Comments on: Valve Gives Mac Gaming a Boost

By: Stilgar

Stilgar — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:20:12 +0000

I’ve already put off some Steam purchases because I’m hoping other developers will follow Valve’s lead with a single mac/pc license model. I’m looking at you LucasArts and PopCap.

By: L1A

L1A — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:08:29 +0000

They are after Blizzard’s market share. Blizzard reins strong on Macs even with releasing 1 game every decade. If World of Warcraft on Mac counted as separate game it would be top 5 MMO subscription wise.

By: SirFatty

SirFatty — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:22:51 +0000

I’m sure Apple did some ass-dragging on adding developer requests because they were trying to figuring out how to do games in iTunes. Good job, Valve, for getting in and supporting the Mac (I am not a Mac user, but it’s good for all of us).

By: Bouke Timbermont

Bouke Timbermont — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:22:04 +0000

This is a nice move, but I hear a lot of Mac-fans yelling this means the end of Windows since now there will be a lot of top-titles coming to the mac at no cost (that’s what most people expect from valve and I agree: if you bought L4D or Portal on the PC already, you’ll probably be able to download it for free on your mac)

But I disagree that this will take ANY of the Windows market share. Why? Because Apple still doesn’t take gaming serious. All it’s computers focus on energy-efficient compact hardware, leaving raw performance behind. Just a quick overview:
The top MBP sports a GF9600 card with 512MB of memory. this costs 2500$ at least.
The top iMac has an HD4850 zith only 512 MB of memory. This’ll cost you 1800$
The Mac Pro could come with an HD4870, but still with only 512MB, and this machine costs a whopping 2500$ without a screen!!!
A self built Phenom 2 X4 machine with an HD4870 with 1GB and 4GB of DDR3 RAM costs about 800$ (desktop, no screen).

I’m not saying the hardware is overpriced, because it’s decent hardware in it’s class and the competition has about the same prices for similar products.
I AM saying Apple has no gaming-solution: gamers don’t want a server-class CPU or a laptop-class graphics chip.

What does this mean? Well, i know I have a MBP and a PC, and I have some Valve games I love, so I can play them at both machines. If I have a choice, I’ll go for my PC, because that PC, for only 750€, can play L4D2 maxed out at 60fps. My Macbook Pro cost 2000€ and will get about 40fps at medium.
If I buy a new gaming machine, it’ll be a PC, because it’ll cost me less than 1000€ while a Mac packing the same punch will cost at least 3000€ (or doesn’t even exist).

So when will I actually use my Mac for gaming? Maybe if I’m on the move? Maybe. Or if my PC dies and I hqve to wait a few days untill I egt a new one. Any way, My Mac will be my secondary platform, some kind of backup plan for the PC, not an equivalent.
As long as Apple doesn’t offer a lower priced mac with a gfx card that isn’t 2 years behind on modern gaming PCs, the Mac will stay a bit of a joke to all gamers.

By: Hamranhansenhansen

Hamranhansenhansen — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:32:47 +0000

> Why now?

I think the answer is Intel and OpenGL. The last 4 years of Macs all have Intel architecture, making PC ports easier. That is very different from the PowerPC user base in 2006. And supporting OpenGL today gets you not just the Mac, but also iPod, iPhone, iPad and of course non-Apple devices that use OpenGL.

An Apple game console is not out of the question, either. AppleTV already has the GPU for it, but not the CPU.

By: mathiastck

mathiastck — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:45:26 +0000

lol! Steam didn’t used to support the Mac COMPUTER? Let me know when they support the iPhone, or iPad.