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00:00All right, so Apple brought us some really nice products this year, but their more recent
00:08stuff, the M1 Pro and M1 Max products were particularly impressive.
00:12And ever since they've come out, I keep seeing this conversation pop up online of like, Apple
00:17and gaming.
00:18Apple should get into gaming.
00:19Apple should make a gaming laptop or some kind of gaming hardware because they can do
00:23it now, right?
00:24There are new chips, powerful CPUs, really powerful GPUs, a lot of bandwidth, very energy
00:29efficient.
00:30They have all the ingredients right in front of them to make something that would be not
00:34just competitive, but could beat a lot of the modern consoles and gaming laptops out
00:38there right now.
00:39So why haven't they done it?
00:40Why haven't they made that push for gaming?
00:43And I would love to see it, right?
00:44Triple A gaming titles on Apple hardware would be super cool.
00:48But the more I looked into it and the more I saw what Apple's been doing over the past
00:51few years, it just feels like they're never going to do it.
00:54I actually don't feel like Apple cares about that kind of gaming.
00:57So if you think about how they could theoretically get into that space right now, there's two
01:01possibilities, two big ones.
01:03Like number one, they could make a console-like product, right?
01:06Something like an Xbox or a PlayStation 5, or maybe even something that's like a Switch,
01:09akin to a Switch.
01:11Something that is a console product that isn't an iPad or anything like that, right?
01:15Something that's dedicated for gaming.
01:17Or number two, they could push for more Triple A titles to be developed so that they would
01:21run on their new Silicon.
01:23Now I'm going to start off with a talk about the whole idea of a console.
01:26So the concept of a modern-day Apple console isn't new, and even last year there were rumors
01:31that something like this might pop up.
01:33You can imagine a box, like Apple TV Max or something, and you stuff it with Apple Silicon.
01:37It's very compact, super powerful for its size, 10 teraflops in this small little box.
01:42The idea of that is really neat, but that's just not what consoles are about, right?
01:46Consoles are supposed to be these inexpensive devices that you sell at potentially a loss
01:49to as many people as you can, and you make money off the games that you sell those, right?
01:53That's how Microsoft does it, that's how Sony does it, that's how Nintendo does it,
01:57that's how the entire console industry works right now.
02:00That's just not what Apple ever does.
02:02They like to sell you expensive hardware, and they like to sell it to you frequently.
02:06Every year, if you can, right?
02:08Not once every few years on a console cycle.
02:10No, man, that whole model is just so not what Apple does, I just don't see them ever doing
02:14something like that.
02:15They have like a dedicated gaming box, I just don't see them doing it.
02:20The second thing is the idea of Apple pulling in AAA developers to make games on their platform.
02:27And there are some technical obstacles, like you can't use standard APIs, you can't use
02:30DirectX, you can't use Vulkan, you have to use Metal if you want it to be like the best
02:34optimized for Apple stuff, but it's all doable, right?
02:39The problem is there's just no money here.
02:41There's such a small user base of people with MacBooks, especially MacBooks with powerful
02:45graphics cards built to play high-end games, because a tiny portion of the world uses this
02:51kind of hardware.
02:52So if you're a game developer, you're not looking at this, like you're looking at Windows,
02:56because that's where it is, like if you think about Rocket League, a game that I loved,
03:00there was a time when they had a Mac OS build of like a port that ran natively on Apple,
03:06on Mac OS, but then they killed it, right?
03:08There just wasn't enough of a user base to keep it active and to support that build,
03:12so they just got rid of it.
03:13Something like Genshin Impact, that's a game that's built in Unity, and the devs can easily
03:17create a Mac OS build if they wanted to, even one that's native for M1, but they choose
03:21not to, right?
03:22They have one for iOS, for Android, for PS4, for Windows, but they don't have it for Mac
03:27OS because there's just no incentive for them to do it.
03:30The financial incentive ain't there.
03:32But where Apple excels at, and truly excels at, is in mobile gaming.
03:38Like they absolutely crush it there.
03:40So there was a report of Apple's gaming revenue from 2019, and it was supposedly higher than
03:45Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo combined.
03:48It was something like $8.5 billion in profit, and it was all pulled from the App Store,
03:52right?
03:53That 30% cut that they take from all the sales that happened there, plus the Apple Arcade
03:57stuff, and we don't know how accurate those reports are, but one thing's for sure, they're
04:01making a good amount of bank from that App Store, and it's all done through phones and
04:06tablets.
04:07It has nothing to do with high-end hardware, it has nothing to do with AAA game development.
04:10It's just like casual mobile games that's pulling in a ridiculous amount of money.
04:14Which is, like it's cool for Apple, but the truth is, I find it unfortunate.
04:18Because if, if Apple wanted to, they could enter that AAA gaming world, and they would
04:23do well in it, right?
04:24They have the resources, they have the money, they would just take a few years, pull in
04:27some developers, set up a program, make it easier for devs to work on, like they could
04:31crush it.
04:33But they don't, they choose not to.
04:34Why?
04:35Because this stuff does not make money.
04:37Like that high-end AAA gaming, it's just so much less money than the microtransactions
04:43and the free-to-play models, and like all the mini casual games that they sell in the
04:47App Store.
04:48That stuff makes a ton of money, and it works really well for them.
04:51Apple's in one of the most profitable positions you can be in, in the gaming industry.
04:55Possibly the most profitable position.
04:57And for them to shift around resources just so they can enter the mix and compete with
05:00this stuff, it's just a lot of effort for not a lot of gain.
05:03So I think Apple looks at this stuff and they just do not care about this type of gaming.
05:08It's unfortunate because we're looking at their amazing hardware, we're like, they can
05:10do it.
05:11They could, they could make something cool, but it just wouldn't make financial sense
05:15for them.
05:16Now, I do think that in the future, they're looking for the next thing, right?
05:20How can they get into a space where they are innovative, where they are leaders?
05:23And I think with like augmented reality or maybe the metaverse stuff in the future, maybe
05:26that's where they're going to go into.
05:28And I think signs lead that way, but that's way in the future.
05:31I think if we're looking at Apple's new hardware and we're hopeful for something to come out
05:36from it that's geared towards gamers, no, I don't think it's going to be a thing.
05:42Okay.
05:43Hope you guys enjoyed this video.
05:44Thumbs if you liked it, subs if you loved it.
05:45I'll see you guys next time.