Link: iOS7 and the tantalizing potential of Apple TV for gaming
The LA Times ran a great piece by Chris O’Brien today on the experience of using MFi game controllers, and on how they could be foreshadowing the direction Apple will take with the Apple TV.
Chris O’Brien at LA Times says:
With sales of iPads potentially flattening out, analysts have been itching for the company to do more to leverage the ecosystem of users it has built. And one of the most tantalizing prospects for doing that is the increasingly popular Apple TV.
This stealth hit has brought in $1 billion in hardware and software sales in the last year. Now it seems like there is enormous opportunity for Apple to expand Apple TV by turning it into a gaming hub as well as a media streaming device.
[… SteelSeries chief executive Bruce] Hawver is optimistic. And he notes that Apple likes to take its time to make sure the technology is developing in a way that pleases users and leads to high-quality experiences. He’s hoping the company has learned enough, and likes what it’s seen of controllers using iOS 7 to make that leap to putting games on the next version of Apple TV.
The entire article is worth a read (and it links to AfterPad!), but the general conclusion is that while MFi controllers on iPhones and iPads are nice, the entire thing seems like a great opportunity for further developing the Apple TV.
Personally, this has always been my belief. If Apple didn’t have bigger plans for hardware-controlled gaming, they wouldn’t have bothered with implementing controller support. In my opinion, the entire MFi controller program is probably a public beta of something far larger.