NEW DELHI: If Apple enters the gaming industry, it will conquer the segment and destroy current big-wigs like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo, said Nat Brown, one of the founders of Xbox console. In a post on his blog, Brown called Sony and Nintendo stumbling failures and said Microsoft has failed to capitalise on innovations like Kinect. Slamming Microsoft, he wrote, “Apple will simply kill Playstation, Wii-U and Xbox by introducing an open 30%-cut app/game ecosystem for Apple-TV.”
Venting his frustration on Microsoft’s Xbox strategy, Brown wrote that Microsoft has only coasted on the success of gaming console for the past five years. Microsoft is bogged down by “a complete lack of tactical versus strategic understanding of the long game of the living room,” added Brown. According to him, Microsoft Xbox’s “developers are tired and deserting, and their supply-lines are broken.”
Brown attacked world’s biggest software maker for what he termed lacking a “functional and growing platform ecosystem for small developers to sell digitally-/network-distributed (non-disc) content through to the installed base of Xbox customers.” He also criticised the extensive paperwork required to make games for Microsoft’s gaming platform and the $10,000 fee that developers are charged. He also panned the company for not promoting games by independent developers who become part of Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG), which entails a minimal membership fee.
The Xbox interface also drew his Brown’s ire, who said that “the device OS and almost the entire user experience outside the first two levels of the dashboard are creaky and slow.”
Coming to Apple, Brown said: “Apple is already a games competitor broadly, even if Apple-TV isn’t yet a game platform or a console. The current numbers already say a lot, even with Apple-TV not already an open console: 5.3m sold units in 2012, 90% year-over-year growth — vs Xbox 360 — about 9m units in 2012, 60% YoY decline. 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.” Taking a swipe at Microsoft’s policy for developers, he said, “I would (write apps) for Xbox if I could and I knew I would make money.”
Brown also said, “Xbox just needs somebody with a brain and focus to get the product in order tactically before romping forward to continue the long-term strategic promise of an Xbox in every living room, connected to every screen.”
