Will Macs ever be a force in gaming?
- Thread starter endtherapture
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Nope. Thing is though, they were. Bungie, before being bought by Microsoft, were a Mac developer.
you say you love money and you own a mac? that seems a little backwards considering the pricetags that get slapped on macsTipsy Giant said:
and more on topic - unless apple starts making some changes, then I doubt they will become a real force in gaming outside of their own app store
Currently Macs have an image built around them that has in the recent past opening looked down upon PCs in an arrogant and negative manner. The whole Mac vs PC ad campaign was a direct attack at the PC and Gaming community because it went out of its way to make PC users look inferior. The points it was trying to make was that Windows is a flawed OS (which i don't think any sane person would disagree with) but it also attacked the notion of hardware/software customization that PCs offer with is one of the things people really like about PCs. Macs have that whole Wii image going on (its for the casual / non gamers) except it doesn't have the 1st party games to back it up and given Apple's business model it will never attract many game developers to develop for it.
Everything is against Mac (image, market share, restrictive hardware, no developer relations) when it comes to gaming. The Mac Experience is not the Gamer Experience.
Everything is against Mac (image, market share, restrictive hardware, no developer relations) when it comes to gaming. The Mac Experience is not the Gamer Experience.
While I think Macs are slowly opening themselves up to gaming (We do get game ports), it's slower than a snail and detrimental at the moment. I'd say the Apple company would be better to retry the console market(without their heads up their asses), than just immediately go straight into the gaming market.
Even though I enjoy my Mac I have, I just got a Windows OS for myself to play games for once.
Even though I enjoy my Mac I have, I just got a Windows OS for myself to play games for once.
Because everybody knows what you mean when you say PC and it's a hell of a lot fewer letters and syllables than MicrosoftSpartan1362 said:
Anyway, I dunno. There are more releases coming out for Mac as of late (on Steam, anyway), and the number of Mac users is steadily increasing. Simply based on how much they cost I doubt Mac will ever overtake Windows as a gaming platform, but there may come a time when it would be a poor business decision for developers and publishers to continue to ignore them.
Mac will never be a serious computer game platform until they figure out how to create a mouse with both left AND right buttons.
They have a new "Magic Mouse" with no buttons at all. And it's standard with new Macs. I want to smash it with a hammer.
They're just way too....simple. Maybe not the best word to describe it, but their whole design is about simplicity and ease of use. When you've gotten used to a 5- 7- or 9- button mouse, trying to use a zero button mouse is incredibly frustrating. It feels like someone's chopped of four of your fingers.
They have a new "Magic Mouse" with no buttons at all. And it's standard with new Macs. I want to smash it with a hammer.
They're just way too....simple. Maybe not the best word to describe it, but their whole design is about simplicity and ease of use. When you've gotten used to a 5- 7- or 9- button mouse, trying to use a zero button mouse is incredibly frustrating. It feels like someone's chopped of four of your fingers.
It's actually a weird situation when you think about it from a purely hardware point of view.
With Macs varying little in hardware across their major sellers, you would assume that in a sense the platform would be easier to develop for and would be less buggy compared to the totally open nature of Windows.
Personally, I bought a MacBook Pro to use for just about anything other than gaming. I've done a little on it (some LoL, SC2 and emu's), and it performs fairly well, but I can't see it ever really becoming a major force, simply because it doesn't need to.
Macs really offer enough already without them becoming a major gaming platform, I doubt Apple will be too concerned about it atm.
With Macs varying little in hardware across their major sellers, you would assume that in a sense the platform would be easier to develop for and would be less buggy compared to the totally open nature of Windows.
Personally, I bought a MacBook Pro to use for just about anything other than gaming. I've done a little on it (some LoL, SC2 and emu's), and it performs fairly well, but I can't see it ever really becoming a major force, simply because it doesn't need to.
Macs really offer enough already without them becoming a major gaming platform, I doubt Apple will be too concerned about it atm.
What are you talking about? I enjoy all my Valve games and all my TV shows through my Mac. I have Windows dual-booted for the rest (and 3DS Max which runs best on Windows), but at this point that's basically just Skyrim.DVS BSTrD said:
I don't like the style of the Magic Mouse either, but it's not like it's the only thing that works with a Mac. All you have to do is turn it off and plug in another mouse. Hardware is an easy fix--I can't think of a person I know who has a computer and doesn't have an extra mouse or keyboard sitting around somewhere.bazaalmon said:
I don't get this stigma that the reason Macs will never be good game platforms is not the software or operating system, but the hardware, as though people are convinced no other hardware can be used with a Mac except the Apple keyboards and mouses.
Unlikely, not impossible.endtherapture said:
Apple make consumer products, most gamers are enthusiasts, so there's a problem right there. Also, they aren't even price competitive, and their software isn't mainstream enough, so by the time you spend, 4, 5, 6 grand on a machine that may or may not be the latest greatest stuff, you're then forced to buy Windows, to get an operating system they'll all work on.
And on top of it all, Apple like to think of themselves as snooty, they price things high 'because they can', not 'because they need to make a margin', which goes painfully against the grain of the enthusiast gamer, who likes to find their components individually and pay the lowest bidder possible.
However. Much like cars going from enthusiast product to a more consumer product as time has progressed (without necessarily weakening cars as an overall market, this point can debated), we may find Apple thinking more laterally to at least expand themselves into competing with their fellow PC makers - of course to be competitive right now they'll need to be cheaper/equal price to a PC, minus the cost of Windows 7. Which is the other barrier, they need to get involved somehow in the gaming market to make their software inline/integral with the new and upcoming gaming standards of video cards, software development ect.
So there's so many things for them to do, they may consider entering the gaming market for desktop PCs, but right now when they make $0.70 on a $.99 app, that's a fairly good margin there, the costs needed to get themselves into gaming may be too high for them to bother.
Any competition is good competition from a consumer's point of view, so if they do get involved, that'll be all the better for the rest of us (example iPhone; Android phones).
Never gonna happen.
People complain how expensive new consoles are. What would they say if they had to 2 times more than for a PC of the same strength.
Just today I was looking in a local shop for ram. Kingstone 4GB DDR3 1333 MHz was around 30$, while 2 GB of DDR3 for a Mac was 150$.
People complain how expensive new consoles are. What would they say if they had to 2 times more than for a PC of the same strength.
Just today I was looking in a local shop for ram. Kingstone 4GB DDR3 1333 MHz was around 30$, while 2 GB of DDR3 for a Mac was 150$.
Nah, I don't see it. Apple nowadays is as popular as it's going to get, and yet IIRC their computers (not tablets or smartphones; good old computers) have less than 10% of the market share. There's a market for overpriced, stylish computers with mediocre hardware, but not a big enough one for enough developers to use Macs as a platform.
I don't know to be honest. For me the answer would be NO and I couldn't say it quick enough. I despise apple with a passion that is rarely seen on this world. The only good thing about that company is its marketing division. They could literally put a piece of cow shit in a box and sell it for 250 to the masses. Then they would copy right the cow shit and say no one else is allowed to use it any more to fertilize their lands because they own it now. Pretentious douche bags.
But to get back on topic: maybe. The reason why I would have said no in the past is because the majority of people used a PC. PC's and MAC's are like water and oil. Making a game for a pc and then making it work on a mac is not cost productive if 95% of the people own a PC. Now the tides are shifting and a lot of people own a MAC (eventho the majority is still a pc user). So yeah maybe. You also have to take consoles into account. Why play it on a MAC when you can play it on a console tho. It gives you about the same freedom (none at all?).
Still like a PC better tho for the simple reason that you can custom build one and over clock it. It gives you much more freedom than a MAC.
edit:
But to get back on topic: maybe. The reason why I would have said no in the past is because the majority of people used a PC. PC's and MAC's are like water and oil. Making a game for a pc and then making it work on a mac is not cost productive if 95% of the people own a PC. Now the tides are shifting and a lot of people own a MAC (eventho the majority is still a pc user). So yeah maybe. You also have to take consoles into account. Why play it on a MAC when you can play it on a console tho. It gives you about the same freedom (none at all?).
Still like a PC better tho for the simple reason that you can custom build one and over clock it. It gives you much more freedom than a MAC.
edit:
this, so much this!FranBunnyFFXII said:
I don't see how people who aren't graphic designers/music producers can justify spending over £850 on a fancy looking Facebook machine.