Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Apple
EA selling games in the Apple Store
As many of you pointed out over the weekend (thanks, everybody!), EA must be big fans of TUAW-- we called them out on Thursday for not catering to the Mac as they'd promised, and on Friday they dropped a press release that the exact four games we'd called MIA were now available in the Apple Store (and sure enough, they are). As our good friends over at Joystiq noted, EA also promises that those games will also be available in brick-and-mortar Apple stores by the end of August, with Tiger and Madden coming later this year.So: redemption, or too little too late? Either way, I doubt EA cares. While it's nice that they're reading, and clearly the announcement of the release shows they're interested in keeping their word (at least a few weeks after they promised to keep it, anyway), I really think that releasing these games will only tell EA what they already knew: Mac owners don't buy their games. Be serious: how many of you readers are really going to hit the link above and buy Battlefield 2142 right now? I didn't think so.
But that doesn't mean that EA's right to ditch us completely, either. If you were a Madden fan, and showed up to Gamestop to buy '08 with a choice of two options: PC or Mac, which one would you take? The Mac version, obviously. Unfortunately, the Madden Mac version isn't coming out until the season is half over, so no one actually had that choice last Tuesday.
Bottom line: it's nice that EA put these games in the Apple store (eventually), but we're still getting leftovers. You can't offer us games months or years after they come out, and then claim the fact they don't sell well is the reason why no one wants them.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mike said 5:26PM on 8-20-2007
EA is just getting the kinks worked out of Transgaming's Cider solution. Once they get their developers trained well to port games using Cider, they can churn out games in a matter of weeks after the Windows release. This is the true beauty of the intel platform!
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Dale said 5:27PM on 8-20-2007
I don't know, if forthcoming Wii/DS title MySims is offered up with a Mac alternative, I would take it despite owning both of those systems. It's the sort of game I lose a lot of time to.
Addressing the games they've chosen to release now, though, I'm with you: none of them are particularly appealing to me and thus I won't buy them.
I just hope EA doesn't do the usual flaky math, inferring that low sales of lacklustre games equals a lack of interest in games on the Mac.
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Dave Wood said 5:36PM on 8-20-2007
Actually, I'm going to hit the link and buy Battlefield!
In fact, I'm going to get 6 of my fiends to buy it too, 3 others on mac, and 3 of my slow friends who still use Windows. And we can all play together!
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rp said 5:57PM on 8-20-2007
I'd think that sales numbers from Blizzard would convince developers that games for Macs do sell well, provided they are released at the same time or near the Windows release date. Maybe it's because Mac users actually do productive things with their computers.
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Paul said 6:08PM on 8-20-2007
It was me, not TUAW. I made this happen. I sent EA a nasty comment through their website, which garnered a response informing me that my feedback couldn't be taken because it wasn't related to a game that was in stores yet. No, really.
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Greg G said 6:13PM on 8-20-2007
A little slow, but better late than never =D
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frogbat said 6:36PM on 8-20-2007
thnx for the update - i don't have a great gaming machine (macbook) but i'm not a massive gamer (love c&c tho) and not too demanding. wonder if my pointy haired boss would let me install a game on my work mac pro.
anyways i'll be waiting for reviews on these "ports" b4 buyin that's for sure. apple should concentrate more on games as it's a growth market for them (hard to do worse than the moment). They missed the "casual gamer" boat which the wii has cornered. I reckon there's a middle road market which is between the usual hardcore pc gamer and the casual gamer who is mainly a hobbyist or professional but who likes to load up his or her fave game.
now if only pro evolution soccer would get ported...
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frogbat said 6:38PM on 8-20-2007
thnx for the update - i don't have a great gaming machine (macbook) but i'm not a massive gamer (love c&c tho) and not too demanding. wonder if my pointy haired boss would let me install a game on my work mac pro.
anyways i'll be waiting for reviews on these "ports" b4 buyin that's for sure. apple should concentrate more on games as it's a growth market for them (hard to do worse than the moment). They missed the "casual gamer" boat which the wii has cornered. I reckon there's a middle road market which is between the usual hardcore pc gamer and the casual gamer who is mainly a hobbyist or professional but who likes to load up his or her fave game.
now if only pro evolution soccer would get ported...
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Mathew Duggan said 6:46PM on 8-20-2007
I hope that people buy these games, I really do because the mac needs to address the gaming question. What I mean by that is that the Mac platform can't have the weaknesses it has had in the past to really explode. People are going to want to take the best things from their Windows experience and bring them over to the Mac, and if EA can get this right and these games are high-quality then we might be seeing the beginning of more than just Blizzard games. I love the Mac but it is sometimes so difficult because I love to game and I feel like game developers have left me in the cold. Maybe if there is an option that protects their IP and opens a new market they will be much more responsive to the idea.
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KB said 8:03PM on 8-20-2007
Although this is great for Mac users, sadly, owners of the Mac Mini and MacBooks aren't going to be able to use this. None of the games support the Intel 950 GMA Chip, which is standard in the notebooks. Oh well
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Zach said 9:17PM on 8-20-2007
I'll buy Madden the second it comes out.
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artifex said 11:44PM on 8-20-2007
no 950 support? no sale.
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Liquidmark said 12:38AM on 8-21-2007
EA kept their promise on the brick-and-mortar Apple stores thing.
I was JUST at an Apple store TODAY (To buy one o' them new snazzy keyboards^^) They had NFS: Carbon, Command and Conquer and Harry Potter.
I would have BOUGHT one, but I really had my heart set on BF2142.
Anyway, they kept their promise.
Location: Annapolis Mall, Annapolis, Maryland.
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Vanish said 8:43AM on 8-21-2007
Actually, I held off buying Battlefield 2048 for my Windows box just to get the Mac version, so yes I'm going to buy it. ;p
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SirCrumpet said 8:43AM on 8-21-2007
I'll grab 2142 as soon as its available here in Australia - I already own it on PC buts I play it often enough for it to be worth my time to get it on mac rather than restarting for boot camp.
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A_V said 9:46AM on 8-21-2007
"I really think that releasing these games will only tell EA what they already knew: Mac owners don't buy their games. Be serious: how many of you readers are really going to hit the link above and buy Battlefield 2142 right now? I didn't think so."
Could you be a little less jerky about it? Despite what *you* think, there are plenty of Mac users who want to play games. I myself keep a windows workstation around just to play games on and these games EA has released will be that number less on the windows machine. And I have several friends who all have gotten turned on to Macs and are gamers. I seriously hate it when people group everyone together, your just as bad as the "macs are only good for graphics" people or the "macs are only good for the elderly" crowd.
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john said 2:27AM on 8-22-2007
way to make yourself sound like a total chode.
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Tom Bennett said 12:22AM on 8-23-2007
I hope EA continues to support OS X so that I can play Spore without the need to reboot. I would love to see how the Mac figures turn out if they manage to launch both platforms around the same time.
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