Mac gaming question (business standpoint)

[Kjos]

If Mac computers are about 15% of the current market and growing from what I've seen on Macrumors. (please correct me if I'm way off)

Is it really more expensive to form a Mac programming team to create a Mac version of a game then too increase your revenue by 15%?

Example:

Sims 4 is not for Mac. Sims 4 is published by EA. Your telling me EA can't get a Mac version on release?

Why does it seem that only Blizzard Entertainment gets Mac versions out day of release? This is a business question, if anyone has any insight into the business please let me know!

Thanks guys

 

[w00tini]

bootcamp

 

[leenak]

Some of the game companies specifically tailor towards DirectX.

Having said that, there are a lot of game companies that have Mac versions and on Steam, many indie developers are supporting both Mac and Linux. Bioware is another company (well division of EA) that has a lot of games available on OSX.

 

[richard13]

Because EA is run by a bunch of money grubbing jackals?

First they delayed the release of the Mac version of Sim City now they aren't even promising a Mac version of The Sims 4. And look at how they released the PC version. They removed a bunch of stuff that should have just been there in the base game.

Now, in their defense I would say this makes sense from a business standpoint. They know they have a following of Simmers that will buy it regardless of what was removed. So they release the game in September to ensure a holiday buying season and then provide the missing content later on for free.

In the meantime I run The Sims 4 in a Parallels 10 VM running Windows 8.1. As far as I can tell the game runs great this way. Another option would be to use Boot Camp but I don't like having to boot into Windows just to play a game. Of course, option 3 is to wait until they release a Mac version but who knows when/if that will be.

 

[leman]

If your software company is organised well and your code architecture is organised well, then doing parallel native Windows/OS X/Linux releases is not a big deal. If your code is messed up from the start, porting it can be hell.

But this of course depends on the game complexity. There are often tons of bugs in the drivers which require case by case attention.

At any rate, there is no excuse for modern indy games to be Windows exclusive. That is just ****** coding.

P.S. I am never buying anything EA, and I urge you not too as well. That company is rotten.