Apple gaming... no seriously!

Developer.apple.com has an article up about Aspyr's development of PC ports to the new Intel-powered Macs coming next year. With such a ready solution to the age-old problem of Apple being years behind on even the games they do get... could we be heading toward more simultaneous release PC and Mac games? And if that happens, will Apple be able to chip away at the hardcore PC gamer audience and 'switch' the one group no one ever suspected. Even I'm not gullible enough to suggest that the PC crowd who lovingly build, upgrade, customize, and maintain their gaming rigs would give it up for an iMac. But the iMac audience that is out there buying them might want to buy some games too. So continues the courtship of the casual gamer, where the real money is. On a seemingly unrelated note, Sony is not worried about a video iPod competing with the PSP. They really don't have to be worried right now, but now that Apple has conquered music, and moving on to video, who says they won't go after portable gaming next? Imagine digital delivery like game tap is already doing right in the iTunes interface and playable on a gaming iPod. Homebrew gaming would have a new wide audience just like podcasts and videocasts have now on the iPod, and by putting games right next to video and music in an online outlet just like they are in brick and mortar stores you'd be entice a group that might never pick up a PSP or even a GBA. Think I'm crazy? Read this:

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“The format that’s under discussion right now, HD versus Blu-ray, that’s simply the last physical format we’ll ever have. Even videos in the future will either be on a disk in your pocket or over the Internet and therefore far more convenient for you.”

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Ya know who said that? Bill Gates. Microsoft's Xbox360 is designed to download games as much as it is to play ones you put in the disc tray. If they're banking on this as the future, imagine how much more better prepared Apple would be as the owner of the internet's most popular legal download application?