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The Significance of Steam and Valve's Games for Mac
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Who said anything about surpassing? Most of us would be thrilled if we could just play the best selling games close to day and date with the PC versions.
Why not? Here are somethings we know - Apple is working to reduce dependency on physical media by distributing music, movies and tv shows via iTunes, they are doing similar things we games in the App Store (where the same game for the iPhone is cheaper than its PSP counter-part - due in part to not having to pay for packaging, the actual disc, manuals and shipping related costs). This distribution system seems to do something similar with desktop games.
If we believe that Apple intends on making a real push into the gaming industry and use the AppleTV as a way to put Apple distributed games in our living room, would it not be a great idea to have the ideas, IP, and talent from a group of people that not only make great games, but also have a great deal of understanding of distributing games without using CDs.
I wouldn't bet on this happening but I'm not sure I'm ready to completely write it off as not even being a possibility.
That is just it, I don't see any evidence of Apple caring at all about gaming except for on the iPhone OS. If Apple cared at all about getting gamers on the Mac they would have released an upgradeable Mac a long time ago. They would also have been supporting SLI and Crossfire in Macs too. If they cared about gaming they would have made a move by now.
This is just Valve recognizing that the Mac market share is growing quickly, and likely many of the developers at Valve have started using Macs too. Valve is the one making the move here, not Apple.
That's not true, Apple did buy Lala, Quattro, and PA Semi. Nothing's preventing them from buying more companies.
Yes, nothing came of these rumours. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're baseless. At one point Apple could have been in talks with EA for a possible acquisition, but weren't able to reach an agreement.Haha! Because trend clearly shows that they are, in the end, just rumors.
I'm just raising a possibility, I don't claim any insider knowledge.
That's not true, Apple did buy Lala, Quattro, and PA Semi. Nothing's preventing them from buying more companies.
Yes, nothing came of these rumours. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're baseless. At one point Apple could have been in talks with EA for a possible acquisition, but weren't able to reach an agreement.
I'm just raising a possibility, I don't claim any insider knowledge.
I think Apple is too focused on the mobile space right now.
Too bad that's only for the US. And I wouldn't be surprised if this came out soon (Steam Mac).
Unless OnLive is able to achieve quantum entanglement communication, their service will remain a niche.
I'm saying that's not what Steve Jobs is talking about. Of course they might make a tiny little purchase like the three you listed.
No, they were baseless because they were baseless.
Although I agree with you with regards to "hardcore gamers" there are still plenty of people out there who have a mac and enjoy the odd game or two...
Steam on a Mac would just give the consumer more choice, which hardcore or not will ultimately benefit the consumer longterm.
First of all, hardcore gamers don't move the market. I used to be the guy building top-end gaming rigs. The gaming market is dominated by casual gamers. Look at the popularity of the Wii and iPhone / iPod Touch. People want something that is simple and runs the games they want to play. Believe it or not, most people don't care how what the speed of their memory is, how many polygons per second their system pumps out, or if their card supports HDR lighting or a bleeding edge advanced physics engine. To most people, gaming is secondary, and to a decent chunk of the population, important in their decision process when buying a new system. Can it play their favorite game? Most Macs can't. Now it's more likely going forward, bringing in another percentage of the population. Yeah, hardcore gamers won't ever come over.
Second of all, yeah you can build a hackintosh and have blazing system. So it's not impossible, and there is a large community that supports it.
Oh, and I almost forgot: Haha, look at the noob who "orders" their system. Only PC I ever bought whole was a laptop, as all the laptop cases at the time were too clunky to build myself. Honestly, maintaining a hackintosh is easier than dealing with Windows. I was always having to hack that crap to get it to work right. If I ever have to rebuild another registry hive it will be too soon! Or write a custom script to remove a virus. Or fix a corrupt boot.ini. Or recover a lost user account. Or...
One time when I upgraded to Snow Leopard I had to update a driver for my Logitech Bluetooth mouse. Whoa what a rough time.
Ok, Steve might not have been talking about acquisitions when he said "big, bold risks". Though Valve can be considered a tiny little purchase.
How do you know?
i don't consider myself a big gamer - i buy one or two games a year for my PS3 and wii. but that Portal Trailer really got my nerves twitching. if steam does come to mac, they gained a customer that would've never bothered to try out half-life 2. bring it on! i'm ready to see what all this "desktop gaming" (sans WoW) is about!
I've lived on this planet for a long time and both those moves had the feel of a ridiculous off-season baseball trade.
When was the last time you built a machine?
I wonder what you need to do for this to happen...
Valve has confirmed they are bringing games to Mac, according to MacNN:
Valve is indeed planning to port some of its most popular games to the Mac, confirms the developer's marketing VP, Doug Lombardi.
http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/03/03/teaser.hints.at.portal.team.fortress.2/
My take: they wouldn't put the effort into this kind of slick marketing campaign unless they were serious. So, Steam is definitely coming. And I'd put money on the possibility that they've ported the Source Engine to OS X.
Valve is indeed planning to port some of its most popular games to the Mac, confirms the developer's marketing VP, Doug Lombardi.
http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/03/03/teaser.hints.at.portal.team.fortress.2/
My take: they wouldn't put the effort into this kind of slick marketing campaign unless they were serious. So, Steam is definitely coming. And I'd put money on the possibility that they've ported the Source Engine to OS X.
That depends. Valve is a big company, hopefully they will make good ports. Look at all Blizzard games, they run as good as the Windows version.
Well, I've also lived long enough on this same planet to know that anything is possible, even if our prior experience tells us otherwise.
(You're obviously much older and more experienced than I am. A microprocessor designer AND an attorney? That deserves a lot of respect)