App Store Poaching Steam Mac Games?

[brianisbrillian]

Does anyone remember Borderlands coming out for the mac this past december? and did anyone realize that Bioshock is out for the mac too?

Neither of these titles are available for mac download thru Steam, although i am pretty sure borderlands USED to be available for steamplay.

and there they both are, in the App Store, ready to go. Can someone explain this for me? i have a sneaking suspicion that the App Store is blocking Steam from selling some mac games. and i asked steam support about it, and they referred me to a list of mac-compatible games, no mention of my question about why borderlands wasn't available for mac anymore.

i wondered if it was some decision made by the owners of the games, but that doesn't make sense, as i feel they would have many more downloads via steam...

 

[roadbloc]

1. The Mac App Store blocks Steam because it is an App Store. What is the point in a App Store "selling" an App Store?

2. Boarderlands, Bioshock, ect are games that have been ported over to Mac OS X via companies known as "Porting houses", ie. Not by the original developer. Since Steam has SteamPlay, a system where you get both Mac and PC versions of the game for one price if available, these porting houses would loose out on their share of the earnings. Thus, the MAS gets the games over Steam.

 

[fleabite]

Don't blame Apple

Apple is not preventing Borderlands from being sold on Steam. Money is. Borderlands has been out for a couple of years for PC and is now being sold for $30 for the GOTY edition on Steam. That same version has only been out for Mac for a few months and is being sold for $50 in the App store. Firaxis, who provided the port to Mac, needs to recoup its investment. If they allow it to be sold on Steam, the Steamplay functionality will allow people to buy the PC version for cheaper (I got it on sale for $7.50 last week) and then get the Mac version for free. Then how does Firaxis get paid for their port? I'm pretty sure the Mac version has never been available on Steam; but, as it gets older, I'm sure it will be. 'till then, I'm bootcamping it.

 

[Aegelward]

There is one curious example, I'm fairly certain the original developers ported it themselves...

But Defence Grid is on the mac store, but not on Steam

 

[doh123]

lets see... sell your game on Steam, which people need to know about and get... or sell it on an App Store thats already built into Macs that pretty much every Mac user will know about... Its easier to make sure there is only one version like this sold to support (why keep up with a steam compatible version and a AppStore compatible version), so go with the store that has more potential customers.

 

[deadwulfe]

Feral Interactive is the company that ported Borderlands, Bioshock, and Rome Total War. I think they are a great company in terms of actually re-coding the PC titles to work on a Mac, and I don't mean cider porting. They offer assistance with working with people to make sure the game runs and runs right and they don't dilly-daly when it comes to releasing patches to fix problems. Also, several of them are members of the Macrumors forum and have even helped people here with the titles their company has released.

I'm guessing they would love to sell their games on Steam, but due to the pricing of the PC versions being so low, since they are old titles, they wouldn't be able to make any money, because actual manpower is used to get these games on the Mac platform and I'm sure the licensing isn't cheap, either. Between Feral Interactive and Valve, maybe we'll see more big name titles being released for Mac. Heck, maybe some day these PC franchise companies will sub-contract Feral Interactive to get games concurrently released for the PC and Mac?

I do NOT work for or receive compensation from Feral Interactive, but I have bought several of their games and highly recommend their work. $$$ talks and my dollars say I want more games on OSX, not Windows-only.

 

[Eric5h5]

Neither of these titles are available for mac download thru Steam, although i am pretty sure borderlands USED to be available for steamplay.

and there they both are, in the App Store, ready to go. Can someone explain this for me? i have a sneaking suspicion that the App Store is blocking Steam from selling some mac games.

No, nothing like that. Borderlands was never on Steam for Mac; none of Feral's ports have been on Steam, and probably won't be, for reasons deadwulfe mentions. Although it's not impossible...Aspyr's Civ V port was, although there was some resistance to that initially. Wonder if it worked out?

--Eric

 

[Mackilroy]

lets see... sell your game on Steam, which people need to know about and get... or sell it on an App Store thats already built into Macs that pretty much every Mac user will know about... Its easier to make sure there is only one version like this sold to support (why keep up with a steam compatible version and a AppStore compatible version), so go with the store that has more potential customers.

I'd think that Steam would have more potential customers, as there are millions of Steam users on at any one time, and tens of millions of accounts – probably around as many as there are Intel Macs in the wild. If you're more than a casual gamer it's likely you would have heard of Steam.

 

[fleabite]

Feral Interactive is the company that ported Borderlands

You are right. My apologies.

 

[PowerGamerX]

The App Store really isn't poaching any Steam Mac Games. As, if you look at the top sellers on Steam's store for Mac, most of them are Valves own games. Which you just simply can't get on the App Store.

That said, I refuse to buy any games off the App Store. Steam or box copies for me. Not because I really have anything against Apple. Just, why would I pay the same amount of money for a game on the App Store that may not potentially be there after a number of years when I could buy a box copy?

Now, if the games were say 2/3rds the price of a retail box. Then I may change my mind.

 

[Sylent Syd]

It'd be nice if the Apple Store could accomodate demos for the games they carry like Steam does...I will inevitably pick up Rome Total War from them...Bioshock also (but not at $40)...

 

[doh123]

I'd think that Steam would have more potential customers, as there are millions of Steam users on at any one time, and tens of millions of accounts – probably around as many as there are Intel Macs in the wild. If you're more than a casual gamer it's likely you would have heard of Steam.

you cannot count all of steam customers.. as no one with a Windows PC for playing games is buying a Mac version. I'm only talking about companies wanting to sell a Mac game. yes if they want to sell a hybrid game, then go for steam. But if you are selling a Mac game, basically from 10.6 on EVERY mac has the App Store... not just some, ALL of them. Its just not possible for Steam to surpass that in the long term.

 

[Mackilroy]

you cannot count all of steam customers.. as no one with a Windows PC for playing games is buying a Mac version. I'm only talking about companies wanting to sell a Mac game. yes if they want to sell a hybrid game, then go for steam. But if you are selling a Mac game, basically from 10.6 on EVERY mac has the App Store... not just some, ALL of them. Its just not possible for Steam to surpass that in the long term.

Sure you can. I've bought several games under Windows with the express purpose of also playing them under OS X. You can't really separate Steam under Windows from Steam under OS X, as it's all one company, albeit one that sells to two different platforms. Until there's something better than Steam available (the Mac App Store is not it, not by a long shot) Steam won't go away or have problems being readily past the MAS in terms of numbers of users.

I have nothing against using the Mac App Store, I've got a number of programs from there, but for games, it'll always be Steam. It's cheaper, has more options, and is a better platform for gaming.

 

[doh123]

Sure you can. I've bought several games under Windows with the express purpose of also playing them under OS X. You can't really separate Steam under Windows from Steam under OS X, as it's all one company, albeit one that sells to two different platforms. Until there's something better than Steam available (the Mac App Store is not it, not by a long shot) Steam won't go away or have problems being readily past the MAS in terms of numbers of users.

I have nothing against using the Mac App Store, I've got a number of programs from there, but for games, it'll always be Steam. It's cheaper, has more options, and is a better platform for gaming.

You totally missed what I said. I'm talking about Mac versions not buying a dual Win/Mac. When a company uses a separate company or license to port their software, they want to market it to all Mac users and make sure they get their Mac sales. Most companies are not making their own in house Mac ports, and selling on Steam would cu into their profits

 

[Mackilroy]

No, I understood what you said, I'm simply bypassing it. By definition if it's for both Windows and Mac it has a 'Mac version.' I understand companies such as Feral want to make a profit on the hard work they've done, and I support that. If they'd rather use the Mac App Store to sell their products, more power to 'em. I won't be buying from them, but that's a choice I've made. I get benefits through Steam that I don't get through the MAS, and while that means I'm not able to purchase certain games under OS X, again, I'm fine with that.

 

[0098386]

That said, I refuse to buy any games off the App Store. Steam or box copies for me. Not because I really have anything against Apple. Just, why would I pay the same amount of money for a game on the App Store that may not potentially be there after a number of years when I could buy a box copy?

Same.

But additionally I have products on other distribution services, but I don't buy off them myself because they're not Steam. I don't want my games fragmented all over the place, infact I bought and never played the Humble Bundle games until they were redeemable on Steam.

But what gets me the most is that distributing a game on Steam is free. There are no costs beyond the fee Valve take. So little developers can support their titles for as long as they jolly well want - App Store? (be it Mac or iOS) You have to continue paying Apple. It's not much but I know various bedroom coders who won't bother with iOS and simply distribute on Steam, Gamersgate, Impulse etc.

But on topic... I don't believe it's Apple poaching publishers. It's what folk have already said - Steamplay turns away porting companies. Which is a shame. I see it as such a massive gesture of goodwill that I've found myself buying Steamplay titles just because it shows such dedication to the Mac platform. And Steamworks is why I'll never wander far from Steam.

 

[doh123]

No, I understood what you said, I'm simply bypassing it. By definition if it's for both Windows and Mac it has a 'Mac version.' I understand companies such as Feral want to make a profit on the hard work they've done, and I support that. If they'd rather use the Mac App Store to sell their products, more power to 'em. I won't be buying from them, but that's a choice I've made. I get benefits through Steam that I don't get through the MAS, and while that means I'm not able to purchase certain games under OS X, again, I'm fine with that.

I never said I liked it, or thought it was a good idea for gamers... just that it makes better business sense to management of a company selling a game. If Management of gaming companies weren't so stupid, games would be more popular on Macs than they are now.... all they care about is how much money they can make with taking as little risk as possible.

 

[Nightarchaon]

Personally I'll never buy from the mac app store until the developers sort out there pricing , I know apple takes a 30% cut , but just adding that to the price and forcing the consumer to bear the brunt for being stupid enough to use the app store rather than buying through your own webpage is just something that's going to bite you in the ass eventually.

The number of apps ive seen that are up to 50% cheaper if you buy direct from the developer is huge. Problem is , unlike the iOS app store which is a closed system , on the mac people can actually shop around .

So unless lion brings us a locked down mac OS the app store for the mac = fail

I'd like to see valve produce a generic wrapper for PC games for steam , maybe do a deal with crossover for crafted wrappers and charge $5 a wrapper . That would be cool