Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Rumors, Software, Odds and ends, Developer
Rumor: Bioshock headed to the Mac
Is there anyone out there who doesn't have a PC, or a console, or a Windows partition on their Mac, or was just somehow able to avoid the critical, cultural, and widespread success of 2007's amazing Bioshock? If so, you're in luck -- while console gamers are breathlessly waiting for Bioshock 2 updates, Mac gamers are still waiting for the first one, and the wait might finally be over. Macworld is reporting that a little birdie (read: back of a t-shirt) at last week's show told them that Bioshock was finally headed to the Mac, courtesy of Feral Interactive.
Too little, too late? Don't get us wrong: Bioshock, the spiritual successor to System Shock and its sequel, is a terrific game, combining FPS gameplay with RPG elements and one of the best videogame stories of 2007. If you haven't played it and you're willing to pick it up for the Mac, you're in for a treat. But these kind of releases just perpetuate the issues with Mac gaming: games come out years late, no one buys them (because everyone who cares has already played them elsewhere), and then developers complain that games don't sell on the Mac. A Bioshock announcement is all well and good, but next time, devs, would you kindly aim for release a little closer to everyone else?
Too little, too late? Don't get us wrong: Bioshock, the spiritual successor to System Shock and its sequel, is a terrific game, combining FPS gameplay with RPG elements and one of the best videogame stories of 2007. If you haven't played it and you're willing to pick it up for the Mac, you're in for a treat. But these kind of releases just perpetuate the issues with Mac gaming: games come out years late, no one buys them (because everyone who cares has already played them elsewhere), and then developers complain that games don't sell on the Mac. A Bioshock announcement is all well and good, but next time, devs, would you kindly aim for release a little closer to everyone else?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SlaunchaMan said 2:19PM on 1-13-2009
Now if Fallout 3 could only make its way over…
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balls said 12:52AM on 1-14-2009
Bootcamp
Mickey said 2:46PM on 1-13-2009
This is just ridiculously late. I bought Spore (probably a little impulsively) soon after it was released and a big factor was that it was actually made for use in OSX. I'm far more likely to play a pirated version via BootCamp than wait around hoping that maybe these cool games will someday be released for Mac.
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Stephen Lang said 2:51PM on 1-13-2009
I think some form of Bioshock is already available on my RAZR before the Mac!
But hey, better late than never I suppose...
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Kyle M. said 3:12PM on 1-13-2009
You can buy Bioshock for $20 for the PC.
I've been playing games on the Mac for more than fifteen years. I gave up. I got tired of these Mac issues a long time ago. BootCamp is the only way to go. I'd rather see Mac software developers write iPhone apps than port PC games.
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moo083 said 5:02PM on 1-13-2009
I know what you mean. If I can, I buy the game for Mac, but I have Bootcamp. I'm not going to just sit around waiting for the games to come to mac when a simple reboot can take care of it.
On the other hand, if you sell it for mac, I WILL buy it if I haven't already bought it for PC.
That gives manufacturers a brief period of time for them to release a Mac version.
And manufacturers never understand that while the mac is a lower portion of the market, we account for a much larger piece of the pie than you would think because more mac owners buy games per capita than PC users.
jollyllama said 6:30PM on 1-13-2009
I totally agree. By the time they're available for mac, you usually can get games on the discount rack anyway for Windows, and you don't have to deal with bad ports. In fact, I see having to reboot into Windows (or as I like to call it, Gaming Mode) as a plus - it encourages me to do more productive things with my time...
Kyle M. said 7:00PM on 1-13-2009
I hate bad ports.
Call of Duty 4 on Windows (I mean, Gaming Mode) was flawless.
Call of Duty, the Mac Port of the Windows Version straight away had a weird issue with the mouse acting as though it was set at a higher acceleration setting than it actually was.
BootCamp was the answer to my prayers.
Saggis said 5:09PM on 1-13-2009
Better late than never. The fact Feral is the company in question is a huge relief, I find their game ports are far more polished than any of the competition hands down.
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Todd Sieling said 7:04PM on 1-13-2009
That's a very late port, unless they hope to time it with a quicker release of the Bioshock sequel that's in the works.
@SlaunchaMan - totally agreed, Fallout 3 is probably my favourite game of all time, and a Mac port would pull me off the xbox couch.
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Felipe. L said 7:53PM on 1-13-2009
I LOVE the "would you kindly" reference. lol. Yeah I put Windows on my new MBP exclusively to play this game. I've since then played and beat it three times. I hope that BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams will be available for the Mac at the same time as for the other platforms (one can dream!)
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bearxor said 11:51PM on 1-13-2009
I would love to buy this for the Mac, but it better be dirt cheap. I'll support the effort, but not for more than $10. I bought it on Steam a couple of weeks ago for $5.
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colouroflight said 2:46PM on 1-14-2009
If there's any DRM then they can kiss any chance of success with this goodbye.
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SonOfA said 4:45PM on 1-14-2009
Almost totally pointless and pathetic. This is the reason I installed Vista under Boocamp - just to play games when they are released, not after they are dated. I haven't bought a retail mac game since.
More game studios ought to follow in EA's footsteps and devlop their games with Cider. Also, Steam needs to come out for Mac, if those two things would happen I could say goodvye to Windows at home.
I would much rather buy the mac version but it's not worth it to have to wait so long and it's been played to death by evey one else but you.
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Damo said 7:03PM on 1-14-2009
"...would you kindly aim for release a little closer to everyone else?" Very good. Did nobody else get that clever little reference?
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