'Why has Apple TV's gaming ecosystem bombed?'

iOS developers regret an opportunity missed.

A conversation overheard on Twitter Tuesday morning:

Why has Apple TV’s gaming ecosystem bombed? It’s hard not to point directly at the initial decisions for ‘on-demand-resources only’ and ‘all games must be playable without a gamepad’. Those two things (since fixed) were enough to wipe out developer interest in the platform

— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) October 9, 2018

The big Q is have the right lessons been learned for Apple’s next big software platform, UIKit-apps-on-macOS? If Mac is relying on iOS apps as big part of its future, it needs to not poison the well w/ some Apple-centered developer-toxic feature. Could be over before it begins

— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) October 9, 2018

No gamepad sold with the ‘console’ is a big problem. Apple TV sells in low digit millions, fraction of those who also bought controllers is surely a tiny number.

— Benjamin Mayo (@bzamayo) October 9, 2018

Plus, hard to port the big games that get attention to it, and it’s for a market that would balk at paying normal console game prices even if they did put the effort in. Also doesn’t have the discoverability/marketing/press for games that consoles have.

— Matthew Bolton (@matthewbbolton) October 9, 2018

I would say lack of discoverability on the Apple TV store as well, combined with the inability to link to your own app, or purchase it via off-device, unless it has an iOS equivalent.

— James Thomson (@jamesthomson) October 9, 2018

It’s a shame as for me as a user, it would have been a great platform.

— Richard Beck (@richard_beck) October 9, 2018

probably the future of Apple TV gaming relies on streaming just like the Nvidia Shield

— Mike Gonzalez (@mistercarter7) October 9, 2018

Agree with this. If you look at NVIDIA GeForce Now, Google Project Stream, Microsoft xCloud… all these companies heavily investing in streaming to massively increase their player-base, increase access to gaming to more devices and more people.

— Mike R (@lightsout565) October 9, 2018

My take: Not having spent any serious time gaming since the Ocarina of Time (Nov. 1998), I defer to these guys for the state of play on Apple TV. It’s not a pretty picture.