Posted by Greg Mills

Apple tends to do things incrementally when tech lovers like to see dramatic moves. Apple has long been chided for not putting a game console out, like Malcrosoft did. XBox is finally in the black after Ballmer dumped enough money into it to solve the US Budget problem.

Apple has sort of backed into games by providing the iOS developer tools that have allowed developers to create games for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad instead of a console platform. The growth of mobile games has actually outstripped the console model. However, hooking up to a big TV offers a much different experience than using a mobile device.

Element 2 in the console model is orientation aware controllers. Recently it has been touted that AppleTV has a BlueTooth chip that hasn't been used yet. Couple that with the rumors that the next generation of AppleTV will be running the A5 Dual core chip Apple is putting in future iPhone and iPads.

Could the AppleTV BlueTooth Chip bridge between an iPhone or iPod Touch to work as a Kinect type orientation aware controller? The AppleTV seems under utilized when one considers the power under the hood. It has long been known that AppleTV has the ability to download and run apps.

Put it all together and suddenly you have Apple's answer to a game platform that will run on your living room HDTV. While current AppleTV supports 720p, which isn't bad, full 1040p is likely coming in the next version. This will support the sale of more games and also pump the digital download to the living room Apple has long sought to own.