Apple to enter the videogames industry? You think you've heard it all before, but a surfaced patent proves otherwise!

One of the age-old stories you'll find unearthed on games websites and magazines every so often is the suggestion that Apple is going to enter the videogames industry and take on Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. Some of the rumours are just outright stupid, but everything we hear is a step closer to reality, and this time what we at N-Europe have to report on is backed up by a patent!

According to Apple specialist news website AppleInsider, back in November 2006 Apple filed a patent for a three-dimensional remote control that can 'detect an absolute location to which a remote control is pointing' using the x, y and z axes. The filing states 'Remote control system can include optional console. Console can have controller that can perform some or all of the processing described for controller. Console can also have one or more connectors to which accessories can be coupled', but 'console' could be anything. Or that's what you think� it gets more interesting.

'Accessories can include cables and/or game cartridges, portable memory devices (e.g. memory cards, external hard drives, etc), adapters for interfacing with another electronic device (e.g. computers, camcorders, cameras, media players, etc), or combinations thereof'. Also stated is 'the absolute x and y positions of remote control can be used, for example, in videogames to position a user's character or to otherwise track the movement of the remote control in a user's environment'.

AppleInsider believes this patent regards the Apple TV set-top box, but team N-Europe isn't so sure! Aside from the numerous references to games (cartridges, though we have to wonder why Apple would go back to the stone age, hard drives, and even the word 'videogames') it's about time Apple entered the games market. Whether that will be casual with a larger emphasis on pick-up-and-playability or otherwise is something we'll have to wait to find out (if this turns out to bear any fruit whatsoever), but to us it sounds like a dream console!