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OJ · Jun 13, 2002, 11:17 AM

I've read somewhere that the Warcraft 3 CD will be a hybrid CD that will have both the PC and Mac versions. I haven't found any official information off Blizzard's site. Was wondering how true this is.

Rob Barris · Jun 13, 2002, 11:28 AM

100% true.

Rob
rbarris "at" blizzard.com

dark3lf · Jun 13, 2002, 03:29 PM

Sweet, I've been looking forward to this title for a LONG time. Good job guys.

Big Mac · Jun 13, 2002, 03:40 PM

Why can't all game developers be like Blizzard?

Brad Oliver · Jun 13, 2002, 05:16 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Big Mac:
Why can't all game developers be like Blizzard?<hr /></blockquote>A very legitimate question. I think the answer is mainly that Blizzard cares enough about the Mac to have talented Mac programmers on-staff to do the conversion simultaneously with PC development, rather than viewing the Mac as a market to pursue after the PC game has gone gold and sold well. This shows not only Blizzard's confidence that their products will all sell well, but that they think they'll sell well enough on the Mac too.

They can easily do hybrid disks because of that: the money made from the Mac version goes to the same place (Blizzard for development costs and Verant for publishing costs). Most other ported Mac games can't do that because there's usually a different Mac developer (working off royalties) and a different Mac publisher.

Of course, a big limiting resource is the number of Mac game developers. Not every company could have talented Mac folks on staff even if they wanted. There just aren't that many to go around, and a number of Mac developers I've known have switched to PC development for their day job.
If the Mac market grows steadily in size and market share (something it hasn't done in a long time), a lot of these problems will disappear. In that regard, I like Apple's new ad campaign.

Brad

Rob Barris · Jun 13, 2002, 08:01 PM

Hi Brad -

Blizzard is under the wing of Vivendi-Universal. Verant is connected to EverQuest and Sony. Obviously easy to mix them up !

grins,
Rob

Scotttheking · Jun 13, 2002, 08:52 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Rob Barris:
100% true.

Rob
rbarris "at" blizzard.com<hr /></blockquote>So does this mean that I can get the limited edition (if it's not sold out?)?

Edit: Special edition ordered

[ 06-14-2002, 02:23 AM: Message edited by: Scotttheking ]

SteevAK · Jun 14, 2002, 02:58 AM

/me waits patiently for WC3.

ginoledesma · Jun 14, 2002, 04:38 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Brad Oliver:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Big Mac:
Why can't all game developers be like Blizzard?<hr /></blockquote>A very legitimate question. I think the answer is mainly that Blizzard cares enough about the Mac to have talented Mac programmers on-staff to do the conversion simultaneously with PC development, rather than viewing the Mac as a market to pursue after the PC game has gone gold and sold well. This shows not only Blizzard's confidence that their products will all sell well, but that they think they'll sell well enough on the Mac too.<hr /></blockquote>One thing different with Blizzard, however, is that they will release the game only when they feel that the game is good enough to be released. That means that they will take as much time as they want whenever possible. This attitude has caused all of their games to be smashing successes.

Thankfully, however, we also have great Mac publishing houses such as MacSoft, Aspyr, GraphSim, and the rest. Hopefully they continue to port PC games to the Mac, especially since the PC developers won't do it.

<blockquote>quote:<hr />
They can easily do hybrid disks because of that: the money made from the Mac version goes to the same place (Blizzard for development costs and Verant for publishing costs). Most other ported Mac games can't do that because there's usually a different Mac developer (working off royalties) and a different Mac publisher.<hr /></blockquote>Just a tidbit about those intending to duplicate the original hybrid CDs for backups using Toast 5.x: Toast won't create an exact duplicate -- it will ignore the PC partition, thereby creating a Mac-only CD. IIRC, I read this from Macintouch.

OwlBoy · Jun 19, 2002, 01:33 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by ginoledesma:
Just a tidbit about those intending to duplicate the original hybrid CDs for backups using Toast 5.x: Toast won't create an exact duplicate -- it will ignore the PC partition, thereby creating a Mac-only CD. IIRC, I read this from Macintouch.<hr /></blockquote>heh Already thinking about "Backing up" the game are we?

-Owl

typoon · Jun 19, 2002, 02:38 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by ginoledesma:
 <blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Brad Oliver:

[QUOTE]
They can easily do hybrid disks because of that: the money made from the Mac version goes to the same place (Blizzard for development costs and Verant for publishing costs). Most other ported Mac games can't do that because there's usually a different Mac developer (working off royalties) and a different Mac publisher.<hr /></blockquote>Just a tidbit about those intending to duplicate the original hybrid CDs for backups using Toast 5.x: Toast won't create an exact duplicate -- it will ignore the PC partition, thereby creating a Mac-only CD. IIRC, I read this from Macintouch.<hr /></blockquote>I think he is wrong on Macintouch. Toast if you do a direct disk copy should make it a Hybrid since you are just copying disk to disk. I haven't tried it in a while but I think that is right.

Adam Betts · Jun 19, 2002, 09:29 PM

I'm curious... Will WCIII have both Mac and Win in one CD or it will be separated? If two separate CD, how can you prevent people from giving the unused cd (Win cd for example) to other people for free or even maybe sell it for some profit?

I already ordered a special edition of WCIII too

I heard that they already got over 4 and half millions of pre-order... That is ****ing lot!

Noob · Jun 19, 2002, 09:41 PM

A "hybrid" Cd is a cd that works in both PCs and macs, so only one CD.

And about backing up CDs, its needed. I've already had 2 CDs fail. One i didn't care about, but the other really bothers me because its my Brood War disk =(. One day (after over a year of use) it just failed, and the computer won't read it. No scratches; I'm extremely careful with my CDs, it just died. But fortunately, I could burn a copy off of a friend, so it's all good now =)

Scotttheking · Jun 21, 2002, 02:38 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by Noob:
A "hybrid" Cd is a cd that works in both PCs and macs, so only one CD.

And about backing up CDs, its needed. I've already had 2 CDs fail. One i didn't care about, but the other really bothers me because its my Brood War disk =(. One day (after over a year of use) it just failed, and the computer won't read it. No scratches; I'm extremely careful with my CDs, it just died. But fortunately, I could burn a copy off of a friend, so it's all good now =)<hr /></blockquote>You are lucky.
My brother lost one of my BW cases, and that cost me the serial #.
At least blizzard isn't like Aspyr, who's The Sims CDs won't image in disk copy. I hope they like me when I send a request for another cd for my little sister, since I can't back hers up.
And yes, I will be backing it up. And I'll probably have 2 copies of Wc3, just like I have 2 of almost all of blizzard's games.