Okay, so Mac OS Rumors contains a bit of speculation about "Apple's answer to Xbox," the upcoming gaming console that's just one more physical manifestation of Microsoft's obsessive need to own every market it can get its tentacles around. The thing hasn't even shipped yet, and people are already proclaiming it the demise of the Playstation 2. The Redmond Beast is sinking so many resources into guaranteeing Xbox's success that it's even gone so far as to subvert and then purchase formerly Mac-software mavens Bungie-- a defection from which the AtAT staff still hasn't fully recovered.

So according to Microsoft, games are big, and the Xbox is the future of gaming. Meanwhile, gaming on the Macintosh is arguably improving-- at least we're getting more and more of the big titles ported over, though it still takes a while-- but no one's making any claims that hardcore gamers are better off getting a Mac than a tricked-out Wintel or a dedicated console system. With the coming advent of the Xbox, Microsoft seems to think that consoles are eventually going to win. The question is, should Apple go after a slice of the console pie? If Larry Ellison's right about Apple becoming a "digital appliance" provider and competing head-to-head with Sony, isn't an Apple-branded game console a natural piece of the puzzle?

Well, MOSR claims that Apple is indeed working on just such a device: a cheap, stripped-down Mac with super-beefy graphics performance. Whether or not that's true, we're not sure whether or not that's wise. Does anybody remember the PiPPiN? Apple has gotten its butt kicked all over the room in this fight before. While we'd love to see a "gMac" console that could really compete squarely with the Xbox and the Playstation 2 (not to mention Nintendo's upcoming PowerPC-based GAMECUBE), somehow we doubt that Apple has the resources to leap into that free-for-all without emerging bloody, battered, and missing a couple of limbs.

However, if Apple were to attempt something like that, we'd we'd like to see is a "gMac" whose base circuitry is incorporated into every shipping Macintosh. Pair that with a gracefully degrading game API, and we'd imagine that developers could write games that play perfectly well on a $199 gMac-- but that also play on fuller-featured and more expensive portable and desktop Macs. Moreover, the feature sets of those very same games could scale up on a full-fledged Mac, to allow local storage of game data on the hard drive, use of a LAN and/or Internet connection for network play, higher-resolution gameplay on a Mac's display versus a TV screen, etc. Hey, it could happen. But a deal with Nintendo to build GAMECUBE functionality into every Mac might possibly be more realistic...