The Mac as a Gaming Platform, the New Era

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Herbert_HA

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I'm a mac user and I welcome this news. I even hope that this will cause a chain reaction that will end pressuring Apple, Nvidia and ATI/AMD to make upgrades easier to do and with more choices.
 

FrPSh

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I'm excited about this. I love my mac, and use it for pretty much everything...other than gaming.
If, in the future, Macs do truly become good gaming platforms (better supported) I would not need to spend any more time on Windows.

But I do like to think of myself as a system builder, and using a Mac does diminish the fun involved in building/upgrading your own PC. So we'll see.

Having the beauty and OS of Mac on a new iMac and being able to play awesome games on it would be heaven.
 

WR

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Why hasn't ANYONE MENTIONED that Macs from the last four years can already play Windows games? Boot Camp! Now, no one in their right mind would buy a Mac expressly for gaming. It's too expensive for just running Windows. That means they bought the Mac for something else and are probably casual gamers.

Steam for OS X is but a convenience, and for the casual crowd, convenience is everything. So kudos to Valve for expanding in that market.

As for graphics power, many PC's are also sold without upgradeable graphics. They're called mobile PCs. Many desktop Macs are in the same boat - they even use mobile CPUs and are lighter than comparably performing PC desktops. The tower Macs are different, but it's not like that many people would be hardcore gaming on a $5000 two-processor Mac Pro. The option is still there if you insist...
 

Maxor127

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I don't know why people would give a shit or be upset with this? Some of the comments are beyond idiotic to the point of being laughable.

Mac was actually a good game platform back in the 90s. There were lots of excellent Mac-only companies. But support significantly declined after that. I think Bungie getting bought by Microsoft sealed it. I don't think the Steam deal will really create a new era of Mac gaming. Anyone who is serious about playing games on the PC either already has a Windows machine or they run Boot Camp. And as much as I dislike Steam, you can't go wrong with having cross-platform support for a single game. Most companies would find a way to gouge customers.
 

omnimodis78

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So then what you're saying is that Steve Jobs will be the executive producer, director, writer and head quality controller of future "pc" games? Ya, not thanks, I like sex and blood in my games, even if it's just a little part of the subplot.
 

dheadley

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I don't understand some of the comments on this at all.

"Why would I buy a $2000 computer as a gaming platform"

Well if you are spending $2000 or even $1000 for a rig to be strictly a gaming platform you are far, and I mean way far from the norm. I run a SLi rig that the graphics cards cost more than $1000 when I bought them and I did not even remotely buy it just for gaming. I'd bet most PC "gamers" have never bought a computer just for gaming. They buy a nice computer for their other needs + gaming, or upgrade video cards for better gaming every couple of years.

"why would anyone develop for the Mac no one uses it"

If they do indeed have 5% of the global market share and more like 10% of the new computer sales that would probably put them at more installed base of users than the Xbox 360 and the PS3 combined and plenty of developers make out just fine on those platforms that obviously no one plays.

"9 titles for one developer, wow great gaming platform"

You do realize that the most popular games out there are available on the Mac already. Titles from publishers like Activision+Blizzard, EA and almost all of the casual games that actually have more users playing than any AAA PC title. Who exactly was it that made Crysis or any other similar title the definition of being a gaming platform?

I think Valve / Steam is doing a great thing here. The more copies of titles they can push the more developers will invest in the computer gaming market and not bail for the console market. That is a win for all parties concerned.
 

killerclick

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Hmmm, let's see:

The $1199 iMac has GeForce 9400M.
The $1499 iMac has Radeon 4670 with 256M @ 1920x1080.
The $2000 27" i5 iMac has a 4850 with 512M @ 2560 x 1440.
Apple clearly doesn't care about games on their desktops.
 

reklatsa

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[citation][nom]Trex 700[/nom] It's valve's way to simply squeeze more money outta a 3 year old game.[/citation]

And how much time and money do you spend simply to squeeze 3 more fps out of some old game?


 

jecastej

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We all know there are very powerful PC gaming cards available but those cards can't compare to an entry level Nvidia Quadro or ATI FirePro professional card in a pro scenario. Two very different worlds with different performance targets.

I mention this to illustrate those who still insist their $1000 desktop PCs are superior to $2000 Macs. Just as gaming machines they are indeed superior to every PC workstation on the planet. And if you read the article you will understand that Apple does not have clear intentions to create a true gaming Mac. iMacs are not gaming machines either.

Don't say that a PC gaming machine is superior to anything or you are obviously a gaming boy with limited knowledge and experience. Stop making ignorant and arrogant arguments. This creates a constant pain and not because you are telling the truth.

I recently bought an Nvidia Quadro 580 for about $180 and there is not a single or dual, or maybe even a quad PC gaming rig that could touch this ENTRY level professional card in a professional graphic app. And I am using this card in a quadcore PC. But also I have an 8 core Mac Pro that is great for 3D and video rendering.

Try to use those $1000-2000 gaming PCs rigs with pro apps!

In this pro-level business scenario a gaming card is mostly used for presentations. Unless you work creating games and you need a gaming card. In your free time you can play games too. Anyway I am very interested in PC gaming and also in Mac gaming so I will keep reading about it and I think this is great news and great article.
 

CoryInJapan

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As a PC gamer who doesnt really like mac at all what so ever.I say bring it on.WIll strengthen the PC gaming market by bring in more sales to popular titles.I see no loses here.Its either going to work awesomely, or just flop and steam continues doing an amazing job on the PC.
 

micky_lund

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[citation][nom]Dirtman73[/nom]I'm concerned that this is going to further dumb down PC gaming. If Apple somehow makes it easier (hence cheaper) to develop games on their platform, what's going to stop studios from building a Mac game from the ground up and then porting it to PC? Quality is going to hit a brick wall. Look at what happened with the console explosion- tons of crappy ports with a few gems here and there.And not only that, you can bet this will raise the price of video games in general. Remember when new PC games were released at around $39-$49? Not any more. $60+ is becoming the average for big-name releases because console owners are willing to pay that much, and PC gamers are now getting stuck with those insane prices. Apple getting into the market is going to increase the price on premium releases.[/citation]
i think in most aspects your right. However, we do need some more interest in computer gaming, and if Apple gets it for PCs, who cares? They can twiddle away with their useless pieces of junk, while us who care about quality and gaming can buy PCs.
 


Are you serious?

Any PC sever in the 2k$ range will destroy a 2k$ Mac for pro apps.

And make that a 1k$ server if you go the normal person route and buy a Normal card and load Qaudro/Firegl bios on it.
 

leon2006

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Apple hardware is very limited for gaming platform. Apple is way behind in hardware certification and is very limited. The best GPU available to apple today is Nvidia's 280
 

reklatsa

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When are PC gamers going to stop deluding themselves? This decision by Valve to support Mac OS will not halt the increasing migration to Consoles.

What is amazing is that there are more game developers coding for the Apple App store than for any other platform. In under two years Apple App store already has over 50,000 game titles.

In comparison one might find annually amongst the morass of PC games developers a couple of developers (at best) who shine when it comes to pulling out all the stops to get as much eye-candy into their games as possible. Once they've achieved recognition they likely head off to develop for Consoles.

So, a rigger armed with a costly OEM/Retail OS DVD from Microsoft spends hours/weeks/months sourcing components building and tweaking a PC...lavishes $$$'s on multiple GPU's to get a few percentage more fps just to play a couple of bleeding-edge eye-candied PC games a year.

I understand. It's a hobby. But that's precisely why it's not possible to compare chalk and cheese.

List three original PC games from the last year that require a cutting-edge PC rig to play.

 

thuan

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Sooner or later (likely when Mac switch to AMD platform for good) you will have nvidia complains that apple is an obstacle to game graphic progression, just like they did to intel.
 

reklatsa

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To make clear, I wasn't suggesting App Store games are of the technical quality and sophistication of PC/Console games. But it just goes to show developers head for where the money and kudos is. If Valve generate an increased awareness of Mac OS gamers, developers will just as likely scamper in that direction.
 
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noone will buy a mac for gaming, i bought my for work as many do (when you spend 1/2 your time with computer, you kinda want something working better, looking nice, being stable), but many will still buy them and an option to play a few more quality games is a nice bonus ... also piracy is very low on macs, people buying them tend to buy even software/utilities, that is usually free on PC
 

zybch

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[citation][nom]jecastej[/nom]We all know there are very powerful PC gaming cards available but those cards can't compare to an entry level Nvidia Quadro or ATI FirePro professional card in a pro scenario. Two very different worlds with different performance targets[/citation]

Actually, the main difference is the firmware and associated drivers and nothing more. There are hacked firegl/quadro etc drivers you can run on a gaming card as soon as you hack its firmware/BIOS. Don't kid yourself that there are any architectural differences.
 

zybch

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[citation][nom]Reklatsa[/nom]What is amazing is that there are more game developers coding for the Apple App store than for any other platform. In under two years Apple App store already has over 50,000 game titles.[/citation]

And just how many of them are actually worth playing, let alone paying regular games prices for. Name me a single iPhone/iPad game that you'd happily pay $60 for. Not one I hear you say....
 

jsepeta

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the best games I've ever played on the Mac: Solarian II [similar to galaga], Marathon series [by Bungie, the precursor to Halo, solo game plus networked multiplayer battles], Spaceward Ho! [space conquest], Lode Runner, Sim City, the Sims, Hostage [like a Tom Clancy Swat team game but in the 1980's on a mac plus!], Net Trek [networked multiplayer Star Trek combat game], wolfenstein 3d [apple turned down the game so they went to DOS first], doom II, Spectre [fun networked multiplayer 3d tank battle]. i forget the name of the tomb adventure game but it was way before lara croft.
 
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I have many fond memories of playing marathon when on a Mac when I was a kid. It was my first FPS game. I learned to game on a Mac!

But lets look at the Mac product line. All In One, with low end to mid range hardware. Laptop, with decent hardware for a laptop; but I do not need portability. And finally expensive cpu overkill workstations.

As a Gamer, I surely wont buy an All in 1, I dont want a laptop, and the workstation while probably awesome after a graphics card upgrade is just well over twice what Id want to spend; and would still have worse performance in gaming then the PC I would build at half the cost.

So does it matter that you can game on a Mac; when they do not make any tower computers suited for gaming.

Mac's are a fine product, if you want an All-in-1, a notebook, or a Workstation, but a Gamer should not want any of those; so who cares if you can game on a Mac.

 

reklatsa

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[citation][nom]zybch[/nom]And just how many of them are actually worth playing, let alone paying regular games prices for. Name me a single iPhone/iPad game that you'd happily pay $60 for. Not one I hear you say....[/citation]

I didn't say any of them were fantastically cutting-edge must-have games. Loads are free, some a dollar or so. I've read that many are really good fun to play (and, after all, that is their raison d'être). The point is iPhone OS has attracted developers in droves.

I wouldn't pay $60.00 for a PC game! I spend around $250.00-$300.00 a year on PC games to run in BootCamp with a GTX285. If they are released for MacOS I prefer to buy them in that format.
 
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