Posted Sep 30, 2007 at 02:08PM by Sally B. Listed in: Apple, Games for Windows Tags: Valve Corporation, Gabe Newell
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Gabe Newell - Image 1It's always a wonder why gaming is not so big in Macintosh as much as it is in Windows operating systems, and its just a shame why there's so many games that don't make it to Apples and Macintoshes. Case in point: the Half-Life franchise. Kikizo talked with Valve's big boss Gabe Newell about the issue, and things aren't looking so cool with the future of gaming in Apple's operating systems.

Newell said that he tried to talk with Apple about how to improve gaming on the Macintosh, and while they gave a positive response, he said that Apple didn't follow up on what was agreed upon:

Well, we have this pattern with Apple, where we meet with them, people there go "wow, gaming is incredibly important, we should do something with gaming". And then we'll say, "OK, here are three things you could do to make that better", and then they say OK, and then we never see them again.


An even sadder fact is that whenever Newell meets with another group sent by Apple, they were most likely unaware on what was agreed upon in previous meetings. Because of this, Newell is now convinced that Apple is not serious on gaming at all. "None of the things developers ask them to do are done," he said. "And as a result, there's no gaming market there to speak of."

It truly is a sad outlook for Macintosh users hoping to get more games in the future. Hopefully Apple will listen this time: Newell does seem to know what he is talking about after all, with his valuable inputs about managing a company as well as dealing with customers.


Check out the Read link for the entire interview!


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6 Comments


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   by Goobers - 2007-09-30
 » hum...

personally, i don't like Valve.

on the one hand... they make a point... MAC doesn't particularilly cater to gaming...

on the other hand... it's not up to Apple to "bend" to their developers... but the developers to program for the MAC. I'm betting the changes that Valve suggested to Apple make it more like Windows based machines... to the point that porgramming would be transparent... in other words, Valve is being lazy and instead of LEARNING to run on another OS, they want to OS to run for them.

there are plenty of games running on MAC OSes... they put the effort.

as for me... i'll stick to Windows.


   Re: Fallen - 2007-09-30
 » Well...

I disagree, Apple needs to meet them halfway at the very least. Windows caters to developers, Microsoft has made sure of that.

I don't see how you can call Valve lazy, They are developing the Orange box for 3 major platforms.

End of the day the Mac gaming scene is tiny for a reason. Blaming all of the developers is foolish.
   by Advertising -
   by Goobers - 2007-09-30
 » Orange Box

aside from HL2 epi 2... they bundled a bunch of old games.

ALL the games, including TF2 and epi 2 use the now aging Source engine.

how do we know Apple hasn't met them halfway? the only complaints i've seen are from Valve.

what about Epic? Blizzard? both companies have in the past produced games for MAC OSes... and Epic has announced the upcoming UT3 WILL be on the Wii (when is another story)... so like i said... they're putting the effort. and these are just two major developers.

seems to me Crysis is also coming out on MACs. http://www.apple.com/games/ has a few more... *shrug*


   Re: Goobers - 2007-09-30
 » typo

not Wii... i meant MAC (obviously, since Wii is irrelevent to this discussion).

too bad there's no edit function.

   Re: GW2 - 2007-09-30
 » lol

i noticed that too. goos thing you corrected yourself im very prone to caps locking!
   by Fallen - 2007-10-01
 » Dancing around the end result.

Have to reiterate that while there are a few developers that port to mac the end result is the same.

I find it hard to believe that 90% of developers are just lazy and none of the blame can be put on Apple.

Gabe stating they're "not serious" was just something that came up in the interview. I don't expect developers to jump on a soapbox and complain about apple. This seems more like a peek into the development world.

Yes the games are using the Source engine, Ep2 and TF2 obviously use separate heavily modified versions. The point is Valve is putting in the effort to port that engine to PS3 and 360, If it turns out to be a poor job then by all means they are lazy but it seems to me Valve is trying, Apple is not helping.

We both have a point but as a gamer, Windows is (unfortunately) the only real choice.



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