Analysts Take a Bite out of Apple's Gaming Plans

The focus of this week's Macworld Expo is naturally not gaming. Nevertheless, while Apple has been the subject of many a rumor in the gaming industry over the last few years, we've yet to see any real substantial move into the video game space from Microsoft's arch nemesis. More and more games are slowly making their way to the ubiquitous iPod, as evidenced by Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog announcement, and a number of publishers are actually paying attention to the Mac. Just today, EA gave Apple a big show of support by promising that the hugely anticipated Spore would release on the Mac simultaneously this year with the PC.

Game support for the Mac continues to pale in comparison to the PC, however. Part of the problem according to Mark DeLoura, former technical director at Ubisoft, is that the Mac gaming market may not be big enough. Moreover, Apple doesn't seem as devoted to the space as they would need to be if they were truly serious about gaming. "The Apple guys, they were always very encouraging," DeLoura told CNet. "'Please bring stuff to the Mac, please bring stuff to the Mac,' but they never gave us a lot of support. They're great guys, but they don't have a lot of resources, I think." He added, "It didn't seem like we could justify porting over a hard-core shooter (game), because as far as we could tell, those games didn't sell on the Mac."

The analysts GameDaily BIZ spoke to seemed equally unsure of Apple's true gaming strategy.

"I'm really unsure about their strategy. The iPod has no buttons, and the touchscreen could be used like a DS, but the display is at a disadvantage because it is a single screen. I'm not sure that there is a ton of overlap between iPod owners and handheld game players, but do concede that the iPhone would work fine for gameplay. I really don't see them making a big impact in games, but it is usually a mistake to underestimate them," Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter told us.

David Cole of DFC Intelligence doesn't envision much in terms of games either. "To me they just don't seem to have a high-end game strategy. They seem to feel they don't need that consumer," he commented. "But I don't really know what Apple's strategy is in terms of games. I can tell you they used to be way more focused on this space with a dedicated team to work with game developers. That really quieted down. Now the focus seems at best on casual games for platforms like the iPhone and iPod. The same thing everyone else and their mother is doing."

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