“It’s time for Apple to use some of its superior design skills to come up with a game for the beleaguered Mac loyalist — like me,” Arik Hesseldahl writes for BusinessWeek. “There’s nothing that can be done with Windows that can’t be done better on a Mac. With one major exception: games. Gaming is the one area of computing where the Mac has seriously lagged in the area of software. While a few major titles have been ported over the years, Mac gamers are treated like a market afterthought. Major releases on the Mac are usually a year or so behind those on Windows. Most of the feelings I have about this situation can’t be put into polite language.”
“…A small shop in Austin, Tex., known as Aspyr Media… makes more games for the Mac than any other company,” Hesseldahl writes, “How many Mac developers does Aspyr have? Five who work full time. That’s it. Why so small a team? Because, as Aspyr’s Director of Development Glenda Adams told me, a successful Mac game might sell 50,000 units. It physically hurt my head to hear so low a number. My first question after hearing it was, ‘How do you do this profitably?’ Her reply: ‘It’s always been a razor-thin kind of thing.'”
“Turns out, Mac users aren’t really into games. That, or they just don’t think of Macs as the machine they turn to for gaming. It’s strange, since Macs have always been generally better at graphics, producing animation, editing sound, and so on. It would seem the Mac would be an ideal gaming environment. And yet the market indicates otherwise,” Hesseldahl writes. “Maybe Apple’s user base just isn’t fully aware of great games that are now available for the Mac? Sure, there are games to be found at the Apple store, prominently displayed in the software section. But does Apple market the Mac as a gaming machine? Adams says it should… But first, another question needs to be addressed. In the Boot Camp era — in which Mac users can simply install Windows on their machines — is there even a need for Mac-specific games? Aspyr’s Adams thinks so. ‘The majority of the end-users we talk to still want Mac-native games,’ she says. ‘If they can get Mac-native games, they’re willing to wait for them.'”
“And while we’re on the subject, why doesn’t Apple try its hand at building good games for the Mac on its own? Apple is full of creative people turning out great software, but why hasn’t it ever turned out a game? After all, gaming is in Apple’s very DNA. Early in their pre-Apple careers, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (some accounts suggest that Woz did most of the work) created Breakout for Atari… An Apple game might help prime the pump. One great game would get Mac users looking for more great games, and thus help demand, which would encourage more games. In time, one of the weakest planks in the pro-Mac sales proposition would start to look stronger,” Hesseldahl writes.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: First of all, a hex upon Hesseldahl for writing “beleaguered Mac loyalist.” Mac users are the last personal computer users who should ever be described as “beleaguered.” Now, while we’d like to see the end product of an Apple-produced game and we’d love to see Mac and Windows games released on the same day (only market share and games sales increases would really accomplish that latter goal), realism dictates that we recommend, “Get a game console if you want to play games.” You know which one we’ve got our eyes on…
FYI: Some Mac game links:
• Amazon Mac Games
• http://www.apple.com/games/
• http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/games/
• Aspyr Top Selling Mac Games
• http://www.blizzard.com/
• http://www.insidemacgames.com/
• http://www.macgamefiles.com/
• http://www.macgamer.com/
• http://www.macgames.com/
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Oh, for two games —
1 Mac Flight Simulator
2 Mac Serenity
It’s a tragedy about Halo. I wouldn’t mind thoughtful Apple takes on…
3 Mac Ringworld
4 Mac Discworld
…argh, I could go on for a looong time!
I’ve got a 360 (yes, I do own a MS product) for games, everything else is done on my Mac. I see no reason to play a game on my 20″ iMac LCD in my home office room at a desk when I can play a game in 720p (or 1080i) on my 37″ Aquos in my living room from the comfort of my own couch.
That is the issues with games. Only the hard core gamers don’t mind sitting at a desk using a mouse and keyboard to play games in front of some DIY PC. The millions of casual games out there, like me, want to play them on our HD TVs from the couch with minimal system issues. Just throw in the game and go. And, no, I haven’t had any issues with my 360 (knock on a 360 wooden faceplate).
The games should be cross-platform. Other than the apple “proof of concept.” The idea is to win the developers, not to become a serious provider of games (that may be a side effect). But apple should be willing to run it as a loss to win developers to the new cross-platform game API/engine(s). Microsoft did this with Direct X – they were no a serious game provider till the XboX came out and they bought up game houses (like the Halo one). Back when Microsoft came up with Direct-X it was to make a superior (non-crossplatform) game API to Open-GL because they wanted to limit the games to Windows and thus extend their monopoly. If Apple was the market leader they may need to do the same thing. The concept is simple here:
Apple needs to make the best way to write windows games (as well as other programs) be to do it on the Mac. As the underdog player this makes sense, because it pulls mainstream developers from windows to Mac and guarantees that the programs be cross-platform as a by product. If Apple did this right you would have R&D departments buying Macs, not to target Macs, but because it makes them better able to target the larger market – and they gain the Mac market as a bonus. The increased program availability will in turn sell more macs.
This has nothing to do with games other than being part of the plan to lure developers. They also need to create a separate division (or even a separate company) to target IT. It should be the anti-Apple company, committed to one goal – get Mac’s into IT. It should be staffed with stuffy IT types that do not make as creative of software, but understand corporate group think to target the other minority group of users with unusually high influence on systems purchased.
The idea is to sway the small groups that drive the user base, to bring about parity in software selection while maintaining superiority where you have it and gaining it where you don’t (like game API’s). Apple can win by making windows better, if it gains software in the mix.
My iMac dualcoare with the X1600 256mb video card runs all games just fine for me. Aspyr definately makes the best games out there for the Mac. My next purchase will be Call Of Duty 2. Sure the PC has a lot more games but just how many of them are total garbage and how many of them are actually something that you would want to buy. Pretty much anything ported to the Mac is usually the only thing that was actually a hit on a PC. So I’ll let the PC gamers waste there money on all the bad games and find the good or great ones that I can play on my Mac. I don’t care if I’m not first to get the latest game, who cares.
If you want a game machine buy a Play Station or an xBox. They have controllers that work with no problems. There are no settings to play with. Just pop the cd in and play. What can be easier. The new consoles have graphic cards and processors that no computer can match.
Why play a game on your 17″ or maybe 23″ computer screen when you can play on the 65″ TV.
If Apple wants to get in the game market it will be on a portable device… like the iPod with a larger screen and it will be for young people with good strong eyes and small hands. That is who they are bought for.
“I don’t care if I’m not first to get the latest game, who cares.”
You obviously don´t play on line.
Since you are all Mac owners and none seem to play any games – you all just don´t get the gaming scene.
It´s like trying to explain somebody why they should own an iPod when they really like their record player. Mac people just have little or no exposure to the real (PC) game world community (such as right now there are over 350,000 gamers on line playing against each other on any one PC game.)
Mac people think of gaming as sitting in front of the TV playing Mario or Sonic or Tetris. (MDN – you guys are so out of touch.)
That ain´t it folks. Once you see the real game world you will be astounded and amazed…(and wonder how people can waste so much time playing online. But that´s each person´s judgement call.)
They don’t have to be the big 3D games that are better on a console – the mac should should come with a group of smaller games: card games, word games, crossword puzzles, su doku, tile games, Tumblebugs (as mentioned earlier), snood-like shooter games, etc…
I can’t be the only one who enjoys those little time-wasters, while caring little for the long, involved games.
I play games, just not very often. I understand he desire. I am a developer so I spend a lot of time with people that play games. For years they complained about Macs and that they do not play games well. I can show them that they play games great, but they say but I can’t get games x, y and z so I do not need a Mac. The gaming community is very strong, but it is not that big. Most of the market does not play games (or at least not often enough to care much about it). Half the people that by computers never do much beyond run word, a browser and mail. These people would have a better experience on a mac with out the hassles that come with Windows. However this half of the population turns to the friend they have that falls in the 2-5% of people that play games regularly for buying advice. Because all they know is windows and that Macs don’t play their games, they push them away from the mac – not out of malice, but out of ignorance. This is why Apple needs to push the mac into the mainstream gaming market. They will probably loose money on game development, but they will sway those people that influence the pricing.
Apple has gone part of the way with Boot Camp – but though this is a good step for apple, it is not going to sway these gamers. It is more likey to reach people more like me that play games once in a while, but most gamers will not bother, since they can build a better gaming system for the same or similar price. Apple needs to do more and plan on carrying the game unit at a loss for years.
I think they’re talking about shoot-em-up twitch games here,which are aimed at teenagers and the emotionally stunted. Electronic Arts had some cool games for the Commodore 64, like M.U.L.E. (outer space Monopoly) and Seven Cities of Gold (New World explorers). It would be fantastic to see those for Mac only.
I think y’all are missing the big reason why Apple should create a great Mac only game. It hits the same market as they are trying to reach with the “I’m a Mac” ads. It would be for the young and it would of course be cool. Sure they already have an Xbox or gaming PC or their buddies do, but if there was a great Mac game out there like the old Marathon games or what Halo should have been, they’d spend even more time on their Mac.
This could also double to help build the Mac community if it had an online game component. It’s about building on the base you already have. Heck my friends and I bought the first Marathon game because it was Mac only.
If you haven’t upgraded to an Intel chip yet, go download the pinicale of Mac only gaming (it still plays great in classic mode):
http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org/
feh. If you want to play games, get an XBox.
Apple should NOT getting gaming per se, but instead focus on an API to make game writing easier for developers. If you lower the barrier of entry to the Mac platform on both the enthusiast and developer sides, gaming would take off.
Since a lot of games out there rely on Microsoft’s DirectX API, Apple could make it very easy on the developer if they came up with an OSX API that’s similar. Better yet create the API so that the code would just have to be recompiled in OSX for it to work, no additional changes needed. Then you could ship both OSX and Windows versions of your core game engine on the same DVD.
neomonkey: “Electronic Arts had some cool games for the Commodore 64, like M.U.L.E. (outer space Monopoly) and Seven Cities of Gold (New World explorers). It would be fantastic to see those for Mac only.”
Whoa—-LOL,LOL,LOL.
LIke the one guy said previously obviously nobody at this forum has a clue at the state of the art of the current computer gaming world.
You guys just don´t get it (obviously an older crowd here…), Apple doesn´t get it and that´s why you won´t see any big shift from Windows to Macs. Every windows owner has somebody in the family that is big time into games.
In my class of 36 not one person owns a Mac.
My brother´s class of 34 – again – not one person owns a mac. (Maybe their parents have one, though.) Everybody plays games. Everybody in our class that plays games on line is in a clan and plays against other clans around the world on the internet.
Not everyone that has a Mac owns Photoshop or other pro software (Maya, Final Cut, Flash) and is doing high-end creative work…..and as the article says, Mac people don´t do games….so what is the average Mac owner using his/her Mac for?
Web surfing and e-mail?
That´s it????
Hmmmmm.
Everybody in our class that plays games on line is in a clan and plays against other clans around the world on the internet.
school break, that is so sad. I guess we won’t be seeing any scientific discoveries from your crowd of children.
World of Warcraft’s European customer base is currently at more than 1 million players, with the worldwide total now at more than 6 million players
neomonkey: “school break, that is so sad. I guess we won’t be seeing any scientific discoveries from your crowd of children.”
What is sad? That we don´t spend our time playing your favorite games “for the Commodore 64, like M.U.L.E. (outer space Monopoly) and Seven Cities of Gold (New World explorers)”
But one must ask the question:
How many scientific discoveries did you make neomonkey??? And why do you spend so much time at this forum? Don´t you have anything better to do?
First, I am not a gamer. Two things that kill the incentive to write games for the Mac:
[1] Small market share (obvious)
[2] Closed architecture – with the exception of the Power Mac/Mac Pro, and the cost is just too prohibitive to buy one of these for gaming alone.
If I were a serious gamer and wanted to play a MMORPG, I’d buy a PC with the best graphics card I could afford. I’d use that as my gaming box and my Mac for the rest. There is a TON of shit out there for PC gamers and the Mac will never catch up due to the closed architechture of the consumer iMacs. A closed architechture has it’s advantages, but this is one of the downsides. On a PC, you can upgrade your GPU in about a half hour (that’s from opening the box to up and running).
I am a gamer, and always wanted to play games on my beloved Mac
Sick and tired of seeing my fav games title labeled “PC only”.
Sick and tired of waiting, and waiting for the Mac version to release. (ie. Medal of Honor)
As the result, Bought the PS2.
Mac games? I lost hope and confidence in it.
Playing games with a computer is like cutting your lawn with a weed whacker. Sure, you can do it, but that’s not what it’s designed for. If you don’t have anything better to do with your time than play games, get a game console.
neomonkey – you do not know what you are talking about.
you DON´T play the most current games available to the computer (do you play – online- World of Warcraft, Half Life 2, the Elder Scrolls IV, Battlefield 2, Call of Duty 2? answer: no.) or have a current game console and you wish for mac games that were available over 20+ years ago from your commodore 64 computer and you come here and act like you are an expert on gaming.
go away.
neomonkey is like a person using a horse as their sole mode of transportation and then lecturing people how dumb using a car is.
“…Everybody in our class that plays games on line is in a clan and plays against other clans around the world on the internet…”
Many slubs and zules knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the slor that day, I can tell you.
neomonkey “Sure, you can do it, but that’s not what it’s designed for.”
neomonkey – If not game playing, then what is a computer designed for????
———-
Did you know more money is spend on computer games each year than movie tickets?