What's with Aspyr?

[Ol3s]

They haven't released any mac games from them for a while, all they keep releasing are pc games.

[Signal-11]

After what they did to NWN2, I don't think I'm really interested in buying any of their software.

[eXan]

Their COD4 port is so much slower than native Windows version it looks like it was just Ciderized

[txa1265]

Originally Posted by eXan

Their COD4 port is so much slower than native Windows version it looks like it was just Ciderized

Compared with NWN2 it is lightning fast ...

Yeah, they are becoming more and more of a PC game publisher. Got Puzzle Quest Galactrix from them.

[Rodus]

Plus Glenda Adams has just left the company which means one less mac supporter there.

[Cougarcat]

Aspyr is porting the last expansion to Civ IV. Beyond the Sword, to the mac. Although it hasn't been officially announced yet, it's nearing the end of development. They also have a "AAA" pc/mac console port to be released by the end of the year.

[txa1265]

Originally Posted by Rodus

Plus Glenda Adams has just left the company which means one less mac supporter there.

Really? What is she up to now ... and how did I miss that ... ?

Originally Posted by Cougarcat

Aspyr is porting the last expansion to Civ IV. Beyond the Sword, to the mac..

Well, there was also Colonization, but that is really a whole different experience - but it was part of the complete pack just released.

[gregorsamsa]

More to the point: what's with Mac gaming? A while back, I thought things might be picking up, but it seems to have fallen back again. Then again, I've already bought a lot of the better Mac-native titles available. As I won't buy Cider ports, it's mostly Bootcamp & Windows gaming for me in future.

Apparently, Aspyr will still bring out the occasional Mac game, but they're increasingly concentrating on developing games for the PC & console markets, simply because that's where the serious money can be made.

Originally Posted by txa1265

Really? What is she up to now ... and how did I miss that ... ?

I read on IMG that she's concentrating on iPhone apps & games via Maverick software. Average development times for iPhone are fairly short (about 3 months), with the prospect of greater rewards.

PS: Re "greater rewards" - that's only my interpretation as she doesn't say that's her motive.

[Rodus]

It looks like Brad Oliver will also be concentrating more on consoles which means Aspyr releases will be few and far between, although with the performance problems of their latest stuff can't say I'll shed a tear. Basically all Mac gaming has now is Feral and Blizzard.

[Eric5h5]

Originally Posted by Rodus

Basically all Mac gaming has now is Feral and Blizzard.

Virtual Programming actually does quite a few ports.

--Eric

[manmeet]

No they have released tony hawk pro skater! they have released nightfire also!

[Ol3s]

Originally Posted by manmeet

No they have released deimos rising! they have released nightfire also!

how old are these, i was talking about after CoD4

[TwinCities Dan]

Originally Posted by Ol3s

how old are these, i was talking about after CoD4

Deimos Rising came out in like '01, I believe...

[Winni]

There is barely a market for games in the Mac ecosystem. And since Macs can now run Windows, the business case for porting games to the Mac has completely vaporized.

Furthermore, PC gaming itself has been dying a slow death since the launch of the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 -- and nowadays most PC games are nothing more than Xbox 360 ports anyway. The studios don't have to fight against illegal copies of their games in the console market, they sell more units and its simply more lucrative to target consoles for them than to target PCs - or the tiny number of Mac gamers.

Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games like World of Warcraft and simulations like Civilization are the last domains of the PC, but this could - and probably will - also change.

I've been a heavy gamer myself since the early 80s (Apple II, later PC - I never had an Atari or Commodore machine). Crysis was the last game that I bought for Windows, and it was a huge disappointment. I've bought more than 20 Xbox 360 titles since then and I can say that I very much prefer the Xbox experience over Windows/Mac. No copy protection hassles and the stuff always runs flawlessly and beautifully in HD mode (1920x1080).

While Gears of War 2 "just works" on the Xbox and looks great, I cannot even properly play the Mac port of Civilization IV on my Quad Core Mac Pro at 1680x1050: In the later rounds, when more units and cities have been built, the game painfully slows down and begins to show ugly graphical glitches. And yes, I have installed the latest patches from Aspyr. Sound playback is also faulty - Leonard Nimoy just doesn't talk anymore after a while. The game also occasionally crashes. While crashing games are normal in the PC/Mac world, in my experience they are a rare exception in the Xbox 360 world. The only game that ever crashed on me was Blacksite, and even that crashed only once.

I think the simple conclusion is that you have to buy a console when you're serious about games.

[Rodus]

^^which is a pain as RTS games suck on consoles and many people prefer a mouse/keyboard combo for FPS' as well.

[Dagless]

Originally Posted by Winni

I think the simple conclusion is that you have to buy a console when you're serious about games.

Console systems are much more 'casual' based than their PC alternatives. If you're serious about games - either install Bootcamp or buy a dedicated gaming PC.

[gregorsamsa]

Originally Posted by Winni

There is barely a market for games in the Mac ecosystem. And since Macs can now run Windows, the business case for porting games to the Mac has completely vaporized.

Furthermore, PC gaming itself has been dying a slow death since the launch of the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 -- and nowadays most PC games are nothing more than Xbox 360 ports anyway. The studios don't have to fight against illegal copies of their games in the console market, they sell more units and its simply more lucrative to target consoles for them than to target PCs - or the tiny number of Mac gamers.

Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games like World of Warcraft and simulations like Civilization are the last domains of the PC, but this could - and probably will - also change.

I've been a heavy gamer myself since the early 80s (Apple II, later PC - I never had an Atari or Commodore machine). Crysis was the last game that I bought for Windows, and it was a huge disappointment. I've bought more than 20 Xbox 360 titles since then and I can say that I very much prefer the Xbox experience over Windows/Mac. No copy protection hassles and the stuff always runs flawlessly and beautifully in HD mode (1920x1080).

While Gears of War 2 "just works" on the Xbox and looks great, I cannot even properly play the Mac port of Civilization IV on my Quad Core Mac Pro at 1680x1050: In the later rounds, when more units and cities have been built, the game painfully slows down and begins to show ugly graphical glitches. And yes, I have installed the latest patches from Aspyr. Sound playback is also faulty - Leonard Nimoy just doesn't talk anymore after a while. The game also occasionally crashes. While crashing games are normal in the PC/Mac world, in my experience they are a rare exception in the Xbox 360 world. The only game that ever crashed on me was Blacksite, and even that crashed only once.
I think the simple conclusion is that you have to buy a console when you're serious about games.

Agree with your 1st point. Sad as it may be, it's something many of us predicted would happen as soon as Bootcamp was announced. For the rest, IMO, you couldn't be more wrong! So serious gamers no longer want to play KB-controlled games? To the contrary, most serious gamers will tell you that genres like RTS & FPS simply don't work too well on joypads.

Also, I wouldn't be too hasty with the "PC gaming dying a slow death" conclusion just yet, despite rampant piracy. I think what's happening is that the over-saturated PC games market is basically undergoing a long-overdue correction, so fewer game releases isn't necessarily a bad thing. But with a global market of many millions, the backing for "gaming on Windows" from many PC makers, with more PC download sales, increasing in-game advertizing revenues, etc. it's unlikely that most game developers will ever ignore the PC. They couldn't afford to.

Consoles however, as much as they have their place, probably have a less rosy long-term future than PCs. Even in a buoyant economy, we're unlikely to ever again see the likes of MS & Sony be prepared to lose billions of $s (in MS's case, some $20 billion on the Xbox franchise) on developing & establishing new console hardware that has a useful life-span of barely 5 years.

[Signal-11]

Originally Posted by Winni

Furthermore, PC gaming itself has been dying a slow death since the launch of the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 -- and nowadays most PC games are nothing more than Xbox 360 ports anyway. The studios don't have to fight against illegal copies of their games in the console market, they sell more units and its simply more lucrative to target consoles for them than to target PCs - or the tiny number of Mac gamers.

Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games like World of Warcraft and simulations like Civilization are the last domains of the PC, but this could - and probably will - also change.

Man, I've been hearing people bemoaning the death of PC gaming since I was a kid playing Leisure Suit Larry hoping my mom wouldn't catch me.

PC gaming will always be around in on form or another particularly for the absolute cutting edge. This weekend's TF2 updates are a prime example. PC gamers get them, XBOX gamers don't. Part of this is because the XBOX simply can't handle the newest stuff.

Console gaming won't kill PC gaming until console gamers are able to modify their hardware (upgrades) AND software (mods) to meet their demand. And if you're at the point of being able to alter both, this is no longer a console, but a PC.

[neiltc13]

Originally Posted by Winni

PC gaming itself has been dying a slow death since the launch of the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 -- and nowadays most PC games are nothing more than Xbox 360 ports anyway. The studios don't have to fight against illegal copies of their games in the console market, they sell more units and its simply more lucrative to target consoles for them than to target PCs - or the tiny number of Mac gamers.

You are kidding yourself if you don't think that piracy is a problem on consoles. Yes, it's not as big a problem as PC, but it is still there.

No copy protection hassles and the stuff always runs flawlessly and beautifully in HD mode (1920x1080).

There are only a handful of Xbox 360 games which run at 1920x1080. The only one I could think of off the top of my head was Virtua Tennis 3 but after a bit of searching I found that there also five others and of those four are arcade titles. The only other disc-based 1080p game is NBA Street Homecourt.

[Dagless]

Originally Posted by Signal-11

Man, I've been hearing people bemoaning the death of PC gaming since I was a kid playing Leisure Suit Larry hoping my mom wouldn't catch me.

Oh it happens an awful lot on Mac sites. I find it hilarious too especially when Steam come out and announce another few quadrillion sales from their latest weekend sale or whatever. Of course PC gaming isn't dying, and what some folk fail to realise is that consoles are performing the same as they did last gen - the only anomaly is the Wii, but (as a Wii fan) it's a much more casual based system.

So, the increase in sales of a casual console somehow directly affect the buying habits of hardcore PC gamers. I think this warrants a term I rarely use - lol.

[txa1265]

Originally Posted by Winni

Furthermore, PC gaming itself has been dying a slow death since the launch of the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 -- and nowadays most PC games are nothing more than Xbox 360 ports anyway.
I think the simple conclusion is that you have to buy a console when you're serious about games.

Um ... no.

The PC is the biggest single platform for games, and aside from the Wii and DS is the only segment that has grown in the last 2 years.

Also, EA recently called out the PC as the largest and most important and profitable segment.

[Eric5h5]

I think the "PC gaming is dying" thing came from the fact that retail space for PC games has been shrinking for some years in favor of console titles. But that's only because PC games have been moving to online distribution. So of course there aren't so many boxes in stores anymore.

--Eric

[manmeet]

Originally Posted by Ol3s

how old are these, i was talking about after CoD4

Nightfire can run on your mac and I don't know about deimos rising but tony hawk pro skater 2 is a good game and run on your mac well!

[txa1265]

Originally Posted by Eric5h5

I think the "PC gaming is dying" thing came from the fact that retail space for PC games has been shrinking for some years in favor of console titles. But that's only because PC games have been moving to online distribution. So of course there aren't so many boxes in stores anymore.

--Eric

That seems to have changed as well - for a while it seemed that most GameStops had no PC games at all, now I cannot think of the last time I saw one that didn't have more PC space than PSP space. Same for Walmart and Target. Not at the same level as the consoles, that is for sure.

[MrMacMan]

Direct downloading of Games will kill retail. (gamestop, etc).

Steam is convenient and reliable for most people anyway.

The only reason to get a game at a 'store' now a days (and by store i mean amazon) is for additional content, posters, shirt, collectibles.