re: Mac games
re: Mac games
- Subject: re: Mac games
- From: Michael Dixon <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 27 Feb 2003 11:53:34 -0500
I was in the Mac game business for over 6 years (and still I'm involved as a
freelance writer) founding and running the MacGamer's Ledge (sold to
macgamer.com in 2000). There is a tremendous expense in getting a license to
port a popular PC game to the Mac, so most Mac game publishers want to make
sure it is a "hit" or looks like it will be a hit before forking over
(sometimes) 6 figures to get permission to port it. It is very difficult to
get a PC developer to do simultaneous development of a Mac game without
dedicated Mac programmers in-house. Blizzard used to contract the Mac
development out to a 3rd party until recently, when they acquired that 3rd
party to do in-house development for their simultaneous releases (Mac/PC).
One big reason most developers don't develop a Mac version along with the PC
version is shear marketshare. The game business is all about $$. Spending
tens of thousands of dollars to develop a Mac version that will only sell
20-40,000 copies is not usually financially feasible, especially when the PC
version will sell 100's of thousands of copies. Heck, a "hit" Mac game
sells 60,000 copies. That's not much in the game world.
Apple's worldwide developer team continues to work on improving the gap
between Mac/PC game releases. Mac OS X has caused this process to slow
because of developers having to change the way they port games to the Mac.
Now what is happening is some Mac developers are getting bits of code as it
is being created by the PC developer, so sudo-simultaneous development
occurs. Spider-Man was one of those games. The PC version did come out
first, but the Mac version wasn't too far behind (compared to getting the
final code and then starting to work on the game).
Mac gamers are likely only going to get AAA games for the most part, because
Mac game publishers can't afford to sell duds. This is actually a good
thing, because we get the cream of the crop in games, instead of fishing
through a lot of crap that PC users have to choose from. Sure, a dud slips
in there somewhere, but most of the time, we get great games. I don't mind
the wait, as long as it comes out. I always say, let the PC gamers "beta
test" the games for us and get the bugs out. When the Mac version hits the
shelves, it already incorporates most of the bug fixes!
-----------------------------------------
Michael Dixon, President
East Carolina University Mac Users Group
site:
http://www.ecumug.org
iChat: email@hidden
e-mail: email@hidden
Karan Misra wrote:
>
Being a strategy gamer myself, I feel that games come out for the Mac
>
platform a little too late. Most of the times, it takes them about a
>
year. For Age of Empires II, it took them two years from 1999 (when it
>
was released) to 2001. And Age of Empires II runs horribly in OS X.
>
Badly carbonized. Doesn't have a 128x128 pixel icon. So, basically
>
looks bad on your dock too. I would like to see games like Age of
>
Mythology (released 2002) coming to the Mac but two problems:
>
a) don't know whether anyone will take it up
>
b) if they do take it up, it's going to come in 2004 (another 2 years
>
late)
>
>
Somehow Mac Game-Porting companies like to see the sales of the game
>
before porting them and hence, they come up very late. But, companies
>
like Blizzard Entertainment which ship both Windows and Mac versions on
>
the same CD are by far the best companies. I recently bought StarCraft
>
(PC/Mac Hybrid) for $10 and it is so well Carbonized to run in OS X
>
that is opens in one dock bounce and plays fantastically. It also plays
>
with Windows versions of the game over LAN (UDP) and the Internet
>
(Battle.net). I have tried both versions and I just keep getting
>
happier.
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