Rumor: Apple TV To Become Game Console

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Michael Patcher is a technology analyst at Webush Morgan Securities who makes predictions on the technology industry for the benefit of financial investors. He’s become somewhat (in)famous in the past few years for making bold claims about the video game industry, but now, some of his comments on Apple’s iPod and Apple TV have led to speculation that Apple will convert the set-top box to a gaming console.

Mr. Patcher’s predictions have ranged from the outrageous to the accurate, but people often take an interest in what he says. His popularity in the video gaming community has led to his own video podcast on a website. Patcher, when commenting on the current Microsoft-Sony-Nintendo console race, said that Apple was “accidentally stumbling into the game industry” and that they’re “find out that it’s a cool place to be.”

He’s of course referring to the wide selection of gaming apps for sale for the iPhone and iPod Touch. He added that he didn’t think Apple intended the iPod or iPhone to be gaming devices, but Patcher feels that gaming applications on the iPad, iPhone and iPod will drive sales of the devices.

He says that as big time game publishers like EA, Two-Take and Activision begin putting bite-sized versions of their big console titles on the iPhone, Apple will be come a “serious gaming company”. This has led to internet speculation that Apple could release new iterations of the Apple TV with a new gaming emphases. If you consider other recent rumors that Apple will put the iPhone OS on the Apple TV, this would make the Apple TV sort of a discreet gaming console.

Why anybody would want to play games designed for a 3.5-inch screen on a 1080p HDTV are beyond me. But if you look at what they’re doing with the iPad, where you can run the older iPhone apps, or write new ones that take advantage of the iPad’s bigger size, they could likely do something similar with the AppleTV.