Apple TV: also a casual games console system?
- March 06, 2007 11:39 AM PST
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It plays movies and TV shows, syncs with your Mac or PC, slices, dices - just look at that tomato! But can it play casual games? You might be surprised.
By Eugene Huang
Announced just two months ago, Apple TV is Apple's newest attempt in bringing downloadable iTunes content from computers to television screens. But sources at AppleInsider have stumbled upon some code in the latest version of iTunes revealing that the Apple TV might also double as a console for casual games.
Released just yesterday, iTunes 7.1 is meant to be the first bridge between your computer and the Apple TV box, just as it has been the bridge between your computer and your iPod for the last seven years. But certain astute observers found a handful of text strings found within the program: prompts like "Are you sure you want to sync games?" and error messages like "Some of the games in your iTunes library were not copied to the Apple TV."
A recent interview with Greg Canessa, founder of Xbox Live Arcade and current vice president of PopCap games, confirms these rumors, perhaps in an inadvertent slip of the tongue. When asked by Wired about his job duties at PopCap, Canessa responded:
"It will be about taking the stable of franchises and games out of PopCap's studio and adapting, customizing it for different platforms -- adding multiplayer, new play modes, HD, customizing the user interface and display for Zune, ipod, Apple TV, Nintendo DS, PSP." [emphasis ours]
Despite this recent evidence, Apple has not yet prepared a public statement proclaiming the existence of casual games on the Apple TV, but their product site does have a disclaimer, claiming specifically that "iPod games will not play on Apple TV".
