Apple is aware of the importance of the video game industry, and the enormous amount of money that it moves every year internationally. Therefore, it is not strange that video games occupy an important place in the App Store, and we are not surprised that the apple company bet, at the time, by Apple Arcade.
We can safely say that Apple has been able to strengthen its commitment to the world of video games, but the truth is that, deep down, the apple company has had a “thorn in its side” since the Apple Pippin, the first and only console that the Cupertino giant has launched so far, and one of its biggest failures in the hardware industry, hit the market back in 1995.
The Apple Pippin wanted to be a unique console, and the truth is that it succeeded, but in the worst possible sense, as it became one of the worst game consoles in history. Since then, the company has limited its focus to video games, focusing on software and services, a situation that, according to an interesting rumor, could change at some point, as Apple is theoretically working on its console.
Apple would follow the Nintendo Switch approach, but with more power
That is the direction in which this rumor points, which clearly says that the company led by Tim Cook wants to start from a hybrid design that would allow using its new console both portable and in a dock with various connections. The idea is the same that the big N has used in Nintendo Switch, so no, it is nothing innovative.
However, this console would be much more powerful than its Nintendo rival, as it would mount a new Apple M-series SoC that would feature a high-performance GPU, and could even be ready to work with ray tracing. It’s interesting, but we think it sounds too good to be true. Shaping a GPU capable of working with ray tracing acceptably and integrating it into a handheld console, with the limitations that this implies both in terms of form factor, power consumption, and temperature seems almost a pipe dream to me.
Nevertheless, the possibility of Apple launching a console is credible to me, mainly because it would be a natural move with which the company could boost its Apple Arcade platform, diversify its business areas a little more and give a boost to its revenues from both software and hardware sales.
