Apple brings mobile gaming to the living room with the fourth-generation Apple TV
With a dominant market position in the world of laptops, desktop computers, television streaming, phones, tablets and even watches, many have wondered why Apple has yet to make a video game console. The App Store on iOS has become a gaming force in its own right, so it only seems natural that they’d want to expand that success into the living room. At Apple’s September Keynote this week, the leading name in tech announced the fourth-gen Apple TV, which boasts gaming support alongside a plethora of other features.
While it’s not quite powerful enough to run the latest Call of Duty, Apple’s new set top box is shipping with some big name titles. Guitar Hero Live, Disney Infinity 3.0, Transistor, a new rhythm sports game from Harmonix (Rock Band), and a multiplayer version of Crossy Road have all been announced for the device. One thing holding Apple’s box back however – it does not ship with a dedicated controller. Players will either have to make due with the device’s motion-controlled remote, use an iOS device as a controller, or buy a third-party gamepad.
New Pokémon game lets you catch ’em all, right outside your front door
When Nintendo announced late last year that they’d be getting into mobile development, there was widespread concern that the resulting games would never be able to live up to the company’s standard of quality. Games on mobile are often simplistic, hard to control and sacrifice design for in-game microtransactions. The thought of seeing iconic Nintendo characters in such a spot made many fans weary.
However, the first game in Nintendo’s mobile partnership is actually looking fairly neat. Co-developed by Niantic (who built the GPS-based conspiracy game Ingress for Google), Pokémon GO uses augmented-reality technology to project Pokemon into the real world. The flashy announcement trailer promises a global Pokémon experience, uniting fans in both the digital and real worlds. While I doubt we’ll ever see Times Square packed with players trying to take down Mewtwo, this app is bound to be wildly popular once it hits stores in 2016 for Android and iPhone devices.
Watch the Pokémon GO trailer below.

 
Follow Chris Berg on Twitter, @Mushroomer25