Let’s not pull any punches. Your first stop for the latest and greatest computer games isn’t going to be Apple. But will that be the case forever or will Apple someday make a play at the computer gaming market?
OSWeekly.com’s Brandon Watts hopes so…
“With so many products practically asking for games, why is there such a holdup? Is the idea of gaming not elegant enough for Apple? Since Apple is such a visual and interface oriented company, I’d love to see some in-house games created by Apple that would fully utilize their platforms so that other developers would take note and take gaming on OS X and beyond seriously. Why don’t you throw us a bone, Apple?”
The second sentence in that quote flashes through my mind every time I wonder why Apple doesn’t do more (or any) gaming stuff. Perhaps Mac users find gaming too pedestrian. Leave it to the savages with their loud, ugly PCs or the ignoramuses that sleep on the street in front of Best Buy waiting for the latest consoles to go on sale. You know, people like me.
And then there’s Boot Camp. Now that it’s easy to load Windows onto your Mac, what sense does it make for Apple to allocate resources towards gaming? Apparently none. But Watts wants to see true Mac games…
“Yes, the state of gaming on the Mac is still ridiculous. Apple is into looking pretty and using computers to have fun, but where are the games? All of this is frustrating, to say the least. Granted, there are some commercial games available for the Mac, and you can find some independently developed games online, but as hard as I’ve tried to be interested, it just doesn’t happen. I can’t find anything that I want, and I’m sure I’m not alone. For all of you Macheads out there, when was the last time you purchased a game for the Mac?
Listen, I know that there are Flash games that can be played on the Mac, and if I really wanted to, I could always boot into Windows using Boot Camp or Parallels to play some games, but that’s not the point. When I speak of games, I mean true games for OS X.”
Whatever Apple’s reason, it’s pretty clear that it’s not interested in pursuing games as a huge part of its business strategy. Call me crazy, but it might have something to do with the extent to which Apple would have to rely on outside developers. For a company that’s known for exerting ultra tight control over so many aspects of its product lines, licensing games doesn’t really seem like a good fit. Can you imagine Steve Jobs learning that a line of games he’s about to announce at a keynote has been delayed because the developer can’t get its ducks in a row? His hair would go even grayer.
The one area I think Apple would be wise to focus on, however, is the handheld market. Those iPhone and iPod touch doodads that everyone’s talking about look like pretty killer gaming devices to me; a device with the touch feature of the Nintendo DS and the cool factor (and power) of the Sony PSP. It’s a whole new can of worms for Apple to build relationships with the same game developers that make titles for the DS and PSP but it’s a can that might be a good one to open sooner or later.
Apple Dislikes Gaming and Makes It Clear [OSWeekly.com]
The problem with Apple and games starts at the top. Job’s sees himself as an arbiter of good taste and judgement. Therefore MAC’s that look like art but often perform sub-par. During the whole Power PC period MAC’s were lagging badly. It’s all about the fine piano in the front lobby and not about shoot em up.
Fact is that Job’s is just a pretender to aristocracy, we all know it and at some level so does he, otherwise why try so hard to cover it up.
Games are simply too low brow for real artists.
Chuck,
Your theory doesn’t hold up well in the face of facts. Why did Jobs parade EA and id on the stage of WWDC, even before touting Leopard? Why did Apple award Blizzard for WoW at the same event, and why does it promote the games that do exist for the Mac?
The reality is that hardcore PC gaming is tied to Microsoft’s proprietary DirectX, something Apple can’t effectively undo. Microsoft has poured billions into gaming, buying up developers and quickly migrating them from cross-platform to Xbox/Windows only. Have you maybe heard of Halo?
All this prattling about how games offends Jobs’ delicate sensibilities is BS. Apple has a limited capacity to strike, so its hitting in areas where it can do the most damage. Apple could devote 80% of its efforts at gaming and only end up losing money like Microsoft (whose Xbox entertainment division lost well over a billion in the last year). Instead, Apple is cleaning up mobiles and handheld devices.
Of course, Apple has also made it easy to run the latest games decently on all new Macs since 2006 using BootCamp, and that’s only a minor solution to a major problem.
The only real rot in gaming is Microsoft and its proprietary, anti-consumer D3D platform that ties games to Microsoft’s monopoly. Apple is backing OpenGL, the technology used by Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PS3. Look at sales figures to see where gaming is headed. http://www.roughlydrafted.com
I stand by my opinion. Thing is, back in the days when games were becomming good, Windows sucked badly at playing them.
Any Descent (or Descent 2 :)) game ran from DOS. This would have been a good time for Apple to have made a serious play for that market.
Software such as OpenGL and Glide, and hardware like the early VooDdoo cards made giant leaps forward without the use of DirectX. Direct X in the early days was a complete joke. Most games gave you the choice of OpenGL, Glide or DirectX
This would have been an excelent time for Apple to seize the day, but they either did not have the vision or could care less, I think from what I know SJ that the later is true.
Apple has done an excellent job with other software inititives such as their Core Audio and related technologies that allows low latency audio and higher performance video through their hardware, way better than anything MS has deployed yet. Microsoft is still trying to catch up to that.
But then audio and video creativity seems to appeal to the Artist’s more than the fragger.
Trotting out a few games here and there is just lip service to keep the loyalists quiet.
Apple could have gone down that road but chose not to.
I also think you have a serious mental lapse if you can with a straight face condemn MS for
“The only real rot in gaming is Microsoft and its proprietary, anti-consumer D3D platform that ties games to Microsoft’s monopoly.”
Do a reality check.
Which company guards it’s OS the most,
How many different brands of hardware does MS OS run on? What about Windows Mobile?
How many different brands of hardware does Apple OSX run on?
Why is this?
Why, especially now that Apple is Intel can’t I run OSX on my Dell?
If I want to build the ultimate machine tailored to my tastes, do I look at Apple or PC? With PC I can have anything I want, with the MAC I have to take what one company offers. Who is proprietary and anti competitive now?
Why won’t Apple license its hardware to third parties to manuafcture? They did for a short time before Jobs returned from exile. Why does not anyone clone a MAC?????
Why does a iPhone only work with ATT.
Why can’t Apple supply docs freely for iPod and iPhone deveolpers. Who’s is the big corporate bad guy here?
Wake up and smell the Kool Aid.
Apple almost went out of business in the late ’90’s trying to compete with Wintel. So, it was necessary for Steve Jobs, when he came back in 1997, to severely cut back on the models that Apple sold. Apple has necessarily been cautious about what computer markets that it sells in. Apple does not want to go head-to-head with Microsoft or the Wintel manufacturers; there is no profit in that.
Apple has been extending itself into areas where Microsoft has shown extreme incompetence– which means MP3 players and now mobile phones. There may be plenty or other areas that show promise for Apple– tablet PC’s, TV set top boxes, etc, but Apple is not pushing its luck.
Since Apple migrated to Intel hardware, people have been pushing Apple to expand its marketing areas by releasing Mac OSX to Wintel PC’s, expanding into the Enterprise Market or the low cost market. I doubt that Apple intends to do that. Why? Because it is currently growing at a 26% annual rate when the PC market is almost flat at 4-5%. It doesn’t take too many years of that growth for major changes to occur.
Also. Apple is trying to present Microsoft and the Wintel manufacturers with a Fate Accompli by improving its software so rapidly that Microsoft cannot keep up. One case is that Apple will be including CALDEV Open Source group calendaring with Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard next month. This is an Enterprise product. Does it directly compete with Microsoft? No, but it will. It will, in a few years, surpass anything that Microsoft makes. Apple is picking away at Microsoft’s weaknesses.
This will eventually happen in games, but gaming is one of Microsoft’s strengths, so it may well be the last area that Apple competes in. If Apple did so, it would have to provide hardware and software that blows Wintel away. Do you see such a product on the horizon? I don’t.