Rumors point to an imminent upgrade and possibly rebranding to the AppleTV, the hobby device kepts captive for years under Steve Jobs’ Distortion Field, the AppleTV has been suffering of a traumatic Identity Crisis missing real DVR and TV tuner features found almost in every set top box in the market, but with the biggest potential among devices of its kind.

Now is the time, a new AppleTV or iTV could become the real Home Media king taking away the thunders of the recently announced Google TV, but not precisely the TV inside the AppleTV is what will make this new device our favorite, it’s the possibility to run thousand applications or even better, to have the hability to run games developed for the iPad or the iPhone in our TV, a real threat to the Xbox and the PS3 gaming consoles that won’t be able to compete in prices with those found in the AppStore.

Don’t get me wrong, the AppleTV is not in the same level of gaming quality and quantity, but it will eventually, it is a matter of consumer demand and games developers will be more than happy to have their titles running in the iPhone, the iPad and in the AppleTV, a bigger, better and more profitable opportunity for developers.

Gamers will enjoy the possibility to move their scores from the iPhone to the iPad or to the AppleTV thanks to the newly announced Games Center, a so kind of Gaming Social Network that would attract players and developers and could compete with features offered by the Xbox and the PS3. If the rumors become true, the AppleTV will be a headache for Sony or Microsoft when it comes to new game price and features or the multi-device development of the iOS.