uh-huh
Bioware have been owned by EA since 2007, and EA have been the ones bankrolling it along with Lucasarts.
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Mac App Store Turns One Year Old, Aspyr Shares Numbers
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Bioware have been owned by EA since 2007, and EA have been the ones bankrolling it along with Lucasarts.
They're trying to make money. It's not like the PC gaming market is as big as console and you want them to spend that resource to focus on the Mac over Windows. Also, I wonder if you would have used the word lazy if Steve hadn't used it, since he used it so that his fans would repeat it over and over on the internet, forums, youtube, etc, in his personal fight against Adobe, and I guess it becomes a word used out of habit.
But logical. Face the fact that Mac OS doesn't have the marketshare of Windows, or any of the consoles. Furthermore, the actual marketshare itself consists mostly of Laptops - many of those running on an Integrated GPU. Thats not even including those running older systems.
On top of this is a less efficient and much more limited graphics stack, that because of the way Mac OS operates does not permit for driver level optimizations and enhancements as is standard practice on Windows.
As a result, the number of people that can run modern games at a satisfactory level are few in number. And of those that can, they'll generally be content running it in Windows anyway (and possible on Linux).
Basically you increase complexity and decrease performance by porting to Mac OS, and you reach extremely few additional users by doing it.
For indie games its not as big of a problem due to their typical simplicity. The resource requirements as such are typically very low, any inefficiencies can be simply be overpowered, and advanced capabilities are rarely if ever used. Do note that most Indie games make minimal - if any - use of the GPU to begin with - so the weak GPU capabilities of Macs don't become an issue.
In addition, the typically low sales numbers (relatively) of Indie games means that even a few thousand sales to Macs will make a significant improvement. And due to the relative absense of games on mac OS, its easier to become visible to begin with, which is typically the biggest Indie challange.
Happy to see all of the Steam love. I got the Steam version of Civ V GOTY edition (with steam play of course, so it works on both Mac & PC) for $20!! Then I snatched up some deeply discounted DLC, too.
The iOS store has some compelling sales now and then but I have never seen any good deals for Mac games on the Mac App Store.
Thank goodness for Steam.
The iOS store has some compelling sales now and then but I have never seen any good deals for Mac games on the Mac App Store.
Thank goodness for Steam.
Off topic: I have that game, but never play it. Do you know of anyone who'd be interested in buying it?
On topic: good to hear the Mac App Store is doing well!
I would still like the option of games to be installed in /Games instead of /Applications since it really becomes messy with all apps plus games in one folder. I guess Apple wants us to use Launch Pad for organizing, but still - would be good to get some structure in the Finder too I think.
I have only downloaded 1 program from the MAS. That is the Mac OS 10..7 Lion. And Lion is one of those programs that I'm not running now because it seems to be a down grade from either Mac OS 10.5 or 10.6.I don't want to pay Apple 30% of my spending dollar just to get applications that can & will not operate as good as they did before.
To me the MAS is a flop. After one year & they only have 8,900 applications. Also stated that the biggest selling programs were Apple's. That seems to mean that non-Apple programs are not doing very well. That may be because there are probably a lot of people like me that do not like much of anything about the Mac App Store.
These numbers are not like those from the iOS App Store. There we have downloaded 5-600 applications, but only about half a dozen or less have been paid for apps.
you seem to be an expert on ignorance. There is no way to protect ignorant people from themselves. Would you believe that some ignorant people on this forum think it's possible to buy apps for a stock iPhone from anywhere else then Apple? Shocking isn't it!
The Mac currently enjoys 12.9% of the market of computers being sold, and, yes, that is smaller then the windows market share. However, for gamers, a huge share of the windows machines are corporate (and not allowed to have games loaded), and another big chunk of Windows machines are used for instrument control and are headless and lacking keyboards.
Again, Apple is focused on the mobile computer market where high-performance graphics impacts battery life. Apple has ceded the "gamer market" to other operating systems. It's a niche. They don't want it.
You just confirmed that gaming is a niche market. The list of manufacturers serving that market is a short list and getting shorter as the years go by.
Poor Aspry is only selling hundreds of thousands of each of their games per year. I'm sure they should take your advice and just throw in the towel.
** Would you believe HUNDREDS of thousands?
Finally, lord only knows how those poor underpowered iPads, iPhone Touches, and iPhones manage to garner so many mobile gamers... Maybe there's a whole lot of gamers willing to come out of their mother's basement and walk in the sunshine.
Not every game in Steam uses Steam for matchmaking/multiplayer. How strong is the argument that you need to be logged into Steam to play online through Steam's own services?
Strangely, the developers of 1password are particularly enthusiastic about sandboxing:
If you are comparing it to Boxed software,30% is a pretty standard retail markup.Compared to direct downloads from developers,I would think the hosting,bandwidth,payment processing and MILLIONS of potential customers that can now more easily find the software would be well worth 30%.
And their ports are slow and don't make efficient use of resources. I play Civ 5 on Bootcamp because the mac version is muuuuuuuuuuch slower even though it's on the same platform.
I would pay to have the game properly reworked to run on OS X, not make DirectX calls translated to OpenGL inefficiently...
In principle the Mac AppStore of course is a great idea.. unfortunately the restrictions on what an application can do, is not: sand boxing. Of course Apple are trying to secure the platform from malware - which is understandable, but IMO, Apple have gone too far. Many great applications will never see the light of day / or with reduced fuctionality - which has occured on many occasions. Apple need to rethink the balance between security and the permissions of an application.
Many new users won't know that you can get OSX applications from other sources, or be bothered ( i.e., Lazy, those people who would use Internet Explorer because its fed to them ).
Developers, in order to sell their applications, unless they are large known companies, i.e., microsoft, Adobe et al, will be increasingly forced to use the Mac AppStore otherwise they won't sell their software - hence control the platform by default. Apple cannot lock down OSX as they have done the iPhone, the MAS is the best next thing. The Mac AppStore is a way that Apple will control OSX applications.
Many new users won't know that you can get OSX applications from other sources, or be bothered ( i.e., Lazy, those people who would use Internet Explorer because its fed to them ).
Developers, in order to sell their applications, unless they are large known companies, i.e., microsoft, Adobe et al, will be increasingly forced to use the Mac AppStore otherwise they won't sell their software - hence control the platform by default. Apple cannot lock down OSX as they have done the iPhone, the MAS is the best next thing. The Mac AppStore is a way that Apple will control OSX applications.
Absolute FUD. And you know it.
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Why? Good, worthy applications that cannot function well in a sandboxed environment can be distributed outside the app store. Apple does not have to serve every possible need.
You and others keep whining about this 30%. So, you would prefer that the 30% went to some other retailer? Or are you so foolish that you think those shelves, real estate, stores, workers, and product delivery systems just pay for themselves? Ah, I see. You want to spend valuable time AND waste gas/transit energy to go into a building to get the exact same thing for the same or more money. Please, don't become a financial planner.
it was a decent year. i hope the mac app store continues to be a success, and that more content continues to be added.
I mentioned the main reason why, but I'll expand - these developers will loose sales as MAS become more popular and people ( new users, less savvy users particularly ) stop looking outside for mac software. These types of software won't be developed if they can't be sold - that is, software will only be developed if it can get in the MAS - and conforming to Apple requirements ; OSX will suffer as a consequence: Ultimately too many developer restrictions hurts innovation, and reduces overall functionality. IMO - I've seen this on IOS - less varied range of software than on other smartphones ( i.e., an App can use less of the phone's hardware than other platforms, and general API restrictions ) - simply because of apple restricts.
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