is very shabby.
Pippin’s failure seems inevitable, not to mention its $600 price… $600, that’s it? (Goodbye)
The Apple “unrelated” to the console game
Until now, although Apple has the world’s most profitable game distribution platform, the nature of mobile games is prepared for fragmentation of entertainment time, which is very different from the immersive mode of the console or PC. The picture performance is also completely incomparable. Apple recently launched a paid subscription system Apple Arcade, which allows you to play many paid games, including exclusives, for a certain amount of money every month.
Apple Acade, a concept first, but the experience is a hindrance platform | https://www.vjgamer.com.hk
In fact, the idea of Apple Arcade is still very good. One account can play supported games on Apple TV, computers, tablets and mobile phones. In fact, everyone is working on this concept, and Microsoft also has a connection between Xbox and Microsoft Store. However, Apple Arcade is actually oriented towards mobile games + touch screen operation.
As a result, the game either has to consider touch screen operation, or it will make some streamlining of the game itself “ported” from the host.
“Hot Lava” game screen | https://www.vjgamer.com.hk
For example, “Hot Lava”, which was highly recommended by Apple Arcade when it was released, is a 3D platform jumping game. If you don’t have a handle and just want to operate it on the touch screen, what’s waiting for you is a thumbs up in the magma… …Of course the quality of the game is still very good. Even if there are operating flaws, it does not prevent everyone from giving high scores to this game.
“Sea Horn 2” game screen | https://www.vjgamer.com.hk
“Sea Horn 2” has attracted the attention of many players, because it may be the best game on iOS, similar to “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”. Do you feel familiar? Yazi who is also a blue-haired and blond villain who saves the world. You can take risks with two companions, fight monsters, and collect elements. However, in order to adapt to the mobile terminal, “Sea Horn 2” sacrificed the screen and some operational choices.
At present, the Apple Arcade system has not really changed the game mode of players. In the final analysis, it is still a large-screen “mobile game”, adapted to the experience of mobile gamers.
But on the other hand, Apple has already reached cooperation with many third-party developers on Apple Arcade, which will play a significant role in the development of future console games.Laid some foundation.
A host can work well with Apple’s existing ecosystem. Similar to the Switch that can run transplanted mobile games, more game options may allow more people to pay for Apple Arcade, and the host-developing effect of good exclusive games will also further expand its hardware market. For example, using an iPad or iPhone as a streaming screen or simply as a controller is very interesting.
Of course, currently Apple also supports connecting Xbox One and PS4 controllers to the iPad to play iPad games, but they are still mobile games developed by third parties that adapt to the touch screen experience. And MacOS supports even fewer games. You know, the latest FIFA football game on MacOS is FIFA12…
The Steam platform may be the easiest platform to find games that can run on MacOS. These games usually come from cross-operating system porting by game developers.
At a time when PC games and console games are getting closer and closer, cross-platform distribution of a game is already commonplace. For example, “Death Stranding”, which was first released on PS, was recently launched on Steam. Not to mention the linkage between Microsoft’s Xbox and Windows.
True warriors are those who dare to play “Dota 2” on Apple computers | https://www.vjgamer.com.hk
How about MacOS? Has anyone played “Dota 2” on a Macbook? If not, please try, and then you will know why Apple computers are not suitable for playing large games.(True love, all those who play DOTA2 with Macbook are true love)< /span>. Apple computers are really powerful for productivity tasks, but graphics performance… “Hey, why do I get stuck on the screen?”Big, have I released it? “
Challenge Xbox Series X or PS5?
As we all know, games that run larger and consume more resources put higher requirements on the graphics processor and heat dissipation of the game console. Therefore, the rumored Apple host will use ARM chips. The benefits of this choice are obvious: On the one hand, it gets rid of Apple’s dependence on Intel chips. On the other hand, ARM is also capable of running image processing. This is from its performance test. You can get a glimpse of it numerically.
However, the disadvantage of ARM is that it does not yet have an architecture for running PC and console games. It requires a series of tools and development kits to port the software from MacOS to the ARM architecture.
Of course, Apple’s previous mobile device-centric chips need to improve CPU and GPU functions to approach the performance of the new generation of mainframes. It depends on the extent to which the new A series chips can achieve, including supporting heat dissipation technology. The support of game developers is also very important, after all, the experience of host games will be completely different from mobile games.
If the development starts this year, of course it will not be too late, but if there is a master and backup, in fact this time point is very interesting:
Nowadays, the three giants in the console industry, Microsoft’s Xbox series and Sony’s PS series, are all on the way to upgrade. The news of PS5 is endless, and the Xbox Series X series has also been advancing by leaps and bounds with the performance of monsters in recent years.
Nintendo: I think I can do it too…well, actually Nintendo’s Switch series is taking another path, but a new generation of Switch is also under development.
Game consoles do have a “generation”. After the launch of the new generation, its performance will usually far exceed the previous generation, which can give a wider space to the games released on the new generation console. Ability-screen, size, game mode, and…price. However, the development cycle of a new host is generally very long.
On the one hand, the console performance of the old age is sufficient for many games, especially these games still have many players. On the other hand, although the new generation is generally backward compatible, the development of games actually takes a long time. The host platform needs to reserve a certain amount of time for these games to go on sale.
In other words, from the past one or two years to the present, it has been the “empty window period” for hosts once every many years-everyone is looking forward to the new generation, and the new generation is stillNot coming. You know, PS4 is the host from 7 years ago. Since everyone needs to be updated, as long as I can come up with something similar in performance to yours and be on the market at about the same time, then everyone is on the starting line on the device.
PS5 to be launched at the end of the year | www.gamespot.com
At the end of this year, the new PS5 and Xbox Series X will be launched. It may be a good opportunity to launch your own console next year when players’ interest in the new dominant console begins to decline. If you wait for the next wave of generations, then you don’t know when it will be.
In fact, the new host is Apple TV?
For Apple, it is more feasible to follow a Switch-like approach: create a device that can be used with current and next-generation games.
As the performance of mobile devices becomes stronger and stronger, a new generation of needs that balance game performance, gameplay, and portability may emerge(Yes, it’s you , Switch). It is logical to support a portable, large-screen, and console gaming experience based on better screen performance through a similarly powerful tablet computer such as the iPad Pro 2020 with A12Z Bionic chip.
If one day the iPad can be plugged into the Apple TV and the iPhone is used as the controller to play FIFA 2025, it may not be a fantasy.
Technically speaking, Apple has launched an ARM-based “game console”-Apple TV. Apple TV has a powerful A10X Fusion chip, enough to run large games.
It should be said that in terms of games, Apple TV is prepared for Apple Arcade+ controllers. The rumors of the console are only rumors after all. The rumored Apple game console may only be Apple TV 2020: powerful A-series chips, optimized for graphics display, running mobile games at 4K resolution, and powerful Apple Arcade mobile game resource library.
For possible future Apple TV 2020 configurations, there should be no problem with running a game of the size of “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild”. The question is whether Apple Arcade has such a quality game. Even bolder, “PUBG Mobile” PC version transplant? (It should be unlikely, but similar chicken-eating games such as “Apex Heroes” are still possible) to run “Cyberpunk 2077”? It may be a bit tough for the new Apple TV, but who knows?
“Cyberpunk2077” is one of the most watched game masterpieces of this year | https://www.techspot.com
In short, if you want to relive the shock of Jobs taking out the iPhone 4 from his pocket, or taking out the Macbook Air from the envelope, an unexpected but logical game console is definitely one of Apple’s choices..
This article is from WeChat official account: Nutshell (ID: Guokr42) , author: shrimp balls Jun < /span>