Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Apple
id's Hollenshead: Apple "has not followed through" on gaming
id software's CEO Todd Hollenshead met up with Kikizo for an interview recently, and the conversation turned, as often seems to do with id nowadays, to gaming on the Mac. Hollenshead was confronted with what his peers Gabe Newell (of Valve), and id's John Carmack had previously said about Apple, and he agreed that while "the Apple guys would probably frown to hear me" say so, it's true: Apple has stepped up on gaming before, and never "followed through" with their support.He doesn't paint an extremely dark picture -- he says that Apple did send engineers this time to promise their support for the future, and that developing on Intel architecture makes things much easier than dealing with the "weird PowerPC" setup. And in Apple's defense, we've seen more support for gaming out of them, both on the Mac and on the iPhone and iPod, than ever before.
But so far, it's all talk on Apple's part, and we have yet to see indie games on the App Store and working day 0 releases from id and EA. Hopefully, Apple's following through this time, and those things are right around the corner.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
James Madley said 7:15AM on 7-10-2008
At least id isn't asking for $1m straight up from Apple just to think about developing for Mac OS X.
Valve can go to Hell.
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RobJW said 7:38AM on 7-10-2008
$1m is pocket change when it comes to triple-A game development.
Not to mention that when HL2 was released (2004) Apple was still using PowerPC processors.
As far as gaming on the Mac goes, it's obviously a less pressing issue now we can run Windows natively.
RobJW said 7:45AM on 7-10-2008
$1m is pocket change when it comes to triple-A game development.
Not to mention that when Half-Life 2 was released (2004), Apple was still using PowerPC processors.
As far as gaming on the Mac goes, isn't it less pressing now that we can run Windows natively?
Mike said 7:24AM on 7-10-2008
Does id still make games?
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utterer said 7:50AM on 7-10-2008
no, they just make tech demos now.
Tom said 9:44AM on 7-10-2008
id also hasn't followed through with gaming on the Mac. While I appreciate that they do try to at least recognize the platform exists, I'd expect more from a developer that gets pulled onstage at Apple events all the time.
Doom 3, Quake 4, and QuakeWars have all been ported by Aspyr, not id directly. They have all been released separately, and later then the Windows versions. They contain copy protection the Windows version doesn't, and they also get patches late. id supports Linux better then they do OS X.
Not having the games out at the same time is one issue that annoys me a little, but then also not being able to play a mostly online game (Quake Wars) after buying it because a new patch is out is even worse.
With that said, I can definitely understand their frustrations with Apple. They act serious about gaming here and there, but then do things like releasing Leopard with horrible bugs in the video drivers, and continue to offer old video cards in their machines for a long time. If Apple wants to be serious about gaming, they too have to remain committed, just as the developers need to be.
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Amidee said 9:46AM on 7-10-2008
Crap. Every time I hear these guys saying that "Apple doesn't support" them I think they're just telling us crap.
I don't know what's going on with iD now, but I clearly remember that VALVe was asking impossible things to Apple (like, dollars and some kind of Directx support) and all they said was "Apple doesn't support us".
So this is happening again with iD, I just wonder what on Earth are they asking for.
I know a bunch of people who signed up for Apple's Developer Connection and everyone says that Apple gives an INSANE support to everyone. I mean, they support programmers with the Developer Connection, why the f*ck shouldn't they support iD or VALVe?!?!?
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ADP said 11:04AM on 7-10-2008
If Blizzard can do it right and has for years, why the hell can't everyone else?
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THJ said 11:51AM on 7-10-2008
QFT - All the crying from the other game developers is pretty lame considering Blizzard releases for both platforms at the same time.
Even if they don't have the Mac expertise that Blizzard has, Transgaming/Cider ports can be done in days. Hell, the unofficial cyclone port of Kane's Wrath apparently only took the guy a day to figure out, and it runs perfectly.
Dale said 11:51AM on 7-10-2008
Well, the WOW tech really isn't comparable to modern-day FPS titles in terms of hardware demands, but I'm with you: I don't understand it.
And again, not comparable, but the WALL-E game that just came out comes on a hybrid disc, with the game running just as well under Mac as it does Windows.
And EA has games running phenomenally well under CIDER with barely differing patch release dates. Command & Conquer 3 looks gorgeous on my MacBook Pro.
Keith Shepherd said 12:42PM on 7-10-2008
I'm a little surprised by this article. As the founder of an Independent Game Development studio, Imangi Studios,LLC, I would have to say that Apple has been very supportive of our efforts and we look forward to releasing many more titles for the iPhone platform in the future.
-Keith
Keith Shepherd
Founder, CEO
Imangi Studios, LLC
http://www.imangistudios.com
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