Apple Is Rumored to Be Poaching Xbox Engineers to Design Its Own Gaming Console

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Image: Apple



The console gaming arena could be getting a new contender. A new rumor is circulating that Apple could be poaching Xbox engineers to help design its own gaming console. The rumor comes from Windows Central’s Jez Corden, who shared in a recent podcast that although he doesn’t have the best source, he has been hearing it for some time.



I’ve been hearing for a while that Apple has been poaching Xbox engineers to make its own console. I’ve heard that for ages, that Apple was exploring making a video game console. And I don’t know if it’s going to be a VR play, or a metaverse thing, or something like that…









Mr. Corden goes on to share some doubt about the current state of the potential project and adds, “I don’t know if that’ll come to...

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[Grimlakin]

Honestly it's probably just to make their tablets and phones better gaming devices. Similar to Samsung's partnership with AMD.

 

[Brian_B]

They already have AppleTV, and they support most major gamepads. They don't need to do anything on the hardware side. They just need to add to their APIs and make them more developer-friendly and change their App policies a bit; it's awfully hard to make engaging games when you force everything to have a touchscreen interface even if it's primarily a controller-based game.

Sure, faster hardware would be better, it always is. The current AppleTV 4K is only running an A12. But Apple's A-series is pretty darn good already - I'd say the A12 already beats a Switch outright and would probably be competitive with last-gen console hardware (non-Pro level), but it wouldn't have the power envelope to really push against a current-gen console. Not that it couldn't: M-series have an expanded power envelope and could certainly get competitive if Apple just wanted to re-design a Mac Mini or something. The original AppleTV was just a re-designed Mini after all.

But that doesn't require hardware engineers; they already have the hardware to do that. They need to get API/Software support in line to be more developer-friendly. That would let them get more than just these casual games that are prevalent because Apple requires all software to support Touch interface, even if it has other input available.