Electronic Arts Inc. today announced a commitment to bring its portfolio of hit games to Mac OS X. The first EA Mac titles slated to ship this summer include the wizarding adventure Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, racing sensation Need for Speed Carbon, military action thriller Battlefield 2142 and the real-time strategy hit Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars. Being the first Mac OS X games published by EA, these blockbuster titles are being ported to take advantage of the Mac’s performance to run with stunning visuals and signature gameplay at blistering speeds. Later this year, EA will ship Madden NFL 08 and Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08 in sync with their worldwide launches.
Frank Gibeau, EA’s Executive Vice President of Publishing commented, “These four games are just the beginning. We’re excited to deliver key EA franchises such as Harry Potter, Madden Football and Need for Speed to Mac gamers.”
“We’re thrilled that the world’s number one games company is making this major commitment to the Mac,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, in the press release. “Game fans are going to love playing these new EA titles on a Mac.”
The four Mac games set for release this summer include:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Harry returns for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts only to discover that much of the wizarding community has been led to believe that the story of the teenager’s recent encounter with the evil Lord Voldemort is a lie, putting Harry’s integrity in question. Worse, the Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has appointed a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the duplicitous Professor Dolores Umbridge. But Professor Umbridge’s “Ministry-approved” course of defensive magic leaves the young wizards woefully unprepared to defend themselves against the Dark Forces threatening them, so at the prompting of his friends Hermione and Ron, Harry is convinced to take matters into his own hands. Meeting secretly with a small group of students who name themselves “Dumbledore’s Army,” Harry teaches them how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts, preparing the courageous young wizards for the extraordinary battle that lies ahead. With the ability to play multiple characters, including Harry Potter, Dumbledore and Sirius Black, the videogame of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix offers fans the opportunity to wield a wand, explore all around Hogwarts, and experience one of the most exciting and dangerous years in the life of the Boy Who Lived.
Need for Speed Carbon – The battle for the city is won in the canyon as Need for Speed Carbon immerses you in the world’s most dangerous and adrenaline-filled form of street racing. As the police turn up the heat and force the races to the outskirts of the city, the battle ultimately shifts to Carbon Canyon, where territories and reputations can be lost on every perilous curve. Racing has never felt so dangerous where every turn is a matter of life or death. For the first time in a Need for Speed game, build a crew and race in an all-out war for your city against rival crews and opposing car classes. You’ll risk everything to take over rival neighborhoods one street at a time. With online racing and the most advanced graphics and car customization tools ever, Need for Speed Carbon is the ultimate Mac racing game.
Battlefield 2142 – The year is 2142, and the dawn of a new Ice age has thrown the world into a panic. The math is simple and brutal: The soil not covered by ice can only feed a fraction of the Earth’s population. Some will live, most will die. In Battlefield 2142, players will choose to fight for one of two military superpowers in an epic battle for survival, the European Union or the newly formed Pan Asian Coalition. Armed with a devastating arsenal of hi-tech assault rifles, cloaking devices and sentry guns, players will also do battle using some of the most imposing vehicles known to man. Massive battle Mechs wage fierce combat on the ground, while futuristic aircraft rule the skies. When facing one of these new behemoths, players will need to use their wits and an arsenal of new countermeasures like EMP grenades to level the playing field. Team play features allow up to 64 players to enter the action on the front lines as part of a formal squad, or work behind the scenes in Commander Mode to direct the strategic assaults of their teammates.
Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars – The critically-acclaimed Command & Conquer series returns with Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars. This highly-anticipated next chapter takes the popular series back to its roots in the Tiberium Universe and features the fast, fluid gameplay that Command & Conquer is known for and an epic story that will redefine storytelling and set the standard for the single player experience for Real-time Strategy games. It is 2047 and the stakes could not be higher. Tiberium-a self-replicating alien substance that has infected the Earth-is spreading like a radioactive ice age. The Global Defense Initiative, a high-tech alliance of the world’s most advanced nations, is fighting to contain Tiberium, but Kane, the megalomaniacal leader of the Brotherhood of Nod has other plans for Earth. Kane’s secret society turned superpower is bent on using Tiberium to take control and transform humanity into his twisted vision of the future. All-out war rages over Tiberium and the fate of the planet rests in the balance.
Screenshots from the games can be found at http://www.info.ea.com
The tipping point is beginning…….
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to play these on my G5….
Also, has anyone noticed that the font on this site changed with Safari 3.0 beta?
Weird…
NeverFade,
The font didn’t change on MDN. Most likely, your upgrade to Safari 3 beta erased some custom settings you had in your previous version of Safari.
That’s good news. What I really want are the Hoyle games (Cardgames, Boardgames, and Casino)!! Sierra, and now Encore, have never released MacOSX versions of these great time wasters, and the old versions that ran on OS9 will not work on Intel Macs.
This is BIG news. Tipping point, keep on tipping…
I always thought it quite amusing that the head of marketing is named Schiller but maybe how he is always so “thrilled” at every partnership he should be named Thriller.
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By the way good stuff Phil, keep it up.
Wonder what this does for the folks at Aspyr — if EA starts bringing The Sims 2 directly to Mac, that could be bad news…but this definitely puts the lie to the folks who’ve been saying that going Intel will be the end of Mac-only software, that we’ll have to boot into Windows (or use an emulator) for all the cool stuff…
The whole bootcamp thing reminds me of OS/2 Warp and Windows 3.1 running on the same machine. Too bad Apple couldn’t have just made darwine work so we could run Winblows apps without Windows. I love the Mac platfrom and OS X – but there are some enterprise apps that just do not exist on the Macs that could benefit from a WINE implication on Mac.
*sigh* since they’re all being ported via TransGaming’s Cider software, unfortunately those who have invested in their PPC Macs won’t be able to enjoy these titles…at least, until their Macs have truly worn out and need replacing.
for me, that’ll be several more years, as my G5 dual is chugging along splendidly.
finally! madden! if microsoft ever decides to make IE again for mac i’ll be able to uninstall windows and be mac exclusive.
(yes, i do NEED IE. the software my company makes is exclusively made for the IE browser, nothing else. so, i do need it unfortunately.)
*yawn*
lame keynote
lamer games.
Too bad Apple couldn’t have just made darwine work so we could run Winblows apps without Windows.
If Apple had done that, then the user would blame any problems with the Windows app on MacOSX. They are smart to keep the two separate, and let 3rd party apps like Parallels take the hit.
BTW, I’ve never changed settings for my view of MDN, and since downloading Safari 3.0, it is displaying different (more readable) fonts.
It must be difficult being Apple and espeically Steve Jobs. They’ve created this world in which every announcement is supposed to be earth shattering and when it’s just plain old ordinary every day great news, people are disappointed.
Year 2015: Apple announces the iGrav anti-gravitational device. Upon news of the 0 energy 0 config iGrav device, Apple’s stock drops. An unnamed analysts says, “So what you can lift and move cargo with absolutely zero energy involved. We were hoping for the holographic iPod!”
Note to EA: Bring back “Skyfox” and “Realm of Impossibility.”
(And if you’re out there Atari, how about actually making “The Last Starfighter” a real game …)
EA why won’t you support my Mac SE?
This is fantastic. Now, will Apple finally start offering more video card options on their low and mid-range computers?! (Or make them upgradable.)
Hopefully, the next iMac will at least get a boost in that direction. As for the Mac mini, it probably doesn’t have enough room to handle a gaming video card without a case redesign.
Just a shame that EA have never made a decent game during their entire existence. Sure they sell well but so do Beyonce albums and they’re god awful.
Many friends of mine opted for PCs for one reason alone – the kids want GAMES, GAMES, GAMES – therfore I have to admit this is big news. For me as a Mac user without any interest in games, it’s a non-issue.
Disappointing WWDC overall as I expected much more.
“Just a shame that EA have never made a decent game during their entire existence. Sure they sell well but so do Beyonce albums and they’re god awful.”
you’re insane. you’re obviously not a sports fan or else you’d know that madden, tiger woods, and nba live are the best games around. screw the computer geek shit like halo and world of warcraft, the sports games are where it’s at.
Just what is the point of the sport video game? It lacks the imagination and adventure of video games, and lacks the physicality and real action of sports. It’s the worst of both worlds. Where is the appeal?
ha, the sports games now are terribly realistic. if you’re an avid sports fan this works for you. if you’re not and you’re a dungeons and dragons guy and don’t like getting laid, obviously this doesn’t work for you. being an avid sports fan and former athlete, these are fun to play because it mirrors reality most of the time (obviously people find ways to exploit the games and throw for 700 yards or something, but that could be a glitch or just a neat little cheat play). adventure games are cool when you’re 10. then it becomes a bit odd to be a grown ass man and playing as a hobbit or a sorcerer.
the flip side of this argument is that grown ups shouldn’t be playing games in the first place but that’s a whole other subject.
to each their own, but there is definitely a difference in the people that play each type of game and I’m in the sports category so that’s where I lean.
Whahoo! I can finally upgrade that old copy of Madden that was ported by Aspyr oh so many years ago. Now who’s next?
Guys, it’s a Developer Conference not a consumer elcetronics/computer show. The stuff in Core Animation alone devs a boner, along with many other under-the-hood upgrades that will make OS X even more attractive to, yes, dare I say it, Developers Developers Developers DevelopersDevelopers DevelopersDevelopers DevelopersDevelopers Developers!
The consumers get MacWorld, the dev’s get WWDC. Don’t fear, when Leopard actually ships you expect some significant news (let’s see, iLife ’08, iWork ’08, iPhone upgrades, G6 iPods, and some other still behind the curtain).
@ WWDC
Man. Somebody gets it. Thank you.