Interview: "no evidence" Apple understands gaming
On the eve of releasing his latest game, Valve Software co-founder Gabe Newell has revealed his team's repeated frustrations in convincing Apple that gaming is equally as important to consumers as editing home movies.
Gaming news site Kikizo learned of the Mac maker's apparent sluggishness in an interview in which Newell acknowledged that Valve had approached Apple to encourage game-friendly development but rarely achieved any results. In spite of enjoying initial cooperation from Apple, the team behind Half-Life 2 and other titles encountered what it said was only a half-hearted attempt to address game developer requests.
"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,'" Newell said. "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. And then a year later, a new group of people show up, who apparently have no idea that the last group of people were there, and never follow through on anything. So, they seem to think that they want to do gaming, but there's never any follow through on any of the things they say they're going to do."
The pattern has been a staple of Apple's approach for several years, the Valve chief said.
Apple has frequently had a problematic relationship with game developers, which have often either refused to write Mac versions or else have converted existing Windows versions, some of which take months to reach the Mac platform. While a small group of major developers such as Blizzard and id Software continue to create native Mac software, others have been lured away by promises of a larger user base and easier development with either game consoles or Windows PCs.
Many veteran Mac users will often cite the example of game developer Bungie, which had developed many Mac-only or Mac-first games during the 1990s. Apple chief Steve Jobs famously touted the software house as an example of the Mac's gaming prowess during his Macworld New York 1999 keynote speech, showing an early version of Halo -- only to watch Microsoft purchase Bungie a year later and limit the Mac version of Halo to a third-party port, which arrived in late 2003.
And while Apple's switch to Intel processors has streamlined development and encouraged EA to return to the Mac, there was "no evidence" to suggest that even the simplest plans for game development registered in the Cupertino firm's mindset, according to Newell. While Apple has primarily focused its home user efforts on the iLife creative suite, the Valve frontman argued that the company should devote much more attention to gamers if it hoped to attract more Windows converts.
Games are "one of the biggest things holding them back in the consumer space," he said. "If you look at a Macintosh right now, it does a lot of things really well compared to a Vista PC, but there are no games. Why, I don't know. If I were a Macintosh product manager, it would be pretty high on my list."
Gaming news site Kikizo learned of the Mac maker's apparent sluggishness in an interview in which Newell acknowledged that Valve had approached Apple to encourage game-friendly development but rarely achieved any results. In spite of enjoying initial cooperation from Apple, the team behind Half-Life 2 and other titles encountered what it said was only a half-hearted attempt to address game developer requests.
"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,'" Newell said. "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. And then a year later, a new group of people show up, who apparently have no idea that the last group of people were there, and never follow through on anything. So, they seem to think that they want to do gaming, but there's never any follow through on any of the things they say they're going to do."
The pattern has been a staple of Apple's approach for several years, the Valve chief said.
Apple has frequently had a problematic relationship with game developers, which have often either refused to write Mac versions or else have converted existing Windows versions, some of which take months to reach the Mac platform. While a small group of major developers such as Blizzard and id Software continue to create native Mac software, others have been lured away by promises of a larger user base and easier development with either game consoles or Windows PCs.
Many veteran Mac users will often cite the example of game developer Bungie, which had developed many Mac-only or Mac-first games during the 1990s. Apple chief Steve Jobs famously touted the software house as an example of the Mac's gaming prowess during his Macworld New York 1999 keynote speech, showing an early version of Halo -- only to watch Microsoft purchase Bungie a year later and limit the Mac version of Halo to a third-party port, which arrived in late 2003.
And while Apple's switch to Intel processors has streamlined development and encouraged EA to return to the Mac, there was "no evidence" to suggest that even the simplest plans for game development registered in the Cupertino firm's mindset, according to Newell. While Apple has primarily focused its home user efforts on the iLife creative suite, the Valve frontman argued that the company should devote much more attention to gamers if it hoped to attract more Windows converts.
Games are "one of the biggest things holding them back in the consumer space," he said. "If you look at a Macintosh right now, it does a lot of things really well compared to a Vista PC, but there are no games. Why, I don't know. If I were a Macintosh product manager, it would be pretty high on my list."
Comments
Might want to work on that, Steve.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=games...ate=all&sort=0
Might want to work on that, Steve.
ok, game applies to any possible type of game, not just video games. Board game, fully online game, and other game in general make up a large part of the search.
this was entertaining though (along with the zune scene stats which have been steadily going down for the past year).
http://www.google.com/trends?q=zune%...ate=all&sort=0
oh and anyone know what valve wanted apple to improve?
come on apple, why can't i customize your industrial design?
i don't care about games
I'm not talking one or two people, but every single one i try to switch over. Now these are all home users, so Apple does have some options for them. But when i talk to gamers! I get laughed at
Hard to understand that the smartest OS on the planet can't play the big games well.
what does the BIOS have to do with gaming on a mac?
Graphics card support.
I'd very much like to not having to pay for Vista or XP to run the Orange Box, thank you Mr. Jobs.
/Adrian
Very true that it refers to all types of games.
Just for laughs.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=vista...ate=all&sort=0
Only M$ products even register.
Before flaming: I own a XP laptop, a XP desktop and a Xbox 360
Apple is on the right track. Forget about high-end killing games. Put out a platform that can handle family friendly entertainment and keep tying th platform into a variety of neat portable devices (iPod, iPhone,etc...). That is where the market is for computers. Extreme gamers just have to accept it. The Mac isn't for them.
philip
The article mentions Blizzard, id and EA as companies lured back/still working with apple, short of that, who is left really? I guess as a fan of bioware and some of the licenses they own, that'd be nice, but if I remember correctly NeverWinter Nights ultimately got ported to the mac.
I guess just to have a "complete" machine, I'd like some games to run on my macbook, but the way I see it - that's what the consoles are for nowadays. Lot cheaper and have a longer lifecycle than the latest nvidia chipset.
Maybe why we don't see Apple putting resouces making the Mac platform an awesome game platform is because Jobs is not a gamer himself. He enjoys his music and video media but games just aren't his deal.
That's great if Jobs is going to be the sole consumer of Apple computers, but not so great for the real world where people would like to be able to do what the things they enjoy with their computers. As someone who likes games, my next computer purchase will probably be back to the Windows side.
Someone made the comment on another thread that they thought Jobs would close off Apple computers just like iPods and iPhones if he could and I honestly believe he might. He seems like he's trying to create his own computer ecosystem anyhow. With iLife, iWork, the pro apps trying to cut out the need for Adobe. The iTunes/iPod/iPhone/AppleTV chain. Honestly, Apple only makes one open computer (the Mac Pro) and as the name and price both imply, it's not really designed for the home market.
Sorry, organizing photos and making YouTube videos isn't my idea of a great time. But that sort of seems like what Jobs has in mind for the Mac.
I've wondered if one of the first seminars new Apple employees are given is entitled, "Your opinion matters. Just as long as it's the same as Steve Jobs."
-There is no need for yet another gaming platform.
Personally, I'm glad that Apple doesn't waste resources on games. Talk about least common denominator! To each his own.
As a a non-gamer I could care less. I play Chess on my Mac and Suduko on websites and Crosswords in the paper. Not exactly something you need a great video card for.
However, as a shareholder I can how adding better video cards and beating out comparable games in frames-per-second or what ahve you would have bring over more switchers since that seems to be the most important thing to these people and I know many people whose lives are entrenched in WoW. Some to the point of losing girlfriends and leading to divorces. Is it really that addictive?