Apple and gaming are two words that
generally do not mix. Since the days of the original Macs, Apple has been slow
to embrace the traditional gaming model. In fact, the company has been playing
catch up with the Windows platform as far as PC gaming is concerned. Apple has
had little success in the home console realm as well. The company paired with
Bandai to release Pippin in 1995, but the console was deemed a failure.
It featured a 66MHz PowerPC microprocessor,
6MB of system and video RAM, a 4X CD-ROM drive, a 14.4k modem, two serial
sports, a PCI expansion slot, support of ADB keyboards and mice, 8-bit and
16-bit video support, a controller in the shape of a boomerang, and a runtime
environment derived for Mac OS.
The console was released at a time when
Japanese consoles still dominated the gaming world – remember, the Xbox didn’t
exist yet. Apple didn’t position its console as a direct competitor to Sega’s
and Nintendo’s offerings. It was positioned as a multimedia console and almost
like a computer that connects to your TV set. It was also heavily marketed for
Web browsing, but only offered a 14.4k modem and relied on PSINet as its ISP
that came with a $ 25 monthly fee. Consumers may have been confused about what
it actually was meant for. Around this time the industry was shifting with a
lot of heavy competitors entering the gaming sphere. The Sony Playstation was
also released around this time with some multimedia capabilities and successful
developer support. Apple had entered the market at the worst possible time.
Another reason the Pippin failed was that
Apple never really supports products such as its iDevices today. Instead of
keeping the console propriety and locked into Apple’s ecosystem, it choose to
license it to Bandai. This was unlike Sony, Nintendo and Sega – companies that
fully supported their consoles in term of both hardware and software.
There were many other reasons this console
failed. For one, it lacked any software support outside of Bandai’s – who was
Apple’s manufacturing partner of the gaming system at the time. Its $ 599 price
tag at launch was also quite steep for the time. As you may recall, this cost
almost killed the Playtation 3, which came with a Blu-ray player and launched a
lot later than the Pippin – so even considering inflation Pippin’s retail price
was astronomical.
What the pippin meant for apple
Despite its failure, the console taught
Apple a lot about the console gaming world. Its failure is probably one of the main
reasons Apple is so leery of entering this market, which is dominated heavily
by brand name and exclusive software that needs to be acquired from publishers
at expensive costs. Apple has never truly been a major software powerhouse. The
company’s competencies have traditionally been on producing innovative hardware
and letting developers have a go at it without having to acquire exclusive
rights or purchase first party software houses. This what could hold Apple back
from venturing into the home console world, at least in the traditional sense.
Even with Apple’s current apprehension with
creating an iConsole, the company has succeeded in capturing the mobile gaming
market, and it looks as if this will include portable gaming as a whole. Apple
does not need to create software for the iDevices as the ecosystem is so
attractive to developers – and the entry costs of development on the platform
are so low – that it can sit back and watch the platform take over market
shares on its own.
There are now major players from the
console world creating software on the App Store. Take Rockstar and its ports
of full console games like Max Payne and Grand Theft Auto III. Even owners of
the Sony Vista and Nintendo 3DS would like such entries on their sustems, yet
Rockstar decide to release them first on the App Store. Yes, they are ports,
bit for the first time gamers can experience them portably. Starfox 64 and The
Legend of Zelda: Ocarine of Time were also “enhanced” ports and were met great
enthusiasm by portable gamers. Now Apple is taking some of that enthusiasm away
with awesome titles and ports of its own from big names in the gaming world.
