Apple Vice President thinks they are in the same league as Nintendo & Sony

[Plaupius]

kitler53 said:

sethnintendo said:
@kitler53, I agree with you that they will sell a lot of hardware and games with these devices. However, I don't think that someone interested in portable games will just buy the Apple device. While they will make money it isn't going to take away that much market from Nintendo or Sony. Apple pretty much realizes that this is just another way to make money and sure they might have a future in gaming. However, gaming is a tough market to get into and can result in a massive failure.

 

i have to agree with the first part - apple isn't going to put anyone out of business or anything.  the gaming market is expanding and apple is going to fill a portion of that specifically with the mainstream (or if you prefer casual) gamers. i doubt sony/ms will feel their presence any more then the already have from nintendo's wii/ds but i think nintendo won't see as much growth as they would if apple didn't exist (which isn't to say nintedo won't see considerable growth this gen).

to the second part - there is just no way they can fail.  the iphone/itouch isn't a loss-lead strategy, the hardware will sell regardless of the existance of quality gaming as it's first and foremost a music player.   worst case situation - they don't get significatant developer support and therefore only make a moderate amount of money on "shovelware".  there is just so little risk for apple right now that they'd be idiots not to try breaking into gaming.

That's the beauty of it. Apple has provided devs with a "brand new" market that is easily accessible, and there's really nothing Apple can lose now: quality apps and games will make their products more appealing, while bad apps have little or no negative impact on Apple. It's a brilliant entry strategy, that's all I can say.