Two months after game maker Electronic Arts promised to increase its development efforts for OS X, Mac users are still waiting to get in the game. Appearing on stage at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference last June, executives for the world's largest gaming developer promised simulatneous launches on both Windows and OS X platforms. They specifically mentioned the launch of Madden NFL 08. But as the game went on sale on Tuesday, no OS X version was to be found. Today's launch did see the introduction of versions for Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Playstation 2, Xbox, PSP, GameCube and Windows.
The limited supply of games for the Mac is one of the platform's traditional weaknesses because it forces gaming enthusiasts to use Windows machines. The EA endorsement, as well as one by gaming developer ID Soft, at this year's WWDC was seen as a big step towards increasing the software's appeal with mainstream consumers. Mac users meanwhile are venting their frustration about EA's broken promise online. At gaming site Inside Mac Games, fumed about delays with other EA titles including Battlefield 2142 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which had been slated for a July release. "Although I'm sure that the delays in shipping EA's new Mac titles are due to development issues, the lack of communication from EA is, well, frustrating," wrote Inside Mac Games blogger Tuncer Deniz. "The Mac, especially to EA's internal departments, I'm sure is regarded as more of a nuisance than anything else."
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The limited supply of games for the Mac is one of the platform's traditional weaknesses because it forces gaming enthusiasts to use Windows machines. The EA endorsement, as well as one by gaming developer ID Soft, at this year's WWDC was seen as a big step towards increasing the software's appeal with mainstream consumers. Mac users meanwhile are venting their frustration about EA's broken promise online. At gaming site Inside Mac Games, fumed about delays with other EA titles including Battlefield 2142 and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which had been slated for a July release. "Although I'm sure that the delays in shipping EA's new Mac titles are due to development issues, the lack of communication from EA is, well, frustrating," wrote Inside Mac Games blogger Tuncer Deniz. "The Mac, especially to EA's internal departments, I'm sure is regarded as more of a nuisance than anything else."
View: Full Story on vnunet.com
These games are multiplatform and are available for all operating systems natively, including Linux. In the big picture, Macs don't have many more games than Linux (natively), and the few games Mac has natively that Linux doesn't (like the Warcraft games) play very well under wine.
At the same time, EA making games available for Mac is a step forward, because if they do make modifications to get it running natively under Mac, they are only a couple of steps away from being able to release their games under Linux as well. While you may say this would be pointless, you must remember EA releases games for EVERYTHING.. I think in the future the EA games could contain a windows, mac and linux installer (as only a few files would actually differ) -- as the above quoted games have.
Why would I bring Linux into the conversation? Porting games to Mac isn't much different from porting games to Linux. They have quite a lot in common.
At the same time, Linux has the ability to increase market share much easier than macs because all the current computers can simply change to it. What I don't like about Mac OS X is that you MUST use an Apple computer. We all complain about Microsoft's software economy -- but I'm actually glad Apple isn't ontop because they would be a real computer monopoly. They could have justified it before with the PPC processors.. but nowerdays the Macs aren't much different spec wise than your average Dell. Anybody that thinks im being an ass by saying that it's not cool that Apple controls all the hardware.. you're probably one of those people that used to say the PPC processors were 2-3x faster than the Intel hardware.
If Apple would just open up Mac OS X to be able to be used by all computers.. their market share would surely increase tenfold -- hell, i'd even try it out. You have to remember, it's not because the "PC's" aren't good enough to run the OS, but because you didn't buy the hardware from Apple, kinda greedy if you ask me
I'm not saying all this to be bad etc, but because I really believe Apple really has potential to take the chair from Microsoft, but short term greed is blinding them imo
Now they may be a hardware company that makes good software, but that doesn't change where they make the majority of their profits. From iPods to iPhones to Macs. They sell hardware. Opening up their OS would sink their company so quickly your head would spin. (Don't believe me? Look at when they allowed clones several years back, you'll notice they began circling the drain at that point.)
Also, they would not displace MS, they wouldn't even take a fraction of "market share" away from them, because they don't have, and likely wouldn't get, the OEM distribution deals that MS has. Even if they did, they would make less money than they are on their current strategy.
Would it be cool to run OSX on vanilla hardware? Well, sure... Does it make business sense for Apple to try to sell their OS like that? Of course not, their strategy right now is working quite well. They aren't trying to get you to choose between Microsoft and them, they're trying to get you to choose between them and Dell or HP.
I won't even try to address your comment on making games for Linux. There is less of a market for Linux games than their is for the Mac. Ask id software, last I heard they lost money on those ports...
No, not at all. Bungie Studios made several Mac-only games for a long time (until MS bought them). AFAIK they left a gap in the market there that nobody has filled: Mac-only games.
Yes, you may laugh, but consider this: Madden is on all major platforms as well; who's to say that Mac user won't buy it for his console (assuming he has one)? A Mac-exclusive game would really stand out on the shelves as well, purely for the reason it's Mac-exclusive. Like in the same way Xbox 360-exclusive games stand out with that little sticker.
Everyone here does know that all these games aren't being recoded from the Windows version and will be running under some relatively clever emulation?
More details on it can be found here : http://www.transgaming.com/products/cider/
More details on it can be found here : http://www.transgaming.com/products/cider/
it's not as costly as emulating, no, not by a long shot. But t's not free either, you do loose performance in all the conversion of the api calls.
They have a pretty good number of games.
To make more $$$ off gullible kids.
To make more $$$ off gullible kids.
I highly doubt their Mac games sales would make up the money they'd have to put into making them, nevermind making actual profit off of them.
Croquant, your humor is killing me
Glassed Silver:mbl
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