Apple now calls itself a gaming company fighting with Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo
In an earnings filing, Apple has made clear that it believes that it is locked in combat with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, highlighting how important it views gaming on its platforms.
Credit: Apple
In a regulatory filing on Friday, the company said its products compete as gaming platform against traditional game companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Previously, Apple said it only competed with Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows.
Gaming is an important revenue stream for Apple -- the company earns more from gaming on its platforms than Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Activision combined. Additionally, Apple also competes directly with its Apple Arcade gaming platform.
Apple's competitors was also an important topic during the Epic Games v. Apple trial. At the time, the Cupertino tech giant did not list gaming consoles as competitors in regulatory filings.
According to court documents revealed during the trial, about 70% of all App Store revenue comes from gaming apps. That revenue is generated by less than 10% of App Store users. Other documents indicated that Apple controlled at least a third of the gaming market's total transactions.
There are other signs that Apple is seeing the increased importance of gaming on its bottom line. For example, some of its recent products, like the iPhone 13 Pro and new MacBook Pros, support 120Hz refresh rates -- a popular feature among gamers.
Read on AppleInsider
Credit: Apple
In a regulatory filing on Friday, the company said its products compete as gaming platform against traditional game companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Previously, Apple said it only competed with Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows.
Gaming is an important revenue stream for Apple -- the company earns more from gaming on its platforms than Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Activision combined. Additionally, Apple also competes directly with its Apple Arcade gaming platform.
Apple's competitors was also an important topic during the Epic Games v. Apple trial. At the time, the Cupertino tech giant did not list gaming consoles as competitors in regulatory filings.
According to court documents revealed during the trial, about 70% of all App Store revenue comes from gaming apps. That revenue is generated by less than 10% of App Store users. Other documents indicated that Apple controlled at least a third of the gaming market's total transactions.
There are other signs that Apple is seeing the increased importance of gaming on its bottom line. For example, some of its recent products, like the iPhone 13 Pro and new MacBook Pros, support 120Hz refresh rates -- a popular feature among gamers.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
I’d believe it. I know that I bought my productivity apps once, Procreate, Designer, Pages. I buy one or two games a month. the productivity apps may have cost more but over time I’ve paid way more for games.
Its not like they can blame weak GPUs any more.
IMO Apple is doing what's best for them, not me, and that's not the Apple I expected.
FWIW even though I sometimes get odd recommendations on Google Play too, it's not focused on games, and in fact they're rarely "suggested" for me. EDIT: Checking just now there's not one game "recommended for me" or even "suggested for me". They're all either personal interest-based (ie, photography, nature, and health) or productivity. I wish you could see the difference for yourself since it would be far easier for you to understand the point.
And the reason for the lack of market share is the cost of Apple machines. Back in the Intel days, the entry point was $1000 for a dual core 1.1 GHz CPU that would have barely been able to play the 99 cent mobile games or the ancient stuff like Portal on Steam. For that you can get an Intel Core i7 device with a midrange Nvidia GPU.
The switch to Apple Silicon has made things worse. Despite what Apple's PR is willing to allow you to believe, market share has not increased. But now the RAM on Macs can't be upgraded and there is no third party GPU support, even over Thunderbolt. Your "you can't blame weak GPUs" is false. While the M1 in the Mac Mini, MBA and entry level MBP has CPU performance comparable to many gaming machines, the GPU performance is nowhere close (on games anyway, not the Final Cut Pro stuff that Apple designed and optimized it for). To get RTX 3060 performance you need to spend $3300. That would get you an RTX 3080 system easy. Or two RTX 3060 systems with enough left over to buy an iPhone SE 2020.
That is also why the "Apple needs to take gaming more seriously and invest in it" talk can't be taken seriously. The pricing just isn't competitive and the decades' old "total cost of ownership" sales like that Apple pushes doesn't work in gaming because hardware gets upgraded or replaced every 3 years - or less - in order to be able to play the latest games. No one who is even halfway serious about gaming is going to buy a Mac. What you want is for devs to ignore this, create or port games for macOS anyway and lose money.
I don't even believe there is a real avenue for console gaming for Apple. The PS5 and the XBox One X cost $500. The M1 Mac Mini? $700. So the idea of Apple producing a machine with equivalent graphics power for $200 less than their current 8 core GPU device just isn't happening even if Apple chooses to emulate Microsoft and Sony and sell it at a loss. Maybe more things could be done with iPhone and iPad gaming, but they have tried Apple Arcade and it didn't have an impact, mainly because they didn't move nearly as many Apple TV units as they hoped (again, cost).
The lack of availability of high-end GPUs may force game devs to diversify.
and then support gaming houses to use it. Plus Apple itself could buy or build an exclusive halo game to drive interest. Preferably with lotsa blood and gore.
Look at the specs for the average AAA game and the M1 machines will fall within them. Sure, you’ll not be playing with graphic settings set to Ultra, but on any latest AAA game you’d have to spend thousands to do that PC or not.
I agree that Apple chasing ever higher margins over market share is strange. If they went back to a 30% margin and took 10-15% off the RRP of their Macs they’d move a lot more of them now that they have such a strong key selling point.
Sadly Tim Cook is obsessed with beyond greedy margins.
Sure, it’s no Mass Effect, but Crossy Road Castles is very additive for a start!
Marketshare and Mac sales have increased. Financial reports aren’t “PR”. They aren’t even advertised.
The reason why Apple Arcade is crap is because Apple puts a graphics cap on the service. It’s a mobile app alternative not something meant to compete with Xbox One Series X or PS5.