This article is over a year old and originally appeared on my personal blog. I’m reposting to see if anything has changed and for future reference:
I’m a passionate Mac gamer. An oxymoron? Quite possibily. I’m trying to figure out where Mac gaming is, if anywhere…
EA
At the 2007 WWDC, EA announced that a range of titles were coming to the Mac courtesy of Transgaming’s Cider technology. Whether these strictly are Mac games is a much contested issue.
Cider is a translation layer that allows Windows games to be ‘wrapped up’ and then played on Intel based Macs. The benefits of Cider are that the developer can rely on a single code base and deliver their game to PC and Mac users simultaneously.
However, becase Cider games are built for Windows, and not Mac OSX, they will not have any Mac specific features or hardware considerations. Cider games run slower than their PC counterparts because of the translation layer. Although the performance hit will hopefully be minimal, it is a decrease none the less.
Cider is somewhat of a half way measure. Games companies have come to the Mac before and failed because of the smaller market share and lack of advertising.
Although Cider is not ideal, games like Battlefield 2142 and Madden NFL ‘08 are being released for the Mac platform. It is easier for EA and other developers to license a technology like Cider that allows simple development and guaranteed compatibility, but is it good for Mac gamers?
Hopefully Cider can at least shed some light on the benefit of designing games platform agnostically. Although strictly still Windows based games, the potential for the Mac to have games that are playable within the operating system, not through BootCamp or virtualisation options, is appealing to most Mac gamers.
id
id recently announced that Rage, their upcoming post-apocalyptic racer shooter, will be released for Mac, PC, PS3 and xBox 360 simultaneously, courtesy of their multi platform technology, id Tech 5.
Their first tech demo, on a Mac Pro, is impressive. Realistic physics, pixel by pixel modeling and a tiny foot print of only a few gigabytes, all come together in a wonderfully dusty, desert world.
id will be one of the first games developers to release an engine that can create a game from a single repository of code that can appeal to the widest audience. The brilliance of this method is that the developer themselves, in this case id, can create a game dedicated for whatever platform they choose, while focusing more on content and gameplay. While id in the past haven’t created the most interesting games, namely Doom III and Quake 4, Rage looks set to change all that.
Apple
Apple have always remained curiously at a distance in regards to Mac gaming.
Do Apple consider the Mac to be a gaming platform? As a company that tries to provide the best all around experience both in terms of hardware and software, surely they would try and cater for an audience that wants games?
Apple’s problem is that they have whittled their range of computers down to a profitable and manageable level. There is no way to compete with the vast, never ending range of cheap PC’s when Apple charge a premium for design. So instead of trying to compete Apple have catered for the perceived market, and it works. Just look at Apple’s debt and profit margins; the lowest and highest in the industry respectively.
Apple’s designs are cutting edge and you can’t expect to get the pinnacle of research and development for peanuts. Apple have always made incredibly thin and lightweight laptops, pioneered the MagSafe connector to decrease laptop breakage and have engineered the Mac Pro to be easily accessible and functional.
For this reason Macs will always appeal to a minority of users. Whether or not they will succeed in breaking through into the mainstream, or whether they will remain in a niche market, remains to be seen.
Hardware
It is said that you a Mac and PC cannot be compared, but it is inevitable. There are two options as I see it: a Mac or a PC. They compete against each other so you must look at what both have to offer.
Let’s have a look at what you can get from Apple and Mesh Computers for around £1500:
Apple
Mac OS X
2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA Drive
ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory
24-inch glossy widescreen LCD
SuperDrive 8x
Apple Mighty Mouse & Keyboard
AirPort Extreme
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR
£1,459.00
Mesh
Genuine Windows Vista™ Ultimate Edition
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor (2.40GHz ,8MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz)
Hybrid TV Tuner – Digital & Analogue
Mainboard-nForce 680i SLI
4GB Memory
500GB Hard Drive with 16MB Buffer
320MB nVIDIA 8800GTS Graphics
22? Widescreen TFT LCD Display w/speakers
LightScribe Super Format 18x DVD Writer
Creative’s SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
T7900 7.1 Speakers + Subwoofer
6 USB, 2x Firewire, GB LAN
Multi-format Memory Card Reader
Logitech Cordless KB & Mouse
USB Wireless Connection
3 Years On-site Warranty (Home Service)
£1348.99
As I said, comparing them isn’t as simple as weighing up the specs. Although the Mesh machine is over £110 cheaper, you do not get MacOSX, or the trouble free existence of having one machine and one manufacturer to deal with. Also you don’t get the Apple design; the slim features, the new keyboard and all the little touches. You also don’t get a fantastically designed array of software either from by Apple or from the community. In the looks department, the iMac wins.
However, buying the Mesh gives you a quad core machine, 4GB of memory, a very decent graphics card, a brilliant soundcard, 7.1 speakers, three years on site support and a whole host of upgradeability options in the future.
For sheer games performance the iMac just does not compete. The graphics are sub-par (even now) and the lack of upgradeability is a killer. Most will argue that the iMac is not a games machine, and technically that’s true, but as the machine that’s got the most performance for price and the likely choice for most users, what else is there to do?
The only machine that can suit the gamer in the Mac range is a Mac Pro. Anyone that can afford a Mac Pro will be over the moon. It’s a fantastically powerful machine with a wealth of upgradeability options. But the price, with a 20? Cinema display, is a minimum of £2000. Although you get users who pay in excess of £2000 for a machine, they are a rarity.
For me, a Mac Pro would be a tremendous waste of money. I’d never utilise the sheer power it has, even using the programs like Adobe CS3 or the Apple Pro apps. An iMac however isn’t enough. And this is the fundamental problem with the current Mac lineup: there is no mid-range machine.
So, what’s the choice for a Mac gamer? The Mac Pro. At £2000 minimum that’s more than most want to spend for an all, round heavy hitting machine. Best stick with the Mesh…
Thoughts
Q2 2007, Apple sold 529,000 desktops. Apple do not release details on what makes up that number, but estimates are around 4 or 5:1 iMac to Mac Pro (thanks Kasper at AppleInsider.
So, based on the assumption that Apple make most profit from the iMac range, why not make it a little more capable? Or make the Mac Pro more of an affordable, well rounded machine? I doubt that many users take advantage of the option to install 16GB or utilise the eight cores that the top end model has.
I’m excited that id and EA are releasing titles for the Mac, but they are bound to fail if most users can’t play them. As Mark Rein said, Intel are stifling games by relying on integrated graphics. I fear that Apple are stifling Mac game development by releasing a limited, and in some places, an overpriced and underpowered range of hardware.
If games are coming to the Mac, we want them to stay. Mac market share is on the increase. We have a powerful and easy to use operating system and a dedicated and passionate user base.
We need to convince and inspire developers that the Mac can be a gaming platform. For that to happen we need support and this support needs to come from Apple, in the shape of affordable hardware and communication with developers.
