Apple TV for AAA games? What's at stake at Apple's "Experience" event

Apple has a date set: on October 13 it will update several of its products at an event it has called "Experience". That's according to Movistar eSports, which raises the question that matters most to those of us who live by the controller and the leaderboard: will the new Apple TV arrive ready to run AAA games?

It might look like a consumer electronics story, but it's more than that. If Apple decided to get serious about turning its living-room box into a machine capable of running big-budget titles, it would reshape the landscape of devices people play, stream and create content on. And if it doesn't, that will also say a lot about how much the Cupertino company really cares about gaming.

What you need to know

• Apple will unveil updates to several of its products on October 13.
• The company has dubbed the occasion an "Experience" event, a format that, according to the source, suggests it won't be a typical product launch.
• The big unknown for the games industry is whether the new Apple TV will have enough muscle for AAA games.
• There are no confirmed specs yet: anything said before the event is expectation, not fact.

What we know and what we don't

It's worth being honest about the information available. The Movistar eSports piece centers on a question, not a leak: it offers no performance figures, no pricing and no technical details about the device. The only solid facts are the date and the name of the event. The "Experience" format itself suggests Apple may go for something different from the classic big keynote, which also leaves the door open to more low-key announcements than some are expecting.

In other words: anyone telling you today that the new Apple TV is going to compete with a home console is guessing. And so is anyone telling you the opposite. We'll get the answer on the 13th.

Who it affects

If the answer turned out to be a resounding yes, the impact would be felt on three fronts:

• Competitive players: one more device to practice on or play demanding titles, as long as latency, controller support and stability are up to the task.
• Content creators: new options for streaming from the living room and for covering releases on a platform that has so far played a secondary role in gaming.
• Studios and publishers: whether or not they port their games will depend on there being enough power, but above all on there being an audience willing to pay for them.

Our take

Here in the Underworld Lordz newsroom we're skeptical, and not out of spite. Hardware is only half the equation. A machine can have all the power in the world, but without a solid catalog, without long-term commitment to developers and without a community playing on it, it ends up as a pretty box under the TV. Apple has flirted with gaming more than once, and the general feeling in the community is that it has never fully committed with real conviction.

That said, we're not going to deny the potential. Apple has something few others do: millions of users inside its ecosystem and the ability to set standards when it puts its mind to it. If the new Apple TV arrived with real capability for demanding titles and the company backed it with a serious plan for studios and players, it would be big news for the industry. For a content creator, a new emerging platform is always a chance to stake out a position before anyone else.

What we're asking for is simple: fewer promises of an experience and more measurable results. Stable performance, good controller support, hassle-free capture and streaming options and, above all, games. If on October 13 all we see is a slightly faster device for watching shows, so be it: high-level gaming will stay right where it already is.

What do you think?

We'll know soon enough, and we want to hear your take. Would you play a AAA game on an Apple TV, or do you think Apple will never take competitive gaming seriously? Drop by the team chat or our Discord and tell us: would you give it a shot, or no way?