Arnold Kim at MacRumors:
Apple appears to be getting even more serious about gaming on the iPhone and iPod Touch. We’ve long known that Apple has been positioning the iPod Touch as a gaming device, and Steve Jobs even acknowledged to the New York Times the success of this initiative:
?Originally, we weren?t exactly sure how to market the Touch. Was it an iPhone without the phone? Was it a pocket computer? What happened was, what customers told us was, they started to see it as a game machine,? he said. ?We started to market it that way, and it just took off.”
Apple is now recruiting for a game developer with “3-4 years of video game development experience” who has shipped at least one high profile title. Apple did ship one game (Texas Hold’em) for the original App Store launch but has yet not released any other games under their own brand. Apple has also recently hired Graeme Devine a notable game developer who was also the lead designer for Halo Wars. While the purpose of these hires is unclear, it seems Apple is starting to take gaming very seriously.
Apple serious about games! It usually always means that Apple are putting more focus on iPhone/Touch gaming, while the Mac lags behind. However, maybe all my emails to Apple have paid off? Maybe they’re getting serious about games for Mac? I doubt it, but you never know.
Comments say it all:
thunderclap: After waiting seven years for Apple to get games on OS X I finally switched back to Windows since I love PC gaming. It would be nice if Apple took computer gaming as seriously as iPhone/iPod gaming. If they ever decide to encourage games developers to release games the same day as Windows releases I’d move back to using OS X as my primary OS.
slb: I just wish Apple devoted this kind of attention to gaming on the Mac platform. Carmack may be enthusiastic about the iPhone, but he’s also said the higher-ups at Apple look down on gaming and don’t take it seriously.
bigmanathome24: Are you kidding me?!?!?!?! Personally I think Apple products are just amazing, after owning many ipods computers and such, I have respect for them. But gaming? They refuse to work with hardly anyone when it comes to gaming on OS X. I know Mac Ports can be expensive, but Apple if they are even remotely serious about gaming need to push, if not also subsidise some of these developers. I have long waited to play half life 2 on mac, and hope by the time hl 3 comes out (which apparently will according to valve) it will be on mac. geez the only reason i have windows installed on my macs is because of steam games.
I concur… last night I upgraded to VMware Fusion 3 to play Colonization with my brother, which is available on Windows but not Mac as of yet. It went smoothly, but still a shame that virtualization was necessary.