Apple’s solution assumes that its devices are covered in a warm blanket of internet connectivity. This makes sense for the Apple TV, which will live in a home, or iPhones, which have cellular connectivity built in. It makes less sense for devices like the iPod Touch and some iPads, which don’t always have internet connections.
This is my main concern with gaming on AppleTV and the industry as a whole. We release games that aren’t complete and require 1+ gigabyte patches on day one of release and now downloadable games are on-demand so you get portions of the game as you play through.
There will be a time where we don’t have Internet either you decide to move up to a cabin for the summer and take the AppleTV with you to watch media you have on your computer via HomeSharing or something more bizarre like a collapse of our Internet infrastructure due to hacking from another country or terrorist group.
Some say that the AppleTV Gaming won’t be a big deal if we lose internet completely but I like to support products that work no matter what. All I need is a solar panel and I have everything I need which is why I keep buying physical copies of games and not downloadable ones. I don’t care for this approach to games that they’re taking as I’m certain that this infrastructure will move to iOS as a requirement at some point. I don’t play iOS games because the screens are too small and most of them are based on a freemium model which is just a waste of money but now even more so, playing a video game on an airplane or in another country with roaming charges means not being able to complete it because the next level hasn’t downloaded yet.