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Why does Apple hate gamers so much?

BJonson

BJonson

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 26, 2010
866
147
Can't game on an imac. Fans go nuts yada yada. The mac pro you could, kind of, the new mac pro whatever. Why is it so hard for apple to make a single cpu machine and set it up so it flies in games? Would open up a whole new market for them. It's always been this way with apple. I think they just hate gamers. If there wasn't a market for it then alienware would be out of business. I want to game on the mac not a pc. Don't want to deal with windows and pc B.S.
 
Apple doesn't hate gamers. It's just not a group that Apple products are specifically designed for. Apple can't be all things to all people. You just have to find the right machine for your intended use. That may or may not be an Apple product.
 
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BJonson said:
Would open up a whole new market for them.
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A very small market. You're talking about hard-core gamers who must play the latest titles at the highest framerates. For everybody else, Macs are perfectly adequate.
 
Its not Apple who chooses what games are on what systems, its the developers and to some extent the publisher.

A lot of games are written in DirectX too which is Windows only.
 
seveej said:
Umm...

I don't think apple hates gamers, from what I hear, it's the gamers who hate apple.

RGDS,
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Ya, that's more accurate. ;) And there are good reasons they do too. Mostly the OS X libraries, device drivers, and APIs are either considerably slower than Windows or they're missing all together. Although you don't often hear too much about it on Mac forums this also affects video and audio editing as well. Apple's hardware is fine for entry level gaming but their software sux. The GUI and the window manager (finder) is what keep people (who don't care about cutting edge performance) coming back.
 
BJonson said:
Why is it so hard for apple to make a single cpu machine and set it up so it flies in games?
Click to expand...

Besides it being a Xeon and the GPU configurations still not being known... how exactly does the new Mac Pro not fit?
 
Because gamers use extremely specialized hardware that is utterly limited in application and software that is very focused to a type of games. The gaming market for casual gaming is far larger.

Blizzard games are about a hardcore as many of us have any interest in.
 
There was a brief moment in history when Macs were actually one of the best gaming platforms around. I can't remeber the exact timeframe but for awhile, many of top games and simulations would be released on Mac with full 640x480 8-bit 256 color support when the MSDOS versions only supported 16 or worse EVGA. Amigas were better, but PC's for awhile were dead last as the best choice for games.

Seriously though, for it to get better, Apple would have to have a long term commitment to the proper APIs and technologies needed to create leading edge games. 10.9 will just be getting OpenGL 4.x for example and it's been out for 3 years now. You can create a good enjoyable game on OSX today, but whatever it is will invariably be compared to what is possible on the PC and it will come up lacking. Apple has the money to dump into a long term push gaming technoloy but it's just not a good ROI I guess.
 
Why put effort into a very limited market on desktops and laptops when those are dying markets? Just a couple of days ago in the news this was the worth month in history for the falling PC market.

Apple loves gamers in the mobile market, where Apple profits the most and where all the growth is. iOS7 includes a standard API for game controllers, the App Store has tons of games, there is Airplay to bring gaming to the big screen, and there is Game Center to record achievements and compare/compete with friends. AppleTV switched to iOS a while ago and everyone is speculating that it will get app support and better hardware, which will allow it to compete with consoles.

So when you say Apple hates gamers, I think you mean Apple doesn't care about high-end Windows PC gamers. Of course they don't. I have no idea why they didn't care over the last 15 years, but it's obvious why they don't care over the last few years.
 
Business/Office interoperability and Games are the #1 and #2 objections to using Macs as Personal Computers. Also, I just made up this statistic.
 
sbarton said:
Business/Office interoperability and Games are the #1 and #2 objections to using Macs as Personal Computers. Also, I just made up this statistic.
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Funny in the businesses that use Macs primarily, a Windows system would be the one having problems fitting in.
 
Possibly Apple's attitude to games is a result of Steve Jobs' time at Apple. More likely is that Apple see high-end gaming as requiring special designs that would compromise their lean product line without any benefit.
 
Nobody gets to the point, there are games for mac, and mac is just a hardware with different interface.

We will get opengl 4 only in new mavericks, while windows is riding it and games using it. But gamers are not the only ones, The Foundry couldn't make a Mari available until mavericks come, so pros are struggling too, but surprisingly new mari is fastest on mac pro 6,1 because they managed to utilize both gpus at same time for first time in pro app.

So if gaming devs go same route new mp can fly a few games, and mac pro has been flying a few already!

Its the os x that kept a block on game dev, but now it all changing.
 
Uhm, you can game on an iMac. I don't understand this thread at all. Steam has some great support for Mac now, almost half my library is compatible.
 
apple doesn't hate gamers at all, the just don't give a **** about gamers on OS X.
and there's no 'kinda' about gaming on the 2012 and earlier pros- they run windows just fine, and I'm perfectly happy with the game performance I get from my 2008 octo under windows with an nvidia 680.
it's just not the cheapest way to get that done is all.
 
derbothaus said:
Because they didn't announce a Titan/ GTX 780 drop in for it yet:rolleyes:
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Crossfired FirePros under Bootcamp are faster anyway.


marbeljoyce said:
We will get opengl 4 only in new mavericks, while windows is riding it and games using it.
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Mavericks is actually strangely friendly to games. OpenGL 4, SpriteKit, and a game controller framework. SOMEBODY at Apple certainly seems to care about games.
 
brand said:
Just because Dell bought Alienware does not mean that Alienware is out of business. Alienware is still alive and well even though it is a subsidiary of Dell. The copyright information on the bottom of the Alienware website even says ©2013.
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Alienware is owned by Dell. The great gaming company that it once was is no longer associated with the name. Alienware copyright 2013 is property of Dell Inc. Read the warning on the link you posted. It says "This article reads like an advertisement, please help fix it with facts" Took some liberties with the quote there.

I'm not knocking Alienware or gaming in general, just pointing out to the OP that Alienware isn't what it used to be and there are probably better gaming platforms to use as references.

Dale
 
.....because the most popular game worldwide plays great on a Mac.

Mainstream games like CoD on a PC are a joke because hacking is so rampant and easy to do. Embrace the future. Embrace the console...
 
BJonson said:
Can't game on an imac. Fans go nuts yada yada. The mac pro you could, kind of, the new mac pro whatever. Why is it so hard for apple to make a single cpu machine and set it up so it flies in games? Would open up a whole new market for them. It's always been this way with apple. I think they just hate gamers. If there wasn't a market for it then alienware would be out of business. I want to game on the mac not a pc. Don't want to deal with windows and pc B.S.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry but I disagree with every single part of that! Let's deal with the hardware first shall we? I'm typing this on a 27" iMac with a 680MX running bootcamp that is hands down the best games machine I've ever owned. It replaced a DIY tower running a Geforce 570 and it gives a gaming experience at least as good as that machine and usually much better, is damn near silent, generates far less heat and is generally an all around nicer experience. Pretty much all of the current iMac line can run games, albeit not necessarily at native res and/or with all the settings maxed out. Sure I could have built a more powerful system for the money but the compromises involved were ones I didn't want to make.

Next up the market, as others have pointed out the market for gaming PC's is almost non-existent. Why? Because most 'hardcore' PC gamers who want a tower (your single CPU machine that flies in games) prefer to build it themselves as it works out cheaper or they really want to push the performance they can get out of it. Those that don't tend to be happy with the general use hardware that you get in... well, in most modern Mac's actually.

And finally native Mac gaming. The situation is improving but the simple fact is the Mac market isn't big enough to really attract developers of AAA titles or even justify the cost of porting a game. Things are getting better but frankly it'll be a Windows world for a long time to come especially as the next gen consoles come through and make porting easier.
 
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