Suttree.com: Casual Games, Social Software by Duncan Gough

So that’s iTV as the console, iPod games as the test-bed, and a simple, 5 button remote control as the Wiimote. Besides that, Apple are thinking of opening up the iPod games development process too.

What the iTV also provides is a movie and possibly tv watching presence. Given that the iTV comes with built in wifi, media centre and Applescript, it’s surely just a case of piping together all those elements to create an iChat hack that tells your friends what film you’re watching. Developers could take that a lot further than the iChat-status hack level, too (I tried something similar to this with Applescript and EyeTV but ran into a couple of problems and a lack of free time was chief among them). I’d be surprised if it’s an application Apple ship by default, but it’s certainly one that indie developers could ship within months of the launch. The more I think about it, the more the iTunes Film and Movie store is becoming a non-game Xbox Live Arcade (albeit with more competition). I’d love to see my Gamerscore and achievements for all those episodes of Law & Order I’ve watched ;)

Incidentally, I say iPod games are a test-bed as it’s debateable whether there are going to be any Brain Training-esque killer games for it. Regardless, the online distribution of games onto the massive user base of existing iPod owners and any future iTV owners is yet another revenue stream for the iTunes Music, Film and Games store.

And here’s another sobering thought, is it going to take an Apple iPhone combined with iPod games for mobile games to be any good? There’s been enough speculation that mobile games have the potential to be as big as mobile phones themselves, but the games have been poor, the handsets to labourious to code for and the control mechanisms too clunky. An iPod phone is going to offer one operating system to code for as well as a user-friendly controler mechanism. So long as the games are good enough (something beyond the usual Casual Games clones), mobile gaming could really take off.

One thing is for sure, speculating about Apple with so few substantiated facts has never been so much fun!