[mac128k-1984]

I'm wondering about the long term effects of now being able to run windows on a mac is going to have on software companies.

For instance, I just picked up Call of Duty 2 for windows, It cost me 19 bucks at best buy. If I wanted the mac version, I'd have to buy it online and pay 42.99 (amazon). My point is its not economically feasible to produce Macintosh games now that mac users have the ability to buy the same game for less.

So that's the gaming world, how long will it be before other companies decide that supporting two platforms is not feasible. Take adobe, from what I've read legacy software like photoshop has two different code bases so supporting both platforms requires a lot of work, I can see adobe (or other vendors) saying that its more profitable to just have a windows version and telling mac users to use bootcamp - maybe even providing a discount for cross platform upgrades/cross grades.

I cannot help but wonder what the long term prognosis is for aspry and macsoft.

[Big Mac]

Yeah, that's what I've been saying ever since Apple started selling PCs. I guess the hope is that market share growth will make Mac development attractive enough to stave off the threat.

[Philip J. Fry]

I know what you mean. I bought Doom 3 for $20 but at the Apple store, it's still $50.

[mac128k-1984]

The other thing is updates to games. In the pc world the come through pretty quickly and consistently. Not so with the macworld so we have to suffer with bugs inthe games. Admittedly this has gotten better, I had purchased doom3 (pre bootcamp days) and the vendor has posted updates in the past but still, I have some games that have not been patched/updated.

[mduell]

A big part of the price discrepancy for games is release dates.

If the PC version is a year old and everyone willing to pay $50 for it already has it (and/or something better is out now), it's going to be a lot cheaper than the just-released and still hot-selling Mac port.

[mac128k-1984]

To an extent I agree with you but even when software for that was released at the same time, there is a price difference. I don't have an example handy but I have this it. The variance isn't as large as COD2 but the fact remains that games are more expensive on the mac.

[Philip J. Fry]

Originally Posted by mduell 

A big part of the price discrepancy for games is release dates.

If the PC version is a year old and everyone willing to pay $50 for it already has it (and/or something better is out now), it's going to be a lot cheaper than the just-released and still hot-selling Mac port.

So again, why wait 6 months to a year for the Mac version when you can get the PC version and use Boot Camp?

[mduell]

Originally Posted by mac128k-1984 

To an extent I agree with you but even when software for that was released at the same time, there is a price difference. I don't have an example handy but I have this it. The variance isn't as large as COD2 but the fact remains that games are more expensive on the mac.

Sure, the release date is only one factor. The volume is another big factor; it costs more per unit to make small production runs.
Another factor is the number of other games available; on Windows there are a lot more choices than on OS X, so you would expect the prices to be lower in a competitive market.

[mac128k-1984]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Sure, the release date is only one factor. The volume is another big factor; it costs more per unit to make small production runs.
Another factor is the number of other games available; on Windows there are a lot more choices than on OS X, so you would expect the prices to be lower in a competitive market.

Exactly my point. Later release date, less volume, less choices means less reasons for people like myself to be willing to spend 2x more for game that's already been out for 6mos.

Believe me I'd rather by mac software, heck I've been a mac fanboy since the mac128k days(hence my nic ) but it makes no sense for me to wait for a game (until the mac version comes out and/or hope a mac version comes out) and then pay more.

This is just the game industry what about the other software vendors, While the issue is more accute with the game companies the same could be said for other mac software companies too. Which goes back to my initial assertion - Is Boot Camp a good idea or bad one.

Its good in a lot of respects for the consumer but I wonder if we sold our souls in the process and sometime down the road there is going to be a lot less choices for OSX applications.

Go back a one or two decades and look at OS/2. IBM provided built in support for windows, made it seemless, made it too easy for vendors to say heck why build OS/2 apps when OS/2 can run the current windows app. Now there were other issues as to why OS/2 failed one reason was because at the time IBM couldn't market themselves out of a paper bag, but not having native software was huge issue (another was it ran dog slow but I digress). Here we have Apple (which is great at marketing and the OS is fast and well written) providing a good reason for companies not to write software or at the very least making it more economically challanging to write OSX software.

[aristotles]

Initially, it is not good for game publishers on the mac that are porting windows titles. Hopefully things like the Cider product and a larger marketshare should bring us ports faster and cheaper in the future.

I don't think this applies for other type of software. Most mac users will expect native software.

[Apfhex]

I don't think it'll be bad for most, except when it comes to games. If there is a Mac version of the game I'll definitely want that instead, but not if it means waiting a very long time, a buggy release, etc. So it might be bad for the Mac games market... but surely you didn't buy a Mac so you could play games?

I'd hate to have to boot Windows to use Photoshop or something. No way, man. Windows is only good for games.

[Philip J. Fry]

Right now, I have Windows XP installed to play a few games that I've always wanted to play. As for other software, naturally I bought the Mac version to support further development. As previously stated, Windows is only good for games.