Will Macs ever be a force in gaming?

[Vankraken]

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.

 

[InsanityRequiem]

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.

 

[Lilani]

For the love of god can we stop refering to Microsoft as 'PC'.
Both Mac and Microsoft computers have the potential to be PCs.

Because everybody knows what you mean when you say PC and it's a hell of a lot fewer letters and syllables than Microsoft

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.

 

[Bazaalmon]

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.

 

[distortedreality]

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.

 

[Tipsy Giant]

You like money
But you bought a mac
hmm...

you say you love money and you own a mac? that seems a little backwards considering the pricetags that get slapped on macs

I did say I liked money, I didn't say I bought my Mac

 

[Tipsy Giant]

When Steve Jobs was around, no. I read somewhere that the man did not like video games.

Spoiler: once burned twice shy

 

[Lilani]

The short answer is no
The long answer is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
They're for photoshoping and video editing, not entertainment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 

[Conza]

Just wondering what peoples opinions on this is.

The App store seems to be a hotbed of activity for indie developers, and I was wondering whether people thought Macs would ever be as good for haming as PCs, because frankly at the moment they suck.

They'd need gaming development to break away from DirectX as the framework for graphically intensive games, and also start selling Macs with customisable hardware at a decent price - which of course will never happen.

If PC gaming is replaced by Mac gaming though and Macs somehow replace Windows computer in the future - I think it could be the worst thing ever.

Unlikely, not impossible.

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).

 

[OldNewNewOld]

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$, while 2 GB of DDR3 for a Mac was 150$.

 

[dyre]

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.

 

[iseko]

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:

You wanna know why Macs will never be a good gaming set?
Go to apple.com and look up the mac pro.
no really
go do it.
See it? the cheapest one? with one quadcore non hyperthreaded 3generations old CPU one HD 5770 3GB RAM no overclocking yeah that peice of crap costs you...2.5grand
now go to alienware, no dont rebute just do it.
see their aurora? For that same price.. 2500$ from alienware you can get a SIX core CPU 16GIGS of Ram TWO 7870 graphics cards WITH overclockability LIQUID cooling ALL the latest games at MAXED graphics, with enough power to record 1080P fraps videos.
THEN go to Newegg.com, match the parts to that alienware, and watch the price of the same power drop.

Mac wont make it beyond a few developers if they dont stop trying to rip of customers.

this, so much this!

 

[endtherapture]

I don't see how people who aren't graphic designers/music producers can justify spending over £850 on a fancy looking Facebook machine.

 

[Lilani]

The short answer is no
The long answer is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
They're for photoshoping and video editing, not entertainment.

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.

You use Windows, that's cheating. And did you reeeeeaaaaally get that Mac to play games on?

No, but who gets a computer for one particular reason? I get the best of both worlds--the wonderful Mac interface, better use of Adobe programs, and virus-free browsing, and then the programs I can't use with Mac on the Windows partition. I say why choose one when you don't have to? Of course it's not for everybody, but don't knock it just because it's not your thing.

 

[Bertylicious]

In the past I'd say "no" because Steve Jobs vehemently excercised copyright control and thus caused content creators to be constrained, therefore stifling developers from creating the foundation from a technical/business point of view.

He's dead now though, so who knows?

Edit: Don't know why I quoted your post immediately below it. Pavlovian response maybe?

But this isn't really true... sure, Apple has major control over the apple store, but you can still sell software for the Mac OS yourself without Apple's consent. You just can't put it on the Apple market thing. But you could still sell it on Steam, or just in retail.

Gaming on an Apple computer is possible - I got BF3 and Skyrim on this one installed, and it runs fine. Maybe not on UBERHIGHMEGATURBO graphics, but whatever.

Well, you've called me out and I must admit that I don't really know how jealously Apple actually guard their hardware in terms of opening it up to 3rd party developers. My understanding is that the Apple Mac, in terms of hardware, is wholesale owned by Apple, where as the PC is a load of different companies like Nvidia, AMD and so on boshing out different bits of kit. Those developers can then liaise with games developers to innovate new ways of using their kits, pushing forward the development of drivers and other stuff.

See to me that is the core principle of what the gaming industry is about; innovation. Perhaps that's true of the computer industry as a whole. Let us consider where Apple does well; it rinses the market for sexy, handheld, gadgets and have broken new ground time and time again with their products. Those products, however, have come into the market place with very specific remits: the Ipod is a music player. The IPhone is phone. The Ipad is tool for minimising your boredom whilst sitting on the shitter. The mac is a specialist piece of gubbins for browsing the internet and using microsoft specific packages which, in my limited experience, are themselves targeted mostly at the design and creative industries.

Please correct me if I'm wrong because I'm a pretty ignorant ************ and need all the help I can get.

So anyway, it's all pretty awesome but it's all pretty parochial. The gaming industry works on group innovation and robbing one another's ideas which seems at odds with Apple's preffered modus operandi. That's my view anyway.

 

[Bertylicious]

The short answer is no
The long answer is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
They're for photoshoping and video editing, not entertainment.

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.

You use Windows, that's cheating. And did you reeeeeaaaaally get that Mac to play games on?

No, but who gets a computer for one particular reason? I get the best of both worlds--the wonderful Mac interface, better use of Adobe programs, and virus-free browsing, and then the programs I can't use with Mac on the Windows partition. I say why choose one when you don't have to? Of course it's not for everybody, but don't knock it just because it's not your thing.

I bought a PC so I could play games and look at porn at he same time.

I love living in the future.

 

[zachusaman]

nope. nope. nope.
seeing as how OSX is a trash OS with really no support, Mac users wont see much on that side, but even booting into windows to play games throws your hardware restrictions into the play.
macs will be a force in gaming, and by gaming I mean solitaire, angry birds and a few other apps...

 

[Lucem712]

Eh, I can't really see it. I'd see linux become a powerhouse before Mac, as they are just as powerful as windows machines (after all, running on the same hardware.)

Though, I don't know if there is anything holding back developing for it. (Besides proprietary things Microsoft holds on a short leash, such as Silverlight.) So, that could change.

 

[Thedutchjelle]

In the past I'd say "no" because Steve Jobs vehemently excercised copyright control and thus caused content creators to be constrained, therefore stifling developers from creating the foundation from a technical/business point of view.

He's dead now though, so who knows?

Edit: Don't know why I quoted your post immediately below it. Pavlovian response maybe?

But this isn't really true... sure, Apple has major control over the apple store, but you can still sell software for the Mac OS yourself without Apple's consent. You just can't put it on the Apple market thing. But you could still sell it on Steam, or just in retail.

Gaming on an Apple computer is possible - I got BF3 and Skyrim on this one installed, and it runs fine. Maybe not on UBERHIGHMEGATURBO graphics, but whatever.

Well, you've called me out and I must admit that I don't really know how jealously Apple actually guard their hardware in terms of opening it up to 3rd party developers. My understanding is that the Apple Mac, in terms of hardware, is wholesale owned by Apple, where as the PC is a load of different companies like Nvidia, AMD and so on boshing out different bits of kit. Those developers can then liaise with games developers to innovate new ways of using their kits, pushing forward the development of drivers and other stuff.

See to me that is the core principle of what the gaming industry is about; innovation. Perhaps that's true of the computer industry as a whole. Let us consider where Apple does well; it rinses the market for sexy, handheld, gadgets and have broken new ground time and time again with their products. Those products, however, have come into the market place with very specific remits: the Ipod is a music player. The IPhone is phone. The Ipad is tool for minimising your boredom whilst sitting on the shitter. The mac is a specialist piece of gubbins for browsing the internet and using microsoft specific packages which, in my limited experience, are themselves targeted mostly at the design and creative industries.

Please correct me if I'm wrong because I'm a pretty ignorant ************ and need all the help I can get.

So anyway, it's all pretty awesome but it's all pretty parochial. The gaming industry works on group innovation and robbing one another's ideas which seems at odds with Apple's preffered modus operandi. That's my view anyway.

I'm not a big pro in hardware either. But in this iMac is an ATI card, it's not an Apple card or anything (although it's probably a version specifically made for the iMac case with Mac OS Drivers etc).

You're right about the iPad and the iPhone being closed off garden. This is because you can only get applications on it through the Apple marketplace. The Apple Mac OS is just a regular OS however, like I explained in the previous message. You /can/ buy programs through the apple store for it, but I haven't bought anything of that place myself and I still run TONS of programs.

I'm not a developer so I don't know how it works for them and the Apple hardware. It's not a big secret what's in it though. And although it's true that iMacs all have somewhat sub-par stuff in it (even I won't deny that and I love my current computer), there are only a few iMac models and so it's probably a ton easier to program for. You don't have to take 800 different drivers into account.

I don't hate Windows though. I don't hate Macintosh either. I use both - I 'm really happy with the look and feel of the mac GUI and how wasy it all works for me but I realize I need Windows for gaming and certain applications, and I'm fine with that.

Apple products are probably just not your thing and that's ok. I got an iPod myself as I love the long battery live and easy integration with iTunes - my mom has an iPad as the big screen is easier for her than a tiny smart phone and it can play the game she wants. And that works for us.

 

[Warped_Ghost]

For the love of god can we stop refering to Microsoft as 'PC'.
Both Mac and Microsoft computers have the potential to be PCs.


OT: I don't consider it likely unless someone with a brain gets a hold of Apple.

Well Steve Jobs (Post secondary dropout) vs the new CEO Tim Cook (Industrial engineer).