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Apple Gaming Division?

cubist said:
Game development is going in the same direction as movie development: huge, complex, gigantically complicated games that take years and cost millions to develop. Ultimately, it would not make sense for Apple to do it in-house. Pixar, on the other hand...

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Pixar is worse of a choice than Apple. The needs of 3D as far as making movies is much different than making games. The best way for Apple do handle this is to buy a game studio. Plenty are eager to be sold as you are correct making games expensive.

I could see Apple using games to sell the OS...ie every new OS comes with the newest Apple game included to push sales of the new OS.
 
I'm all for Apple making greater strides for gaming development on the mac. I hope this rumor is true and or comes to fruition. Anyhow seeing that this rumor just states that Apple and ATI are in "discussions" means that even if something were to come out of this we won't reap much of anything for another 2 years or so.

If Apple were to do the following I think we could see more immediate benefits and titles coming to the mac.

Apple should concentrate more on improving it's own Video Card drivers and Open-GL implementation. In addition providing greater support and resources to game developers and porting houses via better Developer Kits targeted at the Gaming Developer. Apple could even go as far as subsidizing Developers to Port games to the Mac.
 
My dream: Apple purchases both Wideload games and the rights to Marathon (and possibly the Bungie name, they can keep Halo) from Microsoft. I'd love to see Marathon and Marathon II redone in the same fashion the original Doom was redone as Doom III. Plus Gates owning my favorite franchise is a real sore spot.
 
BenRoethig said:
My dream: Apple purchases both Wideload games and the rights to Marathon (and possibly the Bungie name, they can keep Halo) from Microsoft. I'd love to see Marathon and Marathon II redone in the same fashion the original Doom was redone as Doom III. Plus Gates owning my favorite franchise is a real sore spot.
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Can you say, Wideload Games. The company is was founded by the prior head of Bungie and one of it's employees.

I think they are a prime candidate for purchase or at least a revenue injection. That's if Apple really wants to make games and not just do in house ports of existing games.
 
Good games are expensive to develop, it seems to me. This might only make sense as a release on Mac first, but ultimately release on other platforms idea. Mac-only games would be a limited venture.
 
Little Endian said:
Apple should concentrate more on improving it's own Video Card drivers and Open-GL implementation.
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and improving the cards themselves, or rather improving which cards they use. what message does it send to gamers when your flagship consumer Mac uses a 2-3 year old card...
 
This division might not be about game development, but developer relations, organising 'game kitchens' to improve gaming performance, marketing the Mac as a gaming platform, and lobbying gaming hardware & software developers to come to the Mac platform.
 
chameeeleon said:
Did I not speculate in the thread about Apple improving graphic performance that Apple would start developing their own games to accompany iLife and iWork?
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I look forward to playing "iKill" and "iSim". :D
 
Need a Job

How can we get a job Alpha/Beta Testing these games!

If this is real it would be great for Apple. Then for once WE will have top games first and Windows users can play them two years later!

:)
:eek:

Macrumors said:
According to an anonymous report, Apple and ATI have been in talks about either creating or purchasing a Game Development unit.

The purpose of such a division would presumably be to create compelling games for the Mac platform to help attract more PC users to switch to the Mac platform.

Such a move would not be uncharateristic for Apple, as their decision to create Safari as well as many of their iApps were in part to fill a void not provided by 3rd party developers on the Mac platform.

Apple does appear serious about improving gaming performance on the Mac. Recent reports noted that Apple, ATI and NVidia are actively recruiting developers to improve OpenGL [edited] performance.
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Hope it doesnt happen! Games are a huge waste of time and are generally violent anyway. teaches kids the wrong things. Educational games maybe but still a huge waste of time. Is their a market for it? Probably. I'm sorry to say. Games may be entertaining to youth but still waste of time for everybody except for the people that design them. :mad: I hate to see Apple put resources into something like this. The day that happens Apple may as well come out and make a statement that they care more about a youth driven market than the real users that drive the economy.
 
There are a bunch of games that play horribly in Classic that need to be ported up to Mac OS X:

Riven
John Maden 2000
Simcity 3000

to name a few. If such a division does ever form, I hope they speed up the porting of Windows games to the Mac.

http://www.macmaps.com/macgamepages.html is a site I've made to help people find Mac games.
 
it would be awesome if apple did mac only titles that were a huge hit. then eventually everyone would see how cool it is just like the iTunes, and talking about itunes, its funny cause i was at my cousins house and before he used to use windows media player, but then he got a pepsi cap so he downloaded itunes and he says it is soooooooo much better and it even sounds better too. so it would be nice to see a game from apple turn into something like itunes has. maybe after the disney/pixar partnership is over it could be games of the pixar movies, ;)
 
Are we talking games that compete with UT2004, Doom, Halo, etc? Or are we talking something more simple? Also there is a lot of online play so would this mean that they would also develop a Windows version of the game. It just seems like there are a lot of resources that are needed for game creation. I think if they increase their market share and improve their 3D performance the game makers will make more for Apple. Or maybe they could contract with someone like Nintendo to make Mac versions of games which would lead to a portable mac/nintendo PSP killer.
 
apple need some big kick ass titles, which release first on the mac then onto consoles. ignore pc's totally, as the console market is huge in comparison and would easily make the games profitable.

i have to agree that buying Blizzard is a stupid idea as they are supporting the mac platform already. apple should go for a company that is currently ignoring them, and one that is pritty big.

personally i think the best purchase they could make, would be to buy Take2 Interactive. currently they are doing very well, making games for all the consoles but nothing for the mac. on top of that they have some killer games in all varieties that apple could ride on, like Max Payne, Midnight Club, ESPN franchises, Conflict Vietnam and of course the mighty GTA!

added to that, they would acquire Joytech in the process, so could ensure full gaming accessories for the mac, from another well known company.

Max Payne 3 and GTA 4, only available on the mac and free with every iMac or PowerMac purchase, watch the switchers flock! :D

on a side note, prehaps some added nintendo favourabily with their game titles could result in some mac mario...
 
Looking at the numbers of Mac users that actually play games, I feel like this could very well be a money pit for Apple. I don't think developing the next killer game app for a Mac only will entice that many more switchers. Not when the next (and next and next) killer game app will be coming out on the PC every 6-12 months.

They need to put their eggs in the 'updated hardware' basket first.
 
Bring back a new and improved MARATHON! Man, I loved that game.

Personally, I think Apple developing their own games is a great idea. But hey, what do I know I'll just return to my armchair CEO-ing. ;)
 
whooleytoo said:
This division might not be about game development, but developer relations, organising 'game kitchens' to improve gaming performance, marketing the Mac as a gaming platform, and lobbying gaming hardware & software developers to come to the Mac platform.
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I agree with that totally. From what I understand being friends with a few game dev guys is that Apple is notorious for ignoring game developers. People end up not developing games for the mac cause Apple isn't willing to solve their problems.

Having an internal 'game development unit' to help game developers tweak their code and other various issues makes A LOT of sense. Attracting gamers to a platform is as much about quantitity as quality. Apple needs to make ports easier, better and faster, as well as encourage 'homegrown' development on the platform.
 
in reply to some comments made;

-not everyone likes war games, personally i hate them. if you love them fine, but war gamers are probably in the minority.
-Sony games on mac? great so we're going to be stuck with 'faux' real life games like Grand Theft Auto and Gran Tourismo.
-Blizzard are cool, heh, and as sucessful as WoW was i doubt they could make something killer that EVERYONE had to go out and buy a mac for.

Diversity is VERY important. you dont want mindless games that tire after a while, you dont want a one trick pony (Blizzard, Square-Enix... etc).

Revolutionary is what you need. Halo was so different because you needed brains as well as fast fingers to complete it on Hero (i forget, i think thats the highest difficulty). They need a game thats been done a million times before and add innovative elements and new perspectives. thats how Mac games should be done, and going off apples love for innovation i'd say thats the most likely outcome.
 
Creating compelling games vs having compelling games

Honestly, I don't think much of any one cares about NEW and unique games coming to the Mac ... they basically want the same games the PC has and for them to be interoperable.

As it stands now, Mac versions for games come out 3-6 months after the PC version.

In reality, Apple missed the boat a long time ago by not convincing Sony to allow the Mac to be a native Playstation emulator. The Connectix VGS software remains my favorite software ever created and distributed.
 
What they need to do is freakin PAYOLA, plain and simple. Supply each game house with mac people and select the best titles for the Mac, then make sure each release is at the same time as for the PC. Make sure the game is about as ready for the Mac and on the same level.

If they want all these people to abandon their PC's instead of just buying mini's to go along with their PC's, thats whats going to have to happen.

Another thing: ASPYR: FIX THE DAMN DESERT COMBAT .8 FINAL BUG! :mad:

This alone is keeping me from putting my PC on ebay - I cant play DC Final or Extended on the Mac.
 
Do I hear iPlay??

Yeah, i hope this is a reality what ever apple is planning on doing i think it will be successful.
 
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