Blizzard a Mac Aspyr and others

[GigaWire]

Why is Blizzard the only mainstream game developer that develops simultaneously for the Mac and PC? But not only that, they release both versions in the same box, at the same time, and with great support from the start to the end of the games life-

I haven't really found anything that explains this so I'm curious as to why they seem to be flying their own ship on this, and why other software companies have not followed suit. I assume that if it were not profitable, they would not do it, so what gives with the others?

And I do not mean the crappy games, I'm talking things like UT 2004, Quake series, SIM series, etc. Games that you know are going to sell well to both PC and MAC.

[iJon]

correct me if i am wrong, but isnt it because blizzard makes all their games and publishes them too. other companies develop, then like ea or someone publishs them. also blizzard codes in open gl, so its not to difficult to support both platforms, many games are designed in directx, making it much more difficult, and not worth porting to the mac.

iJon

[Nermal]

They should consider that, before making them in DirectX. The whole point of standards is so that they can be used, not just implemented as an afterthought (or not at all).

[7on]

ID Software also codes their games for Mac and PC at the same time, and often releases them in the same package.

[yamabushi]

I think it is just a lack of knowledge and expertise in programming for platforms other than Windows on Intel or AMD. This was the whole point of Direct X - to make programming for Windows easier and thus lock out alternative operating systems. Xbox was just an extension of this tactic. Most developers just accepted this as just the way things are and gave away their code to another team to port to Mac if deemed appropriate. Blizzard took the braver approach to have a small Mac developer team in house that are part of the process from the beginning. Blizzard is awesome and makes games that are more than just the average boring eye candy - their games are very fun to play.:D

[Sunrunner]

Lets all make a toast to Blizzard and all the other awsome game developers that have held loyal to the mac platform all these years.

[Striderdm1]

Originally posted by Sunrunner
Lets all make a toast to Blizzard and all the other awsome game developers that have held loyal to the mac platform all these years.

Agreed !

But lets not forget how we all loved Bungie ages ago and then they where bought out by the devil himself :eek: I'd hate this to happen to Blizzard too! A TOP company imo :cool: :D :) Thank you for Diablo2 on osx/G5!!! :)

[hvfsl]

Originally posted by Striderdm1
Agreed !

But lets not forget how we all loved Bungie ages ago and then they where bought out by the devil himself :eek: I'd hate this to happen to Blizzard too! A TOP company imo :cool: :D :) Thank you for Diablo2 on osx/G5!!! :)

Maybe hell will freeze over again if M$ took over Blizzard. :D

[Striderdm1]

Originally posted by hvfsl
Maybe hell will freeze over again if M$ took over Blizzard. :D

Hope that never happens - i'm working on my tan down here!! :cool:

Stay free Blizzard !!! :D

[Shekky_ca]

THQ is starting to recognize the macintosh platform now too which is pretty cool for there releases of Summoner and Red Faction a year or so ago.

More and more games get ported over to the mac nowadays.

which was not the case 10 years ago.

Heh Doom 1 and II were far superior on the mac then the PC releases ;)

[Doraemon]

MacDX (http://www.coderus.com/) helps porting DirectX games.

And for the question why the games aren't developed and released simultaneously, porting a game while the PC version is still in developement is very difficult, since often some last-minute changes means a lot of re-writing, hence it would be inefficient.
What Blizzard on the other hand does is not porting a PC game to the Mac platform, but writing parallely two apps.

[Shekky_ca]

Another thing is When PC games do get ported over alot of the bugs are fixed on the PC before there release on the mac

[Striderdm1]

Originally posted by Shekky_ca
Heh Doom 1 and II were far superior on the mac then the PC releases ;)

very, very true :D

[job]

i'm very thankful blizzard decided to develop and release world of warcraft for both mac and pc at the same time. it's probably the only game i would pay a monthly fee for.

[yellow]

Aspyr Media Inc., has begun publishing titles for Mac and PC simultaneously.