[ChillieMac]

Apple should buy a game company or create a game division in the company ala Microsoft/Bungie. Apple could make games for us and make money by making the games for consoles and then finally the Windoze crowd.

Whichever game company is bought should have at least 2 runaway hits under it's belt, have experience writing for consoles as well as Windoze and not currently writing for the Mac. The companies already writing for the Mac should be encouraged to compete (50% off hardware and reduced developer costs) to help draw gamers to the platform.

Also, Apple should consider remaking the cube as a LAN party style gaming emphasis Mac...basicly a mini G5 (1.6Ghz, whatever is the lowest on the Tower line when it's sold) w/ fast motherboard, 256MB minimum RAM, and the fastest card available on the Mac, small capacity hard drive (but fast I/O). Sell for same as low-end Tower.

I think these 2 actions would signifigantly increase the gaming presence on the Mac.

What do you guys think...should we send a petition to Apple?

[MindFad]

Apple should buy Alias|Wavefront and continue making an amazing operating and great hardware�well, the G5, anyway.

Aspyr should expand and start buying game development companies.

[nobitacu]

Apple needs to form a game company and make games that would make news, great news to game websites and mags. Once it sold a lot, like a million copies, than game companies might start thinking about making games for the Mac as well, or even new companies that would form just to make games for Macs.

Ming

[madmacgames]

Originally posted by nobitacu:
Apple needs to form a game company and make games that would make news, great news to game websites and mags.

Actually that would be terrible news to game websites. More than likely, only Apple resellers would be allowed to sell the games and most game websites that sell mac games are not Apple resellers.

Originally posted by ChillieMac:
Apple should buy a game company or create a game division in the company ala Microsoft/Bungie

You say Apple should be like Microsoft and form a game division, well a couple of things here:
(1) I don't think Apple should try to be like Microsoft and
(2) Microsoft's budget is astronomical, so they can afford the resources to make a game division and create consoles and games for both the console and PC.
(3) Microsoft distributes their software to the "normal" software resellers and retailers. You do not have to be a "Microsoft reseller" to be able to resell Microsoft software, like you do with Apple.

[goMac]

Should have bought Bungie...

[jfinete]

Apple should <insert masturbatory fanboy fantasy here>. Yeah that would so cool!

[IamBob]

Maybe Apple could borrow some Pixar folks to do some art and story line. License a good 3D engine and away you go...?

Thinking aloud, forget Apple buying a game company, Pixar should. They can develop great movies, why not games?

We'd probably have to "suffer" through games based on their movies but that doesn't mean they couldn't do something totally original. They could even pull a "Tomb Raider" and make the game before the movie.

All sorts of things to think about there.

[ChillieMac]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by madmacgames:
Actually that would be terrible news to game websites. More than likely, only Apple resellers would be allowed to sell the games and most game websites that sell mac games are not Apple resellers.

[B]Only Apple resellers would sell the games? Are you smoking crack laced with white-out?! Apple sells iPods to non-Apple authorized resellers, plus if Apple bought a game company, the game company could retain it's identity, (like Bungie did) still make and sell games for other platforms (including consoles), but concentrate on the Mac platform more. The main goal of buying the game maker is to stimulate game proliferation on our platform and a good side effect is to make money off of other platforms (the way selling iPods and iTune music does) and increase mindshare and awareness that Microsoft isn't the only platform that can do it all.[B]


You say Apple should be like Microsoft and form a game division, well a couple of things here:
(1) I don't think Apple should try to be like Microsoft and

What...selling games, making money, buying companies to help solve company goals is too much like Microsoft? Guess we shouldn't try to sell to large businesses, have our own browser, calendar function or e-mail client either.

(2) Microsoft's budget is astronomical, so they can afford the resources to make a game division and create consoles and games for both the console and PC.

Apple has roughly $5 BILLION in the bank cash, plus a lot of other holdings and it's not like Apple hasn't bought companies in expensive markets before (NeXT for OS X, eLogic for Soundtrack and Garage Band, whoever they bought Final Cut Pro from...all successes!)
(3) Microsoft distributes their software to the "normal" software resellers and retailers. You do not have to be a "Microsoft reseller" to be able to resell Microsoft software, like you do with Apple.

Again this isn't hardware...Apple could distribute to ANYBODY, or "normal" retailers, resellers, whatever...what would stop them? Someone else on this thread suggested an iPlay or iGame store...why not that too? They could sell or even rent games like gamefly does (a Netflix business model)

Man, you are putting Apple in a box and setting limits, but with that kind of mentality, Apple couldn't have sold iPods and iTunes to Windows users thereby being the biggest player in the music market! Or couldn't be one of the biggest players in the Video/Audio editing markets. I think your problem with these ideas is that you don't consider games on a platform as important...but in order to seriously grow Apple's marketshare, games must be a priority. Personally,I don't even play games that much, but there are a LOT of people that do and the number of and quality of games plays a role in computer buying decisions in the consumer market.

[DBvader]

I don't think that gaming should really be apple's focus at all. I think they should continue updating drivers in OS updates, etc. But, realistically, gaming is not important. Apple is all about the margins, and with fierce competition, small user base, and rampant pirating, gaming is less and less profitable.

Porting DirectX would really be the best way to get games ported quickly.

[OwlBoy]

Yeah, appls should not buy a game company, just support the current ones VERY well.

-Owl

[edddeduck]

Err sorry wrong thread!

[ginoledesma]

We all know that its games that push the hardware to its limits. I'm not too sure about Apple managing its own games division just yet, unless it would prove to be a significantly profitable venture. And the only thing I can think of that would drive sales up is if the game has a high replay value, which in turn I think would need to make it multiplayer at least. But not all multiplayer games are hits, and not a lot make profits. If anything at all, Apple seems to be venturing into things they know they can surely benefit from (at least with the current trend).

Right now, I don't see Apple as being too focused on the games industry. They highlight the upcoming games now and then, but they just seem to be cheering the game makers on. Its hard to predict if or when a game is sure to be a hit, unless you're someone like Blizzard, with its all-hit record, or Bioware, with an established fan base.

If the overall objective is to bring [more] quality games to the Mac, maybe Apple could be even more supportive with the game developers -- perhaps allowing them access to Apple hardware/OS releases, enticing developer programs (perhaps discounts on ADC), and the like.

[DekuDekuplex]

Originally posted by ChillieMac:
Apple should buy a game company or create a game division in the company ala Microsoft/Bungie. Apple could make games for us and make money by making the games for consoles and then finally the Windoze crowd.

Whichever game company is bought should have at least 2 runaway hits under it's belt, have experience writing for consoles as well as Windoze and not currently writing for the Mac. The companies already writing for the Mac should be encouraged to compete (50% off hardware and reduced developer costs) to help draw gamers to the platform.

Also, Apple should consider remaking the cube as a LAN party style gaming emphasis Mac...basicly a mini G5 (1.6Ghz, whatever is the lowest on the Tower line when it's sold) w/ fast motherboard, 256MB minimum RAM, and the fastest card available on the Mac, small capacity hard drive (but fast I/O). Sell for same as low-end Tower.

I think these 2 actions would signifigantly increase the gaming presence on the Mac.

What do you guys think...should we send a petition to Apple?

I think that those are both excellent suggestions.

Personally, though, I would really like to see more Japanese RPG-style games on the Mac.

In particular, I think that it is grossly unfair that Final Fantasy�� XI is available for Windows, but not for Mac OS X.

For example, I just finished watching a two-hour-plus-long real-time tour of Vana'diel��, the on-line world of FFXI. The tour was so realistic that I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for the two hours, and didn't realize how much time had passed until the tour finally restarted from the original destination, by which time the characters walking around had all changed, and Vana'diel��'s sky had changed to nighttime.

I've never had this kind of experience ever before.

Unfortunately, I happened to be watching this tour after-hours from my language center's computer, which was a PC running Windows XP, and the tour was only available in Windows Media Player.

According to the Official Web Site of Final Fantasy�� XI Online,

Originally posted on the Official Web Site of Final Fantasy�� XI Online:
On January 17, 2004, the number of Vana'diel residents (total number of active characters in North America and Japan) broke the 1 million mark!

I would really like to join this online community, but preferably without leaving my Mac. For now, maybe I should just get Virtual PC 6.1 - With Windows XP Professional.

Some of my favorite features of this game include the following:[list][*]A Japanese<-->English Auto-translate Function[*]Co-existence of both PlayStation 2 and Windows players in the same worlds[*]24-hour Game Master (GM) Support[*]Vana'diel�� Bench 2, an official benchmark application that displays actual maps and characters, and allows one to check one's computer's score for actual play of FFXI. In addition, it has an extra demo mode, which allows one to look at selected event scenes of FFXI for non-interactive enjoyment.[*]The Vana'diel Tribune, a monthly online newsletter[*]"A Little Goblin's Adventure," an online monthly humorous story column describing the ongoing adventures of Fablinix the Goblin as he explores Vana'diel��[*]A weekly Screenshot Contest[*]The ability to create one's own character by selecting one's race, job, gender, face, and body size[*]The abilities to change one's job at any time[*]The possibility of gaining the ability to select a support job (with a support job, one can effectively "hold two jobs at once")[*]The possibility of discovering hidden jobs, such as bard, ranger, or beastmaster[*]The availability of multiple means of transportation, including airships, chocobos, and ferries[*]The availability of various fishing spots scattered throughout Vana'diel��. By increasing one's fishing skill, one may catch valuable fish and other items. In addition, any fish caught can be cooked into a variety of dishes![*]The availability of World Passes, which enable people to allow their friends to create characters in the same Vana'diel�� worlds as they reside[*]An expansion kit revealing a deeper dimension of FFXI, Rise of the Zilart��, in which one can do the following:

1. Discover additional jobs of Samurai, Ninja, and Dragoon
2. Gain access to all summons
3. Explore over 40 new areas
4. Experience new mission areas and quests that will get one closer to solving the mystery of Vana'diel[/list=a]

Perhaps Apple Computer should propose a partnership agreement with the game manufacturer, Square Enix U.S.A., to develop game APIs that work for the Mac OS X platform. If Apple agreed to give away Mac hardware and developer support to the game maker, they might agree, and then perhaps some of those users may even decide to buy an extra Mac or more!

--DekuDekuplex

[nobitacu]

If Final Fantasy XI ever comes to Mac, I'll be one of the first to pick up a copy and play it.

Ming

[Leonard]

Originally posted by DBvader:
Porting DirectX would really be the best way to get games ported quickly.

That's a waste of time, since game porting companies have already ported this about 3-5 times already. Each Mac porting company has their library of DirectX to Mac code already. I believe one Mac porting company had their libraries for sale.

DirectX is not a problem nowadays.

[sushiism]

complete waste of time and money, computer games are utter **** these days. They're all the same old crap over and voer again developed by complete morons without an original idea in their stupid counterstrike shrunk skulls. If you want to play a real game you need a console, like:
+Gamecube things like Smash brothers, fzero, ikaruga, viewtiful joe, etc
+Dreamcast: Ikaruga again, mars matrix, shenmue, psyvariar 2, gunbird 2, border down, bangaio
+PSX: Dodonpachi, SOTN, xenogears
+PS2: DDPDOJ, rtype final
+N64: Goldeneye, perfect dark, majouras mask, mischief makers, blastcorps, custom robo
+saturn: radiant silvergun
+neogeo: slug, KOF 98/99, waku waku 7. viewpoint, twinkle star sprites
+snes: the obvious
+mega drive: gunstar heroes, alien soldier
blah blah etc, see my point every one of those games kicks the utter **** out of any computer games in the past 8 years or so.

Jesus christ i remeber when everyone whined cos alien vs pred didnt have a quick save, BOO ****ING HOO, it was an easy game without a quicksave there was no need to make it piss easy half of the fun was doing the level flawless
computer games are pathetic
and
computer gamers are pathetic

[mac freak]

Partner with Nintendo --> me have dirty pants.

[osiris]

For years Apple should've/could've/would've supported gaming companies, but that's not Apple's style, apparently.

Apple should encourage developers with hardware/software incentives and outright bribes. Specifically, they should buy Bungie from Microsoft. They should do something though.

[blizzard]

Originally posted by osiris:
For years Apple should've/could've/would've supported gaming companies, but that's not Apple's style, apparently.

Apple should encourage developers with hardware/software incentives and outright bribes. Specifically, they should buy Bungie from Microsoft. They should do something though.

They did that, they'd have a pretty direct entry into the XBox arena, by my reckoning. But I think the days of Bungie and the Mac are officially over.

Oh, and cheers to sushiism for a well articulated, thoughtful argument.

[Caesar2099]

If Final Fantasy XI ever comes to Mac, I'll be one of the first to pick up a copy and play it.

Well supposedly the makers of FFXI wanted to make a mac version, but they just didn't have the resources.

And i do agree with more anime-style like kingdom hearts, that's a great game

[KeyLimePi]

Originally posted by sushiism:
computer gamers are pathetic

Total revenue derived from video games, fiscal years 1995-2002:
Sony: $36 billion
Nintendo: $32 billion
Apple: $0

[Caesar2099]

In response to sushiism

Wow, holy s***, I always figured that for every one thing in the world there was someone who was against it. But, anti-computer games and pro-console games, that's dumbest bulls*** i've ever heard.

A game is a game, you can judge it by gameplay, character development, graphics, etc. Not by what system it uses to run it. Thats like saying all paper-back books suck a$$, while hard-back is godlike.

I have a console (PS2) and i love it. Most of the games i play on it are better than any game i'll ever play on the Mac (like kingdom hearts, kick-a$$ game). But I still play games on the Mac, does that make me pathetic?
NO, that means i got bored fighting with mickey mouse, and wanted to instead kill some frickin' nazi's

It's single-minded people like you who ruin fun, and stupid people like me who are actually offended by a raving idiot

[::maroma::]

You forgot the "Wait... Who the f**k am I to say what Apple should do?" option. I would've checked that one.

[MindFad]

My hardcover LotR has better graphics than your shitty paperback one.

[SOLIDAge]

Originally posted by DekuDekuplex:
[B]
I would really like to join this online community, but preferably without leaving my Mac. For now, maybe I should just get Virtual PC 6.1 - With Windows XP Professional.

Playstation2 (with network adapter) $149.99
Hard Drive (which comes with FFXI) $99.99
so far we're looking at around $650 cheaper then buying a windows machine that has the best specs to run this game. I have a Athlon T-Bird 1.6 w/ 128 RAM and windows 2000...it runs the game decently...but my 32mb Nvidia card is hindering it...i'm just waiting for the PS2 version, console games are so much better then PC ones why?...THEY ALWAYS WORK.

P.S
don't even think about running this game or any other 3D game in VPC...it just won't happen.

[Sosa]

Originally posted by Leonard:
That's a waste of time, since game porting companies have already ported this about 3-5 times already. Each Mac porting company has their library of DirectX to Mac code already. I believe one Mac porting company had their libraries for sale.

DirectX is not a problem nowadays.

Are you sure about this? I was under the impression it was the biggest problem. Take a look at a few of the latest games that Mac players cannot play against PC players because of DirectX:

Europa Universalis II
Hearts of Iron
Age of Mythology

[I'mDaMac]

Originally posted by goMac:
Should have bought Bungie...

Yeah, if Apple were to have bought any game company it should have been Bungie. I wonder if Halo would have sold many Macs if it were a Mac exclusive? Probably not, but you never know.

[RooneyX]

Apple can barely afford a Power Mac G5. Let them save some more money and innovate for a little more time.

[dantley]

Originally posted by DBvader:
I don't think that gaming should really be apple's focus at all. I think they should continue updating drivers in OS updates, etc. But, realistically, gaming is not important. Apple is all about the margins, and with fierce competition, small user base, and rampant pirating, gaming is less and less profitable.

Porting DirectX would really be the best way to get games ported quickly.

Uh, yeah... Apple should just keep updating drivers... that is definitely the road to innovation... uh huh.

Listen, as more and more people switch from PCs to Macs you are bound to get people who want to play games on their mac. Gaming is profitable... it's bigger than the movie industry for crying out loud. I don't Apple should buy a game company. I think Apple should release a robust SDK specifically to game companies to better optimize games for OSX.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Originally posted by goMac:
Should have bought Bungie...

Yeah... And the rumor about that happening, came out several times back in the Marathon days...

[hotani]

Originally posted by MindFad:
My hardcover LotR has better graphics than your shitty paperback one.

[Weezer]

nice bump

[the_glassman]

I think Apple should buy Sega. They could continue to make games for other systems while making games for the Mac platform. They've got the best sports games and a good mix of everything else.

[Forte]

Am I the only one who thinks Sega and their games are (and always have been) horribly, horribly overrated? They'd be more of a liability to Apple than an asset... Although, that said, it's a bit of a moot point anyway, as they were already purchased by Sammy (the company is now known as 'Sega-Sammy Holdings').

Personally, I agree with the sentiments expressed in a few earlier posts - it'd be better for Mac-gaming if there were more support/encouragement for developers to make good games for the Macintosh platform. (Though I know that's probably unlikely. Ah well, I tend to prefer consoles for gaming anyway. GBA and GC forever, w00t. )

[MindFad]

Originally posted by hotani:

Wow, that was a long ways back.

Anyway, good thing Apple didn't buy any gaming companies or get into gaming at all.

I personally think they should start working more with development companies to entice them to bring their games over�not actually buy a company and do it themselves.

[bradoesch]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ChillieMac:
[B]

Originally posted by madmacgames:
Apple has roughly $5 BILLION in the bank cash, plus a lot of other holdings and it's not like Apple hasn't bought companies in expensive markets before (NeXT for OS X, eLogic for Soundtrack and Garage Band, whoever they bought Final Cut Pro from...all successes!)

Final Cut Pro came from Macromedia. I don't think it was a finished product yet and I forget what Macromedia was going to call it.

[CaptainHaddock]

"Take a look at a few of the latest games that Mac players cannot play against PC players because of DirectX"

I don't think that has anything to do with DirectX. Multiplayer incompatibility between Macs and PCs is usually due to programming shortcuts that lead to synchronization problems. You see, floating-point numbers (i.e. values with decimal points) cannot be represented in a computer processor without minor rounding errors. Because x86 and PowerPC are architecturally different, the same arithmetic done on these platforms will produce slightly (very slightly) different results.

Most multiplayer games rely heavily on passing as little data across the network as possible and expecting most game information to be processed on each gaming client separately. Unless this is taken into consideration when a game is ported, multiplayer data on a Mac client will slowly get out of sync with the PCs, and vice versa.

On the topic of Apple getting into the gaming business, I'd be all for it. Two or three killer games would prompt some of the serious gamers I know to get a Mac - after all, look how many people bought X-boxes just to play Halo.

I agree most PC games are crap, but I'd *love* to get the Thief series on Macs, especially if they updated the graphics on the first two.

[Truepop]

I vote for mac game companies to buy original games and ideas and port to mac then pc.

I believe that piracy would go down a bit if they wouldn't try to sell us a poorly pored game that has been out on one platform for 2 years and another one for 1 year.

as of right now they are just selling to an installed base. no one is switching to mac for the games and anyone who does switch (for whatever reason) either has a pc or console or doesn't care.

this isn't about selling more macs, it's about getting better games and then more might buy a mac for games.

[Skip Breakfast]

I think Apple should release a robust SDK specifically to game companies to better optimize games for OSX.

That's the best comment in this thread.

Fact: People upgrade or replace their Windows machines to play the newest video games. Otherwise, >90% of PC users do not need a fast machine for "a little word processing and surfing the web". I'm typing this on a P3 600MHz Dell dinosaur, and it keeps up with the tasks required by my job.

Apple should dedicate resources to encouraging gaming developers and reducing the costs associated with video card upgrades. Buying or forming a video game division would hurt more than help their bottom line.

[lenox]

I second the apple + sega idea...i mean, I bought the dreamcast because I loved sega's games (namely, crazy taxi)...they have their own type of style that's uniquely identifiable, kind of like....apple hardware. so sega shuts down their home hardware division because it's not profitable enough....apple is a hardware company.....it would also ensure some good gaming hardware and lib development for apple, too...

(..and maybe one day make it possible to compete with the xbox?)

[Forte]

Originally posted by lenox:
I second the apple + sega idea...i mean, I bought the dreamcast because I loved sega's games (namely, crazy taxi)...they have their own type of style that's uniquely identifiable, kind of like....apple hardware. so sega shuts down their home hardware division because it's not profitable enough....apple is a hardware company.....it would also ensure some good gaming hardware and lib development for apple, too...

(..and maybe one day make it possible to compete with the xbox?)

As was mentioned earlier in the thread, there is precisely 0% chance of this ever happening: Sega was bought up by another company back in June or so, and as of early October, the name change of the now-merged company in question is "Sega-Sammy Holdings". ;P