Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, WWDC, Apple, Developer
EA, id back gaming on the Mac
Well how about that. Not a few days after I announce that I'm going to be posting news about gaming on the Mac, we get the biggest announcement about exactly that since Bungie released Marathon: EA and id both showed up at the WWDC Keynote yesterday to promote 3D gaming on Apple's computers.id went so far as to announce and show a new game engine called "id tech 5" (usually engines are named after games, but apparently we're in uncharted territory here), and EA came on stage to say it was going to start selling its most popular franchises, including Need for Speed Carbon, which has never been seen on the Mac before. Apple Insider points out that this isn't necessarily what we were hoping for (that is, games running natively and uber fast in OS X)-- instead, the EA games will be wrapped in Transgaming's Cider engine, which means the games will have to run on Intel-only Macs.
Tuncer Deniz, who's been covering Mac gaming for a long time at Inside Mac Games, says this is both good... and bad (figures, right?). It's good because EA using Cider means we'll see Mac versions come out faster. But it's bad because whatever EA expects to sell of these games, it's probably not as much as they want to. Still, id's engine looks pretty-- if gaming is going to make a comeback on the machine we love, this is as good a chance as it'll ever have.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Christopher Groves said 8:37AM on 6-12-2007
This is awsome! I hope someone brings out Donkey Kong and Super Mario 3... They are my all time faves!
Reply
Jon said 9:13AM on 6-12-2007
I hope EA converts their back-catalogue too. If they're using Cider it's not that much effort, so there's no excuse not to.
Reply
basscadet said 9:14AM on 6-12-2007
I wonder why they would go into the trouble of porting games to mac, seeing that the new dual OS boot applications can comfortably run the PC based ones on my G5... Just make sure there are no major issues when running under bootcamp, parallel etc and you're there!
Reply
Joel Johnson said 9:29AM on 6-12-2007
Wasn't Halo originally developed as aMac game?
Reply
Jon Stieglitz said 9:34AM on 6-12-2007
"Need for Speed Carbon, which has never been seen on the Mac before."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/49599948@N00/535893697/
Reply
Sam G. said 10:44AM on 6-12-2007
Wait a minute....didn't EA buy Aspyr a few years ago specifically for this purpose? Why are they using Cider when they already own Aspyr?
Reply
Bob S. said 11:03AM on 6-12-2007
Is John Carmack going to weasel on this as he has in the past? This isn't the first time he's promised this, but it would be the first time he's followed through. (Doom 3 was supposed to debut on the Mac.)
And while I understand Mr. Groves was being sarcastic (and I'm being charitable), look up emulators to run classic stuff. MAME's updated with a frequency that's almost annoying. (The only true annoyance comes when they change the ROM format.)
Reply
JPT said 11:51AM on 6-12-2007
Is it really pronounced "id"? I always thought it was pronounced "i.d." o.O
Reply
Liquidmark said 11:53AM on 6-12-2007
#8
id |id|
noun Psychoanalysis
the part of the mind in which innate instinctive impulses and primary processes are manifest.
Compare with ego and superego .
Reply
Liquidmark said 11:57AM on 6-12-2007
"3. I wonder why they would go into the trouble of porting games to mac, seeing that the new dual OS boot applications can comfortably run the PC based ones on my G5... "
Because Mac users would much rather play in OSX than in windows.
I already have BF2142, for windows, but I'm gonna get it for OSX. ^^
Reply
shawn-dude said 1:41PM on 6-12-2007
I understand the disappointment. Not to pollute the thread too much, but Apple does this all the time to the Linux folks. Want to use iTunes? Gotta boot into Windows. Want to buy an iPhone? Gotta use iTunes which means you gotta boot into Windows. (why does Apple want to force me to use Windows in order to enjoy iTunes or the iPhone anyway? Seems counter-productive.)
I agree it's frustrating to have a gaming company say they "support" you when in fact they're only willing to sell you a second-class version of the product (for the same price). But, as was mentioned above, you can always by the Windows version and boot into Windows to run it. ;-)
Reply
Wintermute said 6:57PM on 6-12-2007
"usually engines are named after games, but apparently we're in uncharted territory here"
Not necessarily true. Take a look:
Half-Life 2 - Source engine
Morrowind - NetImmerse engine
Burnout/Grand Theft Auto - RenderWare engine
System Shock 2/Thief - Dark engine*
Final Fantasy XIII - White engine
*You could argue this one as Thief 's full title is "Thief: The Dark Project", but you get the point
Reply
Mike Schramm said 7:00PM on 6-12-2007
Winter, you're right about that. Point taken.
Reply
Roflgoat said 5:51PM on 6-13-2007
You do realize that the id Tech 5 engine is horrible because EVERYTHING is a texture, right? It looks disgusting and rubbery
Reply
smoke_tetsu said 6:28AM on 6-14-2007
A lot of other engines don't use the first games they where made for as their names but id software's engines up until now did. But they've stopped doing that because an engine like the doom 3 engine can go through several iterations like recently with the megatexture so it no longer is the same engine that was used in Doom 3, per say.
One other thing.. I think it's too early to judge id tech 5 just from this video. People shouldn't even jump to conclusions thinking it's going to be a racing game either.
Reply
JC said 7:53PM on 7-30-2007
OK - so, has anyone heard about when they are releasing CC3 or BF2142? From what I can find - CC# was suppose to be released 7 July. Where is it? I can't find any updates via googling....what's up? Just looking for a nugget.....
Reply