Personally, I don't welcome Apple's entry into the game industry.
I suppose, however, that it's quite likely to happen, because entering the gaming business could benefit Apple in the long run.
iPhone has big potential to become a good hand-held gaming platform in the future. If they somehow succeed with it, it's going to be very lucrative for Apple.
Another reason to tap into the game market is that games could help sustain and expand the success of Macintosh and OSX.
A lot of PC users I know are reluctant to switch to Mac simply because they can't play PC games on Mac. If Apple can make their console games compatible with or easily-ported to Mac OS, it should help the sales of Mac/OS to some extent -- similar to how the success of iPod in the past few years seems to contribute to the sales of Mac.
But Apple needs a partner. They can't transform themselves into a great game developer overnight. I was thinking that, in the future, EA might partner with Apple.
Apple could benefit from EA's IPs, development resources, and publishing power. On the other hand, EA was rumored to be interested in creating their own console, and they could certainly benefit from Apple's brand name and hardware design. It's a win-win situation for them.
Whether Apple will succeed or not is another question.
Personally, I don't think they will.
No, it's not going to stop 'Til you wise up
No, it's not going to stop So just ... give up
- Aimee Mann
