“Microsoft has announced that the PC version of Halo 2 will only work on the new version of Windows called Vista,” BBC News reports “The decision could make it expensive for many to play the game if they have to buy the new version of Windows and extra hardware for their PC. The decision to make only a Vista version of the best-selling Halo 2 game could significantly stunt the games appeal.
“The Vista edition of Halo 2 will offer single and multi-player versions of the game, extra maps from add-on packs as well as software tools to create new places to play,” The Beeb reports. “To date Microsoft has sold more than 14.5 million copies of the Halo games.”
Full article here.
This is obviously not really purely Mac-related, except that tens of millions will someday be faced with having to buy a new personal computer if they want to run Microsoft’s Windows Vista itself (if it’s ever released). Hopefully, instead, computer buyers will consider a powerful, secure, fun, iLife-running Apple Mac OS X machine instead of Microsoft’s usual late, poor copy. They’d save $50 per year in Microsoft protection money as a bonus. Attendees of Macworld Expo NYC 1999 will remember Bungie showing the world “Halo” (promised for the Mac) in a preview movie during Steve Jobs’ keynote presentation. We applauded wildly. Shortly thereafter, Bungie was acquired by Microsoft Corp. and “Halo” was consigned to Microsoft’s Xbox. The Mac version of “Halo” wasn’t released until late 2003 (by MacSoft, a few weeks after the Windows version).
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Buy an Xbox if you want to play the game. Or, better yet, wait and buy a PS3; it will be ten times better than the Xbox. Anyone who buys a computer these days to play video games is an idiot.
You’re an idiot for even considering such a notion. The PC gaming industry is actually quite huge and is largely responsible for many of the advances in computer hardware over the last decade. The vast majority of online gamers are PC gamers, as stats prove. The recent reports of console games outselling PC games fail to make the fact known that on an individual basis (PC games vs Xbox games, PC games vs Playstion, etc.. instead of PC games vs ALL console games), PC games still outsell their console counterparts.
The people who spend the $$$ to build a powerful gaming machine aren’t idiots. They are people who despise the simplistic controls of gamepad (can you name a flight simulator, first person shooter or real-time-strategy game that’s best played on a gamepad than a keyboard/mouse?). Or people who don’t want to be bounded to the lack of upgradability on consoles. Modifications to games by the user community have become standard on PC gaming for years.
Giant hardware companies like ATI & Nvidia (who power the next gen consoles) have built their foundations on PC gaming, and continue to be primarily PC embedded. Their biggest marketshare and revenue are from desktop graphics chips, not from the console deals with Microsoft/Sony.
Bottom line is whoever thinks people who buy computers for gaming are idiots, is an idiot himself.
Blast from the past updated:
If ya want to play Halo 2 you need Vista.
Why?
Cause Windoze PCs are just toys.
PC games still outsell their console counterparts.
Sorry I beg to differ, I have been to a few hundred malls in my lifetime and seen the progression of “game stores” change from PC and Mac games, to mostly all console games and a few PC games.
Those things are not on the shelves if they aren’t selling.
PC gaming has been on the decline in favor of consoles for a long time now.
Even the local K-Marts and Walmarts have three glass booths filled with console games, no PC games at all anymore.
It’s Microsoft’s fault actually, to grab hardware sales as well as software sales, they made Windows a nightmare of a OS to use for the home user and gave IT a job in the process.
Eventually consoles will have computer like features, all controlled by Microsoft, no more home user computers needed.
This is why Sony and M$ are fighting so hard and giving hardware away below cost.
Apple will be in a pickle eventually as consumers will find using a console machine easier to use than Mac OS XI.
or you could just.. buy a game system and get one of the 2237 FPS games…
Halo is cool.. but there’s tons just like it..
*shrug
Reading between the lines of that article, I get the rather distinct impression that Halo 2 will never be released for the Mac.
:sigh:
God damn it.
Windows Vista is a much more streamlined platform for game development. Ensuring that the game can run on every iteration of Windows is an expensive endeavor. THEY AREN’T USING IT AS A PLOY TO FORCE PEOPLE TO UPGRADE.
I support Microsoft’s reasoning behind this decision.
Halo 2 for Mac hasn’t been ruled out, either. I’d bet it will see release roughly a few months later. You can read it straight from Bungie’s website.
Quote: “If Vista were that worthwhile an upgrade, why does Microsoft need to “force” some people to buy it?”
Answer: because it isn’t. Millions still haven’t “upgraded” to XP yet.
PC retail game sales have been declining (mainly due to torrent piracy, not consoles), but PC digital sales and subscription based MMORP games have been steadily increasing. The recent NDP statistics even take note of this fact that their stats were based entirely on retail sales, not digital downloads and subscription based online RPG’s. If you looked at the sales of the retail version of Half Life 2 for example, compared to direct STEAM purchases, you’ll see a huge disparity. NDP does not even take into consideration the people who play online RPG’s (who can download the software instead of buying it retail) or any online only games who’s revenue is not by the sale of the game itself, by monthly subscriptions.
I’m not sure where you live, but the Walmart in my area still carries a large selection of PC games. It’s not bigger than all the console game sections combined, but it is bigger than each of them. Just like the sales figure.
Bungie was the best there was until the evil empire bought em and moved them from Chicago to blue screen land.
How many MDN readers played Marathin and Myth?
Well You still can play Myth on OS X no less.
Go to playmyth.net and get back in the game, people are still developing mew maps, levels and creatures for the game and it still kicks @ss, now get over to playmyth.net. grab an account and Game On!!