Steam Founder Gabe Newell Says Apple Could Be Biggest Player in Games Market

Apple is better placed than Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo to take a lead in the games console market, said Gabe Newell, founder of the games-distribution hub Steam in a speech at the University of Texas.

newell
As noted by Polygon, Newell argued that games served from a PC in the home direct to a TV, rather than from a games console, are the future of the market. But if the PC industry does not move quickly enough to establish itself in the living room, Newell sees an opportunity for Apple to seize the market.

"The threat right now is that Apple has gained a huge amount of market share, and has a relatively obvious pathway towards entering the living room with their platform," Newell said. "I think that there's a scenario where we see sort of a dumbed down living room platform emerging — I think Apple rolls the console guys really easily. The question is can we make enough progress in the PC space to establish ourselves there, and also figure out better ways of addressing mobile before Apple takes over the living room?"


Newell's full one-hour session

While Apple has not made any noises about a fresh entry into the games market, it did file patents for a Wii-style wireless controller back in 2008, and has been rumored to be working on a gesture-based user interface for the Apple television set which has obvious potential gaming applications.

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Top Rated Comments

mw360 Avatar
165 months ago
Please no. Gaming is something Apple don't get. I don't want a console that has a featureless black sphere as its only controller. Some things are meant to be complex.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lixivial Avatar
165 months ago
Apple is better placed than Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo to take a lead in the games console market, said Gabe Newell, founder of the games-distribution hub Steam (http://store.steampowered.com) in a speech at the University of Texas (//www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8QEOBgLBQU).

I think it'd be more accurate to say that Gabe Newell is the co-founder of Valve, which operates Steam, rather than as the founder of Steam proper.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rmwebs Avatar
165 months ago
I hope not.

This is one thing Microsoft do very well. I love my good ol' 360. Had it since 2005 and its quite remarkable that 8 years on, games like LA Noire with its advanced graphics can look and work so well.

Apple would be pissing around trying to eliminate the controller - we like the controller as it is thank you very much.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
uknowimright Avatar
165 months ago
guy just needs to shut up and put out HL3
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JaySoul Avatar
165 months ago
Apple could definitely do it, but they need to get a move on.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MagnusVonMagnum Avatar
165 months ago
Phone games are not even real games.

WTF is a "real" game? Given the complexity of games on iOS, I guess that means all Amiga, C64, Coleco and Intellivision weren't "real" games (let alone an Odyssey or heaven forbid an analog PONG machine). :rolleyes:
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)