Hacker News Reader

Comment by TillE | Hacker News Reader

If Apple wanted to get serious about challenging console games, they could make their own Bluetooth gamepad and push out a small software update to support it.

You could put the iPad on a table or hook up the output to a TV and play it like any console. All you need is the controller and a driver.

View on HN

I don't know about this. Hook up a &500 iPad to power and to your TV and pair it with the bt gamepad every time you want to play a console game? As opposed to a <$300 device that's always hooked up to the TV and controllers?

I'd say the Apple TV is a much better contender for this market. But still isn't really technically able to push the blow-out titles that the gp is talking about. Not even close, since both the iPad and ATV are on low power ARM processors, while modern high end consoles are basically full-fledged desktop PCs.

Most people nowadays probably buy a $500 laptop and a $200-300 game console. What if you could replace both of those devices with a dockable iPad that runs around $600 ($500 for the iPad and $100 for the dock and controllers).

Sure, it's not going to be as good as a $299 PS3, but it will be much better than the PS3 at things like email, browsing the web, and doing computer related functions. When you get home, drop it in the dock and watch Netflix, or play some games.

I don't think $100 is enough of a disparity to get the market we're talking about even vaguely interested. Especially since the titles we're talking about (I think we're talking about stuff like the Modern Warfare games) simply aren't feasible on an ARM proc yet.

How close is the ARM proc to running something like OnLive?

That's a really interesting question, but I don't think Apple's going to be the company to take gaming in that direction. Their cloud services are pretty lackluster. I have an ATV, and I only ever use it for Netflix streaming.

They're already there, all you really need is the ability to stream H.264 and monitor input events. What isn't there is consumer internet connections, most people won't be able to have an enjoyable experience.

OnLive's own microconsole hardware is based on an ARMv5 chip (Marvell ARMADA 1000), so I guess there's your answer?

wow. I really haven't been following gaming news.

"The OnLive Game System is only available for sale in the contiguous United States. " so not much use -- but still very cool.

Not so soon. I hear PS3 is looking into going with Android. So email, browsing and TV integration will change. Sony is already doing the PSP with Android.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com