Apple serious about hand-held gaming device?
According to details contained in a recent filing with the patent office, Apple is set to extend their trademark with the inclusion of anything and everything that may pertain to being a ‘portable gaming device.’The new trademark application, dated Feb.5th, states:
"Toys, games and playthings, namely, hand-held units for playing electronic games; hand-held units for playing video games; stand alone video game machines; electronic games other than those adapted for use with television receivers only; LCD game machines; electronic educational game machines; toys, namely battery-powered computer games."
Apple’s current offering of casual games on the iPod has hardly set the gaming world on fire, with only a fine sprinkling of average games currently in their portfolio including the multi-platform titles, Sudoku, Bomberman and Zuma. Even with third party developers, such as Electronic Arts, jumping on board with The Sims franchise, the titles currently available are nowhere near to emulating the quality of the top DS and PSP titles. If Apple really want to compete then, sooner rather than later, they’ll need to look at producing a quality hand-held gaming device.
The new trademark application could purely be Apple protecting their interests, but with Nintendo, Namco, Sega and more developers collaborating with the firm for the creation of games on the iPhone and iPod, could it be that Apple is finally looking to create a standalone gaming hand-held that will be able to compete with the big boys? Or indeed will they team up with one of them (Nintendo rumour...*cough*) to create the ultimate games console?
Source :: Trademork
