“Apple could be preparing for a renewed attack on the game industry through products like the iPod and Apple TV. Certainly, many games are available for the Mac. Apple maintains a list of games on its Web site that are currently available for its technology, and that roster includes popular titles such as Age of Empires III and Civilization IV. And with the switch to Intel, it’s easier than ever to compare the performance of the Mac to other PCs on the market,” Tom Krazit reports for CNET News
“‘The Mac is faster and more powerful than ever, has stunning graphics and a growing list of popular games that our customers enjoy, including World of Warcraft, Prey and The Sims 2.0,’ Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox said in a statement,” Krazit reports. “But with the notable exception of World of Warcraft, those games were available for Windows PCs long before they made their way onto Macs. Apple users often have to wait several months for new PC game titles to be ported over to Mac OS X, said Glenda Adams, director of development with Aspyr. Major game studios tend to develop for Windows and let others, such as Aspyr, port Windows games to the Mac platform, a process that can take several months, she said.”
Krazit reports, “While Apple took a big step forward with the addition of the OpenGL specification for 3D graphics to Mac OS X, it still doesn’t have an answer to the DirectX technology found in Windows, Morrison said. DirectX is a collection of APIs used by developers in their designs. OpenGL is ‘old tech’ compared to DirectX, said Jake Richter, an analyst with Jon Peddie Associates. And since DirectX can only be used with Microsoft’s software, Apple would have to undertake a significant development effort to come up with its own technology or encourage the development of a different open standard, he said.”
“Some believe Apple might have some enhancements planned for Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X that’s scheduled to arrive this spring. Last year at Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, Steve Jobs demonstrated some graphics-friendly technology such as Core Animation, which will make it easier for developers to create high-powered graphics. It’s also possible that Jobs has other surprises in mind for this year’s show, scheduled for June,” Krazit reports.
“Programs like Boot Camp and Apple’s quiet approach to Mac gaming seems to indicate that the company has made a decision to let the Windows companies pursue the hard-core gamer, said Stephen Baker, an analyst with The NPD Group,” Krazit reports. “But Apple, despite having the horsepower to satisfy those gamers with products like the Mac Pro, doesn’t need that category as much as the rest of the PC world, Baker said. ‘That segment is profitable to (Windows) guys because they don’t have a solid way to make themselves profitable in the low-end market,’ Baker said. ‘But Apple is more profitable off the bat. They don’t have to go searching for those smaller niches, their main niches are already relatively profitable.'”
Much more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Apple looking for in-house game developer staff, preps ‘Apple TV’ retail store push (with Sony LCDs) – February 15, 2007
Apple embraces casual gaming; iPhone, Apple TV to join iPod as gaming devices – February 09, 2007
Former GM of Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade: Apple TV to become video game console – February 08, 2007
ZDNet’s Graham: Apple TV hits a number of sweet spots, poised to make a big impact – January 25, 2007
Is Apple out to kill cable television? – January 25, 2007
RUMOR: Apple TV sales blowing away Apple’s internal expectations – January 25, 2007
Steve Jobs: Apple TV is the ‘DVD player for the 21st century’ – January 22, 2007
Apple TV beats out iPod, hits top spot on Apple Store sales chart – January 19, 2007
Report: first batch of 100,000 Apple TVs to ship this month – January 11, 2007
Steve Jobs moves to control the living room with Apple TV – January 10, 2007
Analyst Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone and Apple TV are industry game changers – January 09, 2007
Apple premieres Apple TV: movies, TV shows, music & photos on your big screen TV – January 09, 2007
RUMOR: Apple may enter video game market – December 05, 2006
Could Apple become king of game consoles? – September 26, 2006
WTF! Banner ad at the top for Inspiron craptops?
on the plus side??? they include Vista Home Basic
The evidence of enhancements being built into MacOS X Leopard are already out there for many to see. The latest patch to World of Warcraft (v. 2.0.7) makes the following very clear indication of Apple’s future direction in the release notes for this patch:
“Stability improvements in Multi-Threaded OpenGL support on future OS X releases.”
Some interesting advancements are indeed around the corner. Multi-threaded OpenGL has already made a huge difference in frame rates for World of Warcraft….
“”But with the notable exception of World of Warcraft, those games were available for Windows PCs long before they made their way onto Macs.”
Thats because Blizzard is teh roxxorz and releases titles simultaneously.
Part of me wishes Apple would buy Blizzard and make them their game developer.
I am bored. I want Apple to buy something big soon. MWSF didn’t do much for me and I am in need of some big bold moves on Apples part. Yea iPhone and all, but I won’t be getting one for a couple of years.
I sincerely hope this means Apple will be getting games on the Mac as they come out or soon after. Right now gamers with a Mac just don’t have the same environment as the PC guys do.
MW : Line, as in, break this line of attrition!
War is Peace
“Right now gamers with a Mac just don’t have the same environment as the PC guys do. “
Ironically those same PC people call the Mac a toy.
The replies to this article hit the nail on the head. Sure, there are games for the mac, but it takes Aspyr 6 months to a year to port them.
Apple needs to encourage NATIVE game development. Cross-platform would serve them as well. Gaming is NOT a niche market, more dollars are spent on games than any other consumer software.
I really am hoping Apple is taking heed of this and working on better (and hopefully cross-platform) development tools to encourage developers to release native games for the Mac.
Apple needs this market because of one thing. Almost all programmers play games. So if they can get that market it will have an effect on the mainstream Applications that support the Mac and therefore increase market share over all.
Also, Tech support people tend to play games and these tech savvy people are who the regular person goes to to ask what computer they need.
How many normal people have been trapped into the Windows crap world by advice from a techie that would not recommend an apple because he saw it as inferior because it can’t run Half-life, in spite of the fact that the average user would be better served with a Mac?
“Part of me wishes Apple would buy Blizzard and make them their game developer.”
Would have been sweet. Too bad Vivendi snapped them up a few years ago. No way they’ll be letting that cash cow go anytime soon.
“Part of me wishes Apple would buy Blizzard and make them their game developer.”
Why? Blizzard already offers great support to the mac and is very profitable. Apple would be better served by grabbing ncsoft and bringing their games to the mac.
Better yet, Under the MS cross-licensing agreement, Apple could simply reverse engineer DirectX 9 and add that API to OS-X and bribe a few companies to do the quick recompile.
Apple will not do this but, it would be the fastest way to bring the games to the mac – there are third party companies doing it, so Apple could just buy one and clean it up and market it. Give away a few macs to game studios and open the flood gates.
“Would have been sweet. Too bad Vivendi snapped them up a few years ago. No way they’ll be letting that cash cow go anytime soon.”
Sadly, Im aware of this. It would have been great though.
I just wish they’d get going and release Diablo3 because Im not interested in WoW.
LOL @ the idea of the gaming market being niche.
Macs themselves are far more niche than computer games.
You got to give this to this kind of “journalist”. OpenGL is ‘old tech’ compared to DirectX yeah right! The same goes with comparing Unix is “old tech” to windows. LOL!
This is just another example of the Nintendo and Apple similarities.
MS hard core gaming with XBOX, Nintendo casual gaming with Wii.
MS Hardcore Gaming on Windows, Apple Casual gaming on Mac.
“LOL @ the idea of the gaming market being niche”
Technically, games ARE a niche market. They certainly are for Apple. But one could argue that they are also a niche for Microsoft given that most of their money is made on OS sales to government, schools, and businesses, organizations who never run a single game on their computers.
Games are popular with a certain segment of the PC buying public. Specifically young males. In order for gaming to be shown to NOT be a niche one would have to know how many PCs are sold with the express (or nearly so) purpose of running games. Since most PCs are not sold for the express purpose of gaming, then ergo, gaming is a niche.
That is not to say that Macs are also not filling a niche. But that niche is there largely because of consumer ignorance and not because of some weakness on the part of the Mac.
It just so happens that Macs can do nearly anything a Windows PC can do – only better. Since this is the case, one could argue that, in practical terms, it is Microsoft that is selling to a niche market since it is unable to address the needs of the majority of computer users, meanwhile, Apple is.
“Macs themselves are far more niche than computer games.”
The Mac installed base is between 10 and 18%- that is larger than the game market. People think that a market share of 3-6% means that there are 20 times more Windows systems out there than Macs. Because the useful life that people get from Mac’s is on the average 3 times their windows counterparts. Also a recent survey indicated that 1/3 of all the software purchased in America is Mac software. There are a lot of Macs out there.
Gaming is a Niche Market, but it is VERY important because the 5-10% of the over all market that are gamers has as a subset the 1% that are developers and the a good portion of IT and customer support. So the gaming Niche should not be ignored.
MDN didn’t include this in their “Related Articles,” but isn’t there a company making software that game producers can “wrap” around their games to make their API’s compatible with OSX? Wouldn’t that solve a lot of the cross-platform issues?
Also, why isn’t someone taking Microsoft to task for making DirectX incompatible with other operating systems, the way people are clamoring to make Apple’s proprietary DRM open to users of other software or music players? The broken logic of that whole argument makes me crazy. There are innumerable closed systems. What? I can’t use my copy of God of War on my neighbor’s X-Box because it’s made JUST to play on Playstation? How dare they? This Ford air filter won’t fit my Subaru? The USB cord from your camera won’t connect mine to the computer? Class-action suits all around.
For those who argue that games are just for consoles, by the way, I happen to really enjoy the social aspect of being able to play Neverwinter Nights with my PC-owning friends I left behind when I moved out of state. It’s an amazing experience I would be hard-pressed to match on my Playstation, even if any of them owned one.
blizzard just updated WOW again… now 2.0.8
now if they’s ONLY update D2-LOD for OSX and newer graphics acceleration, or just make D3, I’d be set for antoher 7 years!
You guys can debate about DirectX or games taking so long to port to the Mac all you want. That is only a small issue keeping the hardcore gamer away.
The real issue is hardware. Hardcore gamers love to build their own machines. And update the hell out them all the time to take advantage of some new game feature, etc. You can’t do that with a Mac.
Hardware marches forward on the PC side a lot faster than it does on the Mac too. Especially on the video card front. But where are the Intel Core2 Duo or Quad Xtreme systems? The PC side has had them for a good while now.
The days of getting a speed bump to our G5’s every 18 months are over. The PC’s get ’em every 6 months. And if Apple can’t keep up they’ll always look slow to the hardcore gamers.
“But where are the Intel Core2 Duo or Quad Xtreme systems?”
They’re at the Apple Store. The only currently shipping computer from Apple that is not a Core 2 Duo or better is the Mac Mini.
AppleGuy,
As I said in my post: “where are the Core2 Duo or Quad “XTREME” systems.
Apple doesn’t have one machine base on the Intel Xtreme gaming chips…solo, duo, quad or otherwise.
I’m so happy to see, at least, rumors of Apple concentrating more on games. That seems to be a big concern with the people who are asking me about getting a Mac versus getting a Windows box. Everything else, I think that the Mac is superior at, but if available games is the deal-breaker, the Mac could definitely get better sales if they improve this situation.
Again, I love playing games on my Mac and everyone that I know has at least three or four games that they enjoy on their Mac. Even at their work. I wish Apple the best of luck in their further development in this area.