In addition to reviews lifting for the new Apple TV 4K, Apple marketing executive Tim Twerdahl spoke with CNN Underscored's Jacob Krol about the latest generation of the streaming box, which launches this Friday.
Priced at $179 with 32GB of storage or $199 with 64GB of storage, Twerdahl said the new Apple 4K offers "tremendous" value.
"We think there's a tremendous amount of value in this $179. When we talk about the best way to watch TV, I sort of think about it at three levels," Twerdahl said. Those three levels, according to Twerdahl, are hardware specs that deliver the best experience possible, having content that people want, and seamless integration with other Apple products.
Twerdahl said Apple's focus with gaming has been on Apple Arcade, which he also said delivers a tremendous value, but he admitted that the new Apple TV 4K is not designed to compete directly with consoles like the Xbox or PlayStation.
"Our focus on gaming has been more recently on arcade stuff, because we think that that's a great value for customers, there's a tremendous amount of content in there," said Twerdahl. "And we've done a lot to make that experience fantastic. Most notably, probably support for all these different game controllers."
"It's probably not designed to compete directly with the Xboxes and PlayStations of the world," added Twerdahl. "They bring something to the market that I think is unique and great for really hardcore gamers."
Apple Arcade is Apple's subscription-based gaming service, providing access to a catalog of over 100 games without ads or in-app purchases across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV, with pricing set at $4.99 per month. The recent tvOS 14.5 update added support for the latest PS5 and Xbox Series X game controllers on the Apple TV.
The new Apple TV 4K has been available to order since April 30, with most orders beginning to arrive this Friday, May 21.
