by Dan Moren
Games, App Thinning, and the Apple TV
Extensive and excellent deep dive from Polygon’s Dave Tach into the potential of games on the Apple TV, with a particular focus on App Thinning technologies:
Indifferent to the excitement and the trepidation, the new Apple TV will begin shipping this week. Though few who plug in their set-top boxes will know it, they’ll become test pilots for a series of technologies that could provide a new paradigm for distributing and managing storage on computers, whether they sit in your lap, rest in your hand or live tethered to your TV. And if it works, it might have a lot to teach gaming consoles like the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Wii U.
This shouldn’t be surprising. After all, this is Apple. It’s an opinionated company, confident in making controversial decisions that it believes will benefit its customers. Since its founding, Apple has been a company that loves nothing quite so much as creating small technological wonders that are drop-dead simple to use. Why would it be any different when Apple set its sights on TV?
I always feel that gaming on iOS was a surprise hit for Apple, which has never really known what to do with games. The Apple TV is a conscious decision to move into that space and it’s not hard to see the box as “a gaming console done Apple’s way.” The gaming features aren’t a primary seller for me, as an Xbox One owner, but I can certainly see the appeal for the millions of people who play and enjoy iOS games.