According to Nat Brown, who is one of the founders of the Xbox entertainment console from Microsoft, if Apple were to enter the gaming industry, it would destroy Microsoft’s Xbox, Sony’s Playstation, and Nintendo’s Wii consoles.
Brown also mentions that Sony and Nintendo are stumbling failures and Microsoft has also failed to capitalize on innovations like Kinect. “But the past 5 years, and the last year in particular, have been simply painful to watch. Coasting on past momentum. Failing to innovate and failing to capitalize on innovations like Kinect. Touting strategic and market success when you’re just experiencing your competitor’s stumbling failure (yes, Sony, Nintendo – you are, I’m afraid, stumbling failures). A complete lack of tactical versus strategic understanding of the long game of the living room,” Brown explains.
Brown’s biggest gripe about Xbox has to do with a lack of functional and growing platform for small developers to create and sell content through. In other words, why cant a developer write a game for the Xbox using $100 dollars worth of tools and an existing Windows laptop, test it at home, and then distribute it digitally in an online store and give a 30% cut (or strike it rich) if it turns out to be a popular game (like you can with Android or iPhone or iPad). Brown even slammed the interface of the Xbox operating system claiming that the dashboard is “creaky and slow.” The Xbox simply needs someone with a brain, according to Brown, to focus and get the product in order tactically, before entering the living room and being connected to every screen.
Regardless of what Brown things, Microsoft recently revealed that the Xbox entertainment console is still number one in market share for the month of January 2013 and has been number one for 25 consecutive months in a row!
“Apple, if it chooses to do so, will simply kill Playstation, Wii-U and xBox by introducing an open 30%-cut app/game ecosystem for Apple-TV. I already make a lot of money on iOS – I will be the first to write apps for Apple-TV when I can, and I know I’ll make money. I would for xBox if I could and I knew I would make money,” Brown adds. So is Brown right? Should Apple enter the gaming market?
