Apple Is A Bigger Threat Than Next-Gen Consoles, Says Gabe Newell

I agree with Newell. The Xbox could, in theory, be seen as PC's first step at "getting its act together" in the living room, but only to a point.

Maybe with MicroSoft's media center centric moves that are almost guaranteed with the XXXbox, combined with the Steam Box, Apple won't be able to gain another senseless & overpriced stranglehold.

If Valve feels this threatened, maybe they will finally get Episode 3 out.

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I think the living room is safe from Apple. All of their non-mobile devices have been total flops. Sony & Nintendo better hope they don't release a dedicated handheld gaming device though.

Do you think Apple will repeat what the Wii had done?

I think that if Apple released an iPhone or iPod-like device that was geared specifically toward gaming apps it could be huge. Even a "gamer edition" of those devices that boasted better hardware for gaming would have a fairly large appeal for those people who are iOS game enthusiasts (your mom).

Maybe Nintendo should just add the ability to make calls to its next handheld.

I wish the Xperia PLAY wasn't such a failure.

If Apple wants to take over the living room, THEY WILL.

Apple games are better than the stuff on Wii. Far more addictive and far cheaper.

No Way, there is a reason why nobody games on an Apple desktop.
1. Wayyy to expensive for what you get
2. Their hardware isn't even designed for it
3. And the biggest example: COD: Black Ops got released in 2012 for their computers, a full TWO years later than anything else on the market.

How do you suppose they are going to conquer the living room when you can't even properly game on any of their devices/computers currently in production?

Are gamers and "casual gamers" even part of the same market segment?

not really, theres just a little overlap

Apple's strength is the 3rd party game apps that cost less than $10. If they make it so you can play games you bought on iPhone/iPod on your TV through an Apple TV, they'll dominate the market. The main consoles like PS and XBOX won't be threatened, but they'll never be able to outsell an Apple device like that.

I'm also wondering if Apple will get serious about making a TV or desktop speakers. A big screen Apple TV is gonna be ridiculously costly. You can buy a 70" TV for the price of a bigscreened iMac as is.

never,,, at least if they do they'd have to target the tiny niche market that could actually afford and want to buy an apple tv over just any regular easy going tv. They'd have to aggressively amp up marketing so that anyone in the business of buying a normal flat screen tv would wanna shell out that extra 400buck for that apple tv.
everybody just relax yourselves, apple is not taking over, let's not get our panties twisted. If apple really are gonna enter the 'living room', it may not directly be via gaming.
I think if anyone should worry, it;s ms and sony over the valve box's approach,,,,,,

The ps2 could be seen as first entry for pc. It is called the play station 2 computer entertainment system for a reason!

Plus the ps3 was the first console to be able to run whndows and other operatig systems, surf the web. So in a sense i consider either the ps2 or the pe3 the first entry

Not true exactly. Sony did have a Linux for Playstation 2 kit.

And Dreamcast had a Browser.

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The more you know

Personally I think living room computers by design are doomed. Consoles are alright, since they serve a purpose that is not easily emulated by a laptop or other PC. But things like video content aggregation, access to the internet, the ability to run applications on your TV, can easily be done using a laptop, or tablet even, hooked up to a TV.

Sure devices like Apple TV, Google TV, and Roku are cheaper than laptops, but laptops/tablets have something much more important: popularity.

So the question becomes, would you rather use a laptop/tablet that you can use anywhere, and hook up to your TV, or would you rather buy another computer that is very similar, except it can only be used when hooked up to a TV?