[mrchin]

So the news now shows that Men of Valor port has been cancelled by Aspyr. Sorry if posted previously, but this seems like something that many may have been awaiting with open wallets.

I myself was awaiting this good Vietnam FPS. Not that I played it on Wintel systems, but if it's from makers of Medal of Honor, it would have been great.

Now, the next thing to wonder is if it was due to lack of interest or a technical limitation on Aspyr's part.

???

[reader50]

My first guess would be that Men of Valor uses the GameSpy SDK. You know, the SDK that now magically costs a lot more for a Mac game.

[CincyGamer]

I'll pay an extra $10 for the extra charge.. I am pretty bummed about this. Aspyr is going to have to develop their own SDK if this is part of it. It might have something to do with Havok physics engine being not supported now. Aspyr is coming out with several top games (Sims2, Doom, BAttleFront, etc..) so you cant say that Aspyr has been slacking off or isnt in touch anymore.

[Spliff]

From the IMG Forums:

Half of them are boring business and technical details that each by themselves weren't a killer, but when all of them add up it just didn't make sense for us to try to sell the game. It wasn't very close to ship, and one of the many reasons we originally planned to do it was to have a Mac version ship close to the PC. That window had closed, and was getting farther and farther in the past. But even that wasn't the only thing that killed it. No PC to Mac play didn't help, but that wasn't the only reason either. High system requirements certainly are a small factor. Its just a bunch of things like that, and at the end of the day we look at sales projections, and when those fall below the cost to finish a game and ship it, the decision is still hard but clear- we can't ship games we'll lose money on.

--------------------

Glenda Adams
Director of Development, Aspyr Media

[CincyGamer]

Glenda Adams,

I am really saddened to hear about the cancellation of Men of Valor. I will be buying the SW Battlegrounds (when released) and the new Medal of Honor warchest
soon. To address your issues you posted in the IMG forum..

Half of them are boring business and technical details that each by themselves weren't a killer, but when all of them add up it just didn't make sense for us to try to sell the game. It wasn't very close to ship, and one of the many reasons we originally planned to do it was to have a Mac version ship close to the PC. (1)That window had closed, and was getting farther and farther in the past (2) . But even that wasn't the only thing that killed it. No PC to Mac play (3) didn't help, but that wasn't the only reason either. High system requirements certainly are a small factor (4). Its just a bunch of things like that, and at the end of the day we look at sales projections (5), and when those fall below the cost to finish a game and ship it (6), the decision is still hard but clear- we can't ship games we'll lose money on.

--------------------

Glenda Adams
Director of Development, Aspyr Media

1) This is just a losing battle to make this such a high requirement. The expansion to Doom3 is already announced to ship April4. This will always be a problem with the Mac industry unless the games are made by the original developers and not ported. The real issue when it comes to buying games is cost. An example is Neverwinter Nights.. Its always been $50 in the Apple Store for the last two years. So its $> 100 to buy the expansion pack and the game. Now, the price is reduced $30 and now I feel good about buying everything. I am just as happy to get the game now as then.

2) So many games such as Knights of Old Republic, Sim City Rush Hour and others are already on sequels and on clearance for $20 by the time the $50 games come out. Its more about cost.

3) My PC friends just want to play WoW together. I cannot get them to play multi-player Halo or Call Of Duty.. I usually play single player mode anyways.

4) I will be buying a new PowerMac/Powerbook when the 3.0 GHZ or the PowerBook G5 comes out. there are huge numbers of people waiting patiently for Apple to get the engineering going.

5) Maybe Aspyr could do more marketing by coming to the other Apple Stores than just the Austin one. (i.e. Doom 3 demo) or have some buy 2 get one free sales or
get Apple to include a game with a purchase of a PowerMac/iMac instead of those crappy titles.

6) I know Aspyr is a business and you cannot give the games away, but over time I think the game will do well. We need more high end games like Doom 3.


Thanks for listening and for the great titles you have been shipping.. I would really try to use the new IBM compiler if you are not using them. They are really good.