Watch out, Xbox: Apple might just kick game and content streaming up a notch.
Is an Apple game console in the cards? According to Apple partner Imagination, future iterations of Apple TV and other Apple devices, including game consoles, could compete with Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, for desktop-class console gaming.
Imagination, the chip manufacturer behind the GPU technology implemented in the A-series chips used in the iPhone, has released specs for its new version of its flagship GPU “PowerVR”, a “Super GPU” designed to power desktop class gaming on low-cost platforms, such as the Apple TV.
The specs for the new chip, the PowerVR Series 7XT GT7900, outperform nVidia GeForce GT730M, by delivering 800 Gigaflops, leaving its competitor behind at 552.2 Gigaflops. Imagination has also refined heat-management technologies and instability issues due to throttling on high overhead. The technology developed by Imagination to accomplish the task is called PowerGearing, a mechanism which allows to shut off parts of the GPU, during intensive tasks, in order to keep the core temperature to optimal levels. The results bring the GPU to speeds of up to 1.6 Teraflops in constrained power mode.
The GPU offers support for 4K resolution at 60 fps, and native YUV color, which is practically a shoe-in for future Apple TV integration, as well as a theoretical game console, if or when Apple even considers it.
Apple TV and beyond
Apple has gone beyond flirting with the idea of making deals with content providers to become an actual entertainment infrastructure among the likes of Comcast. Adding gaming to the experience of running national telecasts, would not only make Apple a mass communication provider, it would take what Microsoft has done so far with the Xbox, to a whole new level.
The ability to stream games in 4K, even 5K resolution (as if we don’t see that one coming!) , through future iterations of Apple TV, could result in a massive diversification of the type of developers Apple currently caters to: desktop class game developers. Blizzard, EA, and many other major production houses would likely jump at the opportunity to strike deals with Apple, to be included in what might become a bigger distribution network than anything currently in existence. At present, Microsoft Xbox Live subscriptions soar above 46 Millions, and while it’s hard to estimate under highly speculative premises, we could call less than 50 Millions a rather small number, if we look at the 800 Million iTunes subscribers reported by Tim Cook on separate stage appearances. If we consider even a quarter of those iTunes account holders own a mac or Apple TV, it’s a simple matter of extrapolating how many of these users would likely play console games on an Apple product, given the opportunity, and the impressive specs brought by Imagination GPUs.