The Mac as a Gaming Platform, the New Era

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Meh, it is what it is. PC will always have a 1-up on any gaming platform just due to the ability to customize hardware.
 
$2000 for Mac (to serve as a gaming platform) that can barely compete with a $1000 PC from two years ago. I'd say we entered a new era indeed. It appears the recession magically ended, everyone is working again, and making more money than ever. I just wish I got that memo sooner.

/sarcasm
 
[citation][nom]godwhomismike[/nom]$2000 for Mac (to serve as a gaming platform) that can barely compete with a $1000 PC from two years ago. I'd say we entered a new era indeed. It appears the recession magically ended, everyone is working again, and making more money than ever. I just wish I got that memo sooner. /sarcasm[/citation]

Agreed and it seams that every one has a high way or a bridge to sell.
 
@godwhomismike I agree, also for some reason I'll spend an extra $1000 to get a less powerful GPU and restrict myself to play only Steam distributed titles... yes it makes sense, I'll go sell my Xbox360 and my PC right now 'cause now I can play on a Mac ! yay !

You gotta be kidding me.
 
What's it cost to buy a Mac that keeps up with the $750 budget PC that this web site tells you how to configure? $2,500? $3,000?

It's valve's way to simply squeeze more money outta a 3 year old game.
 
"The last change for apple to prove it's quality".. no matter how hard they tried microsoft has the lead in OS market, now apple turning to the great gaming community hoping that this will get apple somewhere cause OSX is easier for gaming developers. where do i belong? it's too early to say, but what i can say that this will open a new door for challenges between the two companies and refreshes the PC gaming once again..
bottom line i love the idea.. but windows gaming will stay the ruler here.
 
We've heard this before. It still hasn't happened... Remember when porting Quake III was going to change the face of Mac gaming? Yeah, so do I. It's too expensive and most Mac users are professional/light users. That is why they have Macs- they prefer a solid interface over high performance. Unless that dynamic changes Macs won't be a big source of gaming revenue.
 
Apple is the real reason to provide games for the Mac. The majority of computers sold today are laptops, and in the PC world, the laptop graphic chipset of choice is Intel. Intel graphics are simply not very good, and that fact cannot be dismissed.

Apple has rejected the Intel graphic chipset because of its poor reputation in favor of better mobil alternatives from nVidia and AMD. This fact makes the Macintosh every bit as good a platform for Games as the PC.
 
the mac can't be a serious gaming platform until apple puts some competent gpus in their lower priced computers. The only mac with a decent video card is the most expensive imac, and for that price i could do a lot better with a pc.
 
[citation][nom]aberchonbie[/nom]We don't know the amount of money involved in development, distribution, management, and marketing spent on the steam client/games for Mac now, but I really question if it's worth it since there really aren't a huge amount of people using Macs compared to PC's.[/citation]

A couple months back, Direct2Drive was having a Mac sale at their website. Dragon Age: Origins was one of the games on sale at 50% (!) off the original price, while PC gamers were stuck with the full price. I emailed D2D asking them if this was the type of promo their customers could come to expect in the future, and I was told (more or less) that since Apple gamers are slowly taking a larger chunk of the market, we will be seeing more and more promo sales catered to Mac gamers. When I questioned why Mac users were getting a much better deal than PCers, the CS rep claimed that Mac sales for DA: Origins were pretty significant, even compared to PC sales (complete b.s. IMO, but whatever).

Up to that point, I had never seen DA: Origins available at that price for PC gamers, either at D2D or at any other digital distributor. Keep in mind that DA: Origins wasn't released for the Mac until almost a month after the original PC release date. This just reiterates the point I made in my earlier post: the more popular Mac gaming gets, the more excuses studios will have to shaft PC gamers on price (not to mention quality).

For the foreseeable future, I don't see the Apple gaming "explosion" as having anything but a negative effect on the PC games market.
 
This is very misleading.

Steam CANNOT port games over. Steam has ported their CLIENT over.

Just because you can get Steam on a Mac doesn't mean you can play all the games available on Steam on a Mac.

Developers STILL have to make games for Mac. Then clients can download them on Steam.

So this isn't very big news except for the fact that Half-Life and all related sub-games are on Mac's now.
 
Lol. The last time I checked, the $2499 USD Mac Pro comes with one GeForce GT 120, essentially a rebranded OEM only 9500GT, one quad core Xeon at 2.66GHz, 3GB of RAM and a 640GB HDD. For $200, you can upgrade to an HD 4870, a last generation card which performs like the mainstream HD 5770...

Even the $1,999 iMac is better with an HD 4850 and 4GB of RAM... -.- Which still can't max most modern titles.
 
A lot of the people on this site don't seem to understand that computers aren't just for gaming. Most people buy computers for internet/communicating and some video and music stuff. Some people also like to play the odd game. More and more young people are switching to Macs - particularly at University (College). These people have not bought their computers for gaming but if the option to play the odd game on them is there then some will go and buy a game. Chances are this casual mac gamer market is pretty big and there's a hell of a lot of money to be made there.

Out of myself and all of my friends, I'm the only person who has ever built a 'gaming rig'. I'm not the only person that games though. At least 50% of my friends have switched to Macs now too. Probably more.
 
To me the question is how manny Mac users and also PC users will spend $1800-2000 on a Mac as their PC/gaming system if they "save" the 300-500 they would spend in a gaming console. Add to this number of users those with legacy iMacs and Mac Pros with capable graphics. And if you are willing to speculate add a possible new Mac or an iMac with at least one graphic upgradeable option. Macs could run Windows too so there is an added value.

Who could qualify to enjoy this Mac/console gaming system:
A) Mac Pros users starting with 2006 Intel machines but better with 2008 Mac Pros. They will just need to pay for the games and maybe they will need new graphic cards. So at least $150-400, depending on whats available this year.
B) New Mac Pro buyers interested in gaming: They will spend $2500-3000 for the Mac Pro.
C) iMacs If they have capable graphics they will spend from $0 to $2200 for a new one.
D) If something new appears it could be iMacs with upgradeable graphics or a new headless desktop Mac with some upgradeable graphic options. It could be something around $1500-2000.

I think for this model to work Valve will want a new "middle Mac" or iMac upgradeable or they will depend to much on Mac Pros and iMacs with the best graphics.

Al least once a year Apple offers an entry level and a medium high end graphic card. So in the 5-10 years of a gaming console life cycle if you have upgradeable graphics you could upgrade the gaming console/Mac maybe 3 or more times. Whenever you have the opportunity.
 
Way to write this in a 'us vs them' tone. I really don't think anyone here with a lick of maturity is going to buy into this mess.

Steam is trying to expand its customer base by 8%. News at 11.
 
Big deal. So some Valve titles will work. It's not like you're going to be able to download Call of Duty or Battlefield via steam and have it run on a Mac.
 
Go play counter strike with their "magic mouse" xD
Mac and gaming is a big no-no for me but it might be a good thing for some of that poor mac users.
 
This article is comparing Mac's to consoles? I read that right didn't I? The point of a console is to take out the hardware question and play it from the couch. Guess I can do that with my Mac as it's a laptop but the point of the hardware is really only kinda true in a way. There's several different models of Mac's and they change annually. So it's hardly static, though easier to work with then Wintel, which ironically I haven't used an intel CPU on a windows machine in years.

The only real change I see is that the tiny "trendy" crowd will have access, so a few more sales on that front. Personally I run both for mostly different uses so it will be sorta nice to be able to take my games with me. Granted I don't see gaming on the go much, not that big of an issue. Nor would I expect it for anyone else, the apple premium price becomes really painful when you have to start upgrading because games don't stop advancing.

Though I think it's ironic really, some game developers use a lot of Mac's for building their titles, yet so little does make it to both platforms.
 
[citation][nom]kewl munky[/nom]If they start making Mac exclusives all hell will break loose.Also, wasn't there something about Steam coming to Linux?[/citation]
Looks like the answer is yes. Steam is working on client for Linux, but it is not ready yet. During the Mac OS-X beta test they leaked the Linux client. Some guys are trying to start it up, but they able to get only couple of screenshots. Here you can read all about it:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODIwNQ
 
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