will gears for mac have live support?

[DanB91]

what do u think? i sure hope so...

[Kosh66]

This is an Epic game, not a Microsoft game. I would think both the PC (Windows & Linux) and Mac version would NOT use Live. Isn't Live more X-Box Console oriented - it's a tool to find game servers and have in-game chat on the Xbox isn't it. Likely they'll use what they used for UT2004 since Gears of War uses the UT3 engine which is derived from the UT2 engine (what UT2004 uses). UT2004 also has it's own in-system chat feature and server finder (do they use gamespy or their own?).

Remember Unreal Tournament existed BEFORE the Xbox and is more of a computer game than a console game. They'll be using the PC/Mac code for the PC/Mac, the console code is ported from the PC code likely, and the Live stuff added there.

[icecone]

This is an Epic game, not a Microsoft game. I would think both the PC (Windows & Linux) and Mac version would NOT use Live. Isn't Live more X-Box Console oriented - it's a tool to find game servers and have in-game chat on the Xbox isn't it. Likely they'll use what they used for UT2004 since Gears of War uses the UT3 engine which is derived from the UT2 engine (what UT2004 uses). UT2004 also has it's own in-system chat feature and server finder (do they use gamespy or their own?).

Remember Unreal Tournament existed BEFORE the Xbox and is more of a computer game than a console game. They'll be using the PC/Mac code for the PC/Mac, the console code is ported from the PC code likely, and the Live stuff added there.
It is confirmed Gears uses Live:(

[applekid]

This is an Epic game, not a Microsoft game. I would think both the PC (Windows & Linux) and Mac version would NOT use Live. Isn't Live more X-Box Console oriented - it's a tool to find game servers and have in-game chat on the Xbox isn't it. Likely they'll use what they used for UT2004 since Gears of War uses the UT3 engine which is derived from the UT2 engine (what UT2004 uses). UT2004 also has it's own in-system chat feature and server finder (do they use gamespy or their own?).

Remember Unreal Tournament existed BEFORE the Xbox and is more of a computer game than a console game. They'll be using the PC/Mac code for the PC/Mac, the console code is ported from the PC code likely, and the Live stuff added there.

Clearly you don't know about Games for Windows Live.

Live is definitely up to Microsoft. If this is like DirectX and every other Microsoft proprietary technology, I doubt Live will hit the Mac. The features for Silver are things like friends lists and a gamertag, but my guess is there are ways to get around that.

http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/Live/Pages/AboutLive.aspx

[Kosh66]

Ok, apparently the PC version of GoW is to use Live. So how's this going to work? I can't see Epic doing some half-assed like only allowing Mac to Mac play. Mac users want to play against their PC friends (well that, and I like fragging PC users).

[DanB91]

hopefully epic is begging M$ to put live on mac, its really not that hard to do. how would we game w/ PC users if it wasnt on mac? (unless the PC has a dedicated server option). o and btw Gears is not coming to Linux

[Kosh66]

(unless the PC has a dedicated server option).

I was thinking about something like that. Ie. something like the existing UT2004 uses, it's own server finder and the ability to setup your own server. This way PC users would have 2 option, Live or the other server finder.

[Nermal]

I know that the game itself doesn't use it, but I wonder whether they could wrap the Live libraries in Cider if MS won't make Mac versions of them.

[applekid]

I know that the game itself doesn't use it, but I wonder whether they could wrap the Live libraries in Cider if MS won't make Mac versions of them.

Not completely sure about how Live works out on the PC, but if it's similar to GameSpy, there might be ways for developers to get around the system for at least server lists.

[jdechko]

Live for Windows sounds a lot like Gamespy Arcade - a central friends list for all Live-enabled games, game servers, matchmaking chat, etc. I'm not sure it would be a difficult port at all.