“Boy, was there an outrage over Valve’s decision to port its popular games and offer its Steam distribution for the Mac. Since Steam is estimated to account for 70% of online game purchases, this is one major announcement. But if you think about it, such news was just a matter of when, not if. As much as you may be a PC game enthusiast, you will have to live with the fact that Macs are running more and more games,” Gruener writes. “But it does not take much to predict that Macs will never become enthusiast gaming machines. Valve and Apple are working on the bigger piece of the pie.”
“Slow down. Before leaving an angry comment without reading further, hear me out,” Gruener writes. “Valve’s announcement makes sense and is good news for the gaming community and I am sure that other distributors will follow soon.”
Full article, in which Gruener explains that Apple is after mass-market gaming, not after the enthusiast, here.
<yawn> . . .
Been playing games on my Macs for quite a few years, now. It’s nice to know there will soon be more choices, but I can really only concentrate on a few at a time – and I take my time with each of them. This won’t make a big ding in my budget.
Too little to late. Steve sees no future in the Mac. I can see the writing on the pad. Get used to Farmville.
Farmville won’t work on the iPad. It’s written in Flash!
Macs have always been “viable” for gaming. Most game developers simply haven’t been interested in the Mac.
Besides, with the huge PC market, one can make a shitty game (or any application) and still make a decent profit. On the Mac, it’s different. Make crap, word gets around and no one will buy it. on the flip side of that, if one makes a great game, they’ll do well.
No, no, they are writing all new Farmville for iPad and iPhone, but not Mac.
Why would game enthusiasts be mad that games are ported to Macs? It doesn’t effect them at all.
Who cares…I’m sure these guys are having fun.. but from a busienss standpoint… the Gaming market was never a big deal. Get real.
“you will have to live with the fact that Macs are running more and more games,…”
He makes it sound like that’s bad. WTF?
@theioniousMac
Why do you think MDN and its faithful around here are in such denial about Steve’s declaration that Apple is now a mobile device company and – unsaid but clearly the plan – will soon quit making Macs?
About time mac got some news. I love you mac. You are so neglected. I hate your evil twin ipad.
Blizzard has shown for ears that Macs can receive equal treatment, and probably generate enough profit to make it worth their while.
I don t give a rip about gaming on the Mac any more. I haven’t played anything on my Mac since Halo anyway. Gaming duties have been handled by the iPhone, and now quite gorgeously by the iPad.
QuadCore,
You can say that it doesn’t affect them, but it does have an effect.
All of this Apple is giving up on the Mac talk is just stupid; how will you make iPad / iPhone apps w/o the Mac? How will you do any development at all? The only reason people even came-up with it is because they’re concentrating heavily on the iPad / iPhone at WWDC X. It is totally unfounded that Apple is phasing-out the Mac.
I remember when the PC zealots used to deride the Mac platform as a toy and that “real work” got done on PC’s. Since that line of thinking has been thoroughly debunked, now they cling to the mantra that only PC’s have any good games available on them. Seems like PC’s are the ones that have become toys.
More games! Yeah, that’s just what the USA needs, more games to waste time on. I’ll bet some of you government workers even have time to play games at work. The future – games.
The move to Mac has (almost) nothing to do with games on the Mac, and everything to do with games on the next generation of AppleTV.
Would it be possible to make Mac OS 10.7 able to run iPad apps as Dashboard widgets? Since so many of the early dashboard apps were copied into the iPhone/iPod Touch and followed by ports of Mac OS X games, why not let the river flow the other way? Seems like it would sell more Macs and more apps.
Not a programmer, which is why I am asking.
There were a LOT of major game titles available (way more than today) for the mac up until about 2004. Once Apple switched to Intel architecture it really hurt mac porters because now we can just run bootcamp and use windows for any and all PC games. Only a handful of major titles have made it to OS X the past few years. We need original games actually developed on the mac, not just ported. Games ported over never run as well or as fast comparatively. The STEAM addition for mac games will definitely be a big deal and get things moving, but we still have a long way to go!
Wait, Farmville isn’t just something that the creators of South Park imagined?
@Question – dashboard apps are JS/HTML – iPad apps are ARM execs
Apple would have to create a seamless ARM emulator for use within dashboard or allow iPad / iPhone apps to be compiled x86, meaning a port of the iPhone libs to x86 (if they aren’t already ported).
All this talk about marginalizing the iPhone w/Flash is relevant here, too. The Mac mouse and keyboard shouldn’t be marginalized with a touch interface. Multitouch wouldn’t work. So, the best way is for devs to create new interfaces for their apps, rather than a direct iPad port.
@Ron et al.—tell it to the U.S. Army.
http://www.armytimes.com/entertainment/video_games/online_life_americasarmy070226/
too little too late? Are you kidding me? More like “About damn time!!”
Why would gamers be upset? It’s about damned time if you ask me! More customers means more money means more and better quality games.
Why do you think MDN and its faithful around here are in such denial about Steve’s declaration that Apple is now a mobile device company and – unsaid but clearly the plan – will soon quit making Macs? —Correct
Only in your dreams, dude.