Just curious, but what's more compelling about Apple's ecosystem than Sony's, Microsoft's, or Steam's?
The PS4 is strongly targeting indies, Microsoft already has, and Steam is more than anyone. Steam already has a ton of traction, and now they're making it possible to roll your own console, in addition to future hardware.
Why would I, as either a developer or a player, bet on Apple, when they have a reputation for being even more closed and oppressive than the others, take a bigger cut of my (developer) revenue, and charge me more for hardware (as a player)?
While mobile may be taking alot of sales from the casual gamer, I reckon there's still alot more money to be made from console/PC sales (how much is GTA 5 up to? over a billion last I checked).
"what's more compelling about Apple's ecosystem than Sony's, Microsoft's, or Steam's?"
You might say the same thing about mobile games and the 3DS and PSP/Vita. What was more compelling about Apple's ecosystem than Sony's or Nintendo's?
(1) there were a lot more devices shipped.
(2) they have a lot of credit card numbers on file
(3) relatively fewer restrictions.
"more closed and oppressive than the others"
Right because it's super easy to get your games on XBL, Steam, PSN. These companies are all changing their policies because Apple took all the mindshare of the industry 5 years ago with the extremely dev friendly app store (you know, the one that you're calling 'oppressive').
"take a bigger cut of my (developer) revenue"
Uninformed. Steam takes the same 30% as Apple, Google it. MS charged devs tens of thousands of dollars to patch a game on XBL. Neither MS nor Sony has released the cut they're planning to take with PS4/Xbone.
"and charge me more for hardware (as a player)?"
That doesn't even make sense. The whole premise here is that the hardware would be less powerful and much cheaper than the new consoles being released.
"there's still alot more money to be made from console/PC sales"
That's not really under debate, what's at issue is which platform(s) will we see the money being made on. Just like in the home console market, there is lots of money still being made in mobile gaming; in fact more than ever. But that money simply isn't going to Nintendo and Sony the way it did 10 years ago.
Right now, I'm working on a pet project. I hope to target PC, Linux and Steam. I've seen all the statistics concerning the various platforms. iOS isn't compelling, as the average selling price (among paid apps) is quite low, and median revenue for iOS developers is abysmal (http://maniacdev.com/2011/10/survey-says-median-ios-game-rev...). Android is worse.
Take a company like Mojang, obviously an outlier, but they sell a popular app on PC, Xbox, and mobile. Their financials are somewhat public, and their all-time mobile sales are around 1 quarter of their yearly salves... And of course, they became a hit on PC. They also do twice the yearly revenue as Rovio.
When I was thinking closed and oppressive, I was thinking vs. PC/Linux (you can distribute your app through many channels), so you're right that Steam, XBL and PSN aren't very open, but they're becoming more open.
As a player, a decent iOS gaming device (iPad retina) costs more than a PS4 will cost at launch. Apple's not going to put out an Ouya competitor, the internals they put in the iPhone 5S would put them in the same price range as the PS4 for vastly inferior hardware.
The PS4 is strongly targeting indies, Microsoft already has, and Steam is more than anyone. Steam already has a ton of traction, and now they're making it possible to roll your own console, in addition to future hardware.
Why would I, as either a developer or a player, bet on Apple, when they have a reputation for being even more closed and oppressive than the others, take a bigger cut of my (developer) revenue, and charge me more for hardware (as a player)?
While mobile may be taking alot of sales from the casual gamer, I reckon there's still alot more money to be made from console/PC sales (how much is GTA 5 up to? over a billion last I checked).