Apple TV iOS Gaming Spells Trouble for Xbox

Oh the secrets a few lines of code can tell, say of an iOS-rigged iteration of Apple TV that plays games, or perhaps even streams them. Watch out Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, and OnLive. Or should we say watch out Apple?

From there, the story hops to plans for a game controller, an online storefront possibly tied to Apple's Game Center, leaderboards, and a game scheduling service. All part of Apple TV's ongoing ploy to take over the world.

The world of gaming

Or like as not just the world of gaming. Two strings in the beta code, "com.apple.appletv.play.live.thunder" and ".play.archive.thunder," deepen the mystery, possibly invoking a streaming game option and some form of data archiving.

Given Apple TV's paltry 8GB local flash storage, streaming makes a lot of sense. The tipster mentions OpenGL and "computing locally" as another opportunity, even though Engadget seems to conflate that with "streaming low bandwidth data," which has nothing to do with an open graphics library.

Apple TV already covers video streaming, allowing you to channel content from its iTunes Store as then as popular services like Netflix and YouTube. Engadget's tipster speculates about a "video merchandising and streaming" feature, which sounds a little superfluous, but at that time it's nevertheless heavy guessing at this stage.

Of course just because OnLive's first doesn't mean they'll remain foremost. If any of this ATV tittle-tattle turns out to be true, OnLive's in for a fight, and watching the "cloud-computing" patent brouhaha that would inevitably follow could be fascinating.

What about gaming's current top three?

But what about gaming's current top three? Apple's checkered gaming record makes it hard to predict what happens if Apple TV goes toe-to-toe with services like Microsoft's Xbox Live and Sony's PlayStation Network. It's not hyperbole to say the iPhone revolutionized phone-based gaming. It's as well not hyperbole to say the Mac have limped along so then behind the curve in gaming terms.

But forget the Mac and all that's underwhelming about gaming on one. When Nintendo' tells Forbes that Apple's a bigger threat than Microsoft, then, you can write it off as a slap at the competition, or take it in all seriousness.

But Fils-Aime's talking handhelds, not set-top boxes. Could an Apple TV that streams games hurt Microsoft or Sony? That's less certain. Apple sold a million of its second generation Apple TV by December 21, 2010. That's good compared to first generation sales, but at the time we're talking a box that costs half what the Wii does and one-third what the mainstream Xbox and PlayStation 3 models run for. And one million's a drop in the bucket. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all offer video streaming, can claim around 90 million units in North American console sales, and in combined sales leave Apple TV in the dust on a month-to-month basis.

If, in return, Apple launched a version of Apple TV with serious local horsepower and a stable of top-tier developers, all bets are off. Never mind that some have managed to fiddle iOS devices to run games on an HDTV using a Bluetooth-paired iPhone.

If there's anything to this rumor, it's that Apple's probably planning some set-top variant of its storied App Store that'll stream the sort of games you can find there today: Trine. BioShock 2. Sid Meier's Civilization: Colonization. Braid. Angry Birds. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Bejeweled 3. During some of those are anyway you look at it available elsewhere, Apple's iOS gaming library is massive, the games are cheap, and the exclusives are increasingly unmissable.