I think the new AppleTV will have a relative amount of success. From the numbers we've seen, the current old AppleTV already sells about 6 million units a year.

That's far more than the Wii U and about the same as the XBox One already.

The new model will likely bump that up to 8-9 million a year, the game app market will probably start a little slow, but in 2 years ... who knows. By then the hardware for AppleTV could be much more powerful too (Apple A10 or A11 chip?).

Because a million shit levels to wade through made LBP and Mario Maker better, right?
And define most desired?, if you are going off downloads, by all means compare that most desired list to paid games download numbers.

The next big thing? Nope...

Well they have way more money to spend than Sony and Nintendo together so why not.

Again with that? Apple has no interest in gaming, they can't compete with themselves. Why would they release a "super console" if they're doing just fine with the gadgets they already have?

Edit: Just read it and no. Apple TV is not a gaming device. It will not attract gamers. Will some people play candy crush on it? Probably, but that's about it. And they will not release an actual console because that doesn't make any sense.

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Apple isn't interested in the AAA home console market. Too much effort, too much risk, and not enough money involved.

Apple TV won't ever take over the roles of classic gaming consoles. In fact, if anything, it's going the other way around, with game consoles becoming the media hub of the living room (All three consoles support Netflix and other entertainment apps, the XBO has it's multimedia functionality and the PS4 has PSVue etc.)

It's only a matter of time before Sony and Microsoft allow you to use theur consoles in a similar fashion to a Chromecast. Just download the appror both your console and your phone/device and use it in the same way.

Having read through almost all of the posts to this thread, you seam to be the only person using common sense in their reply.

I agree that Apple isn't going to outsell the PS4 in the next year.  I also agree that this will take some time.  I own a 3 year old apple TV.  I think it was a great buy at the time.  Now, I hardly use it as most of the features are built into my TV's already.  BUT, a newer version will have my interest at some point if it offered more functionality.  THis coming version is not it, but like you said, maybe 2-3 years from now it will finally have enough capability to buy it again.

I doubt that it will fully replace consoles in the near term, but it is obvious that consoles will eventually be a very niche market.  That is when things like the Apple TV will really shine.

Does apple have first party development studios? Will the TV have comparable power to the consoles? Will the price be competitive?

If the answer to those 3 is no, then i don't think its gonna happen.

First party is necessary to increase the value and differentiation of the product. Power is necessary for presentation and price will be put in direct competition with devices that don't require you to aquire a new TV.
I just don't see how. Consoles need to hit mass market for software to turn a profit. A TV+console will cost above 1k euros. That will never hit mass market, apple or not.

The Motley Fool is a fairly shitty site made of opinion articles instead of any real journalism. At least they have the decency to warn you they are biased on their articles though.

It is a fair point services like PS Now and other Netflix gaming equivalents will very likely be more important in the future, but Apple TV specifically? Not so much.