I would love to Prey on an Apple box

[.cshrc]

I know Prey was long anounced for Windows and 360, but I think its ashame that Prey on Apple hardware development wasn't planned as well. Don't get me wrong, I use windows for gaming, but it would be nice if all my friends at work--who have seen Prey on my computer and think its great--could play.

We're living in the 21st century guys. Multi-platform development for personal computer games should be the standard. Other dev houses like Epic and Blizzard obviously have no problem doing it. And of course (I know I'm old) in the past century when multi-platform software development was harder, it was still done!

3drealms and HumanHead would have a slightly bigger fan base if they had thought about this from the beginning. It really isn't hard guys.

You do realize that you're trying to get interest in a platform that is only gaining popularity right now because it could also run windows. I cut out the middle man.

-Maniac

[Quason]

I'm not particularly business savvy, but as I understand it, it works something like this...

To justify porting Prey to Mac, you need to know the demographic of gamers out there who game on their Macs and don't own PCs or X360s. Those are the people who would buy a Mac version of Prey. I'm sure that demographic is available somewhere.

Then, you need to calculate exactly how many people are needed to do the port and how long it would take them. From that, you can calculate how much it would cost to do the port.

Then you need to figure out if it's worth it. I think a generous estimate would be that 25% of your target demographic would buy the Mac port (it's probably nowhere near that, but lets just say it is for discussion purposes). Multiply that number of buyers by the cost of the game, and that's how much you stand to gain. If that number is significantly greater than the cost to port the game (remembering that cuts of the profits go to the developer, publisher, distributors, etc) then you do it. If not, you don't.

Again, I'm by no means an expert on these things, but my poorly educated guess is that it wouldn't be worth it. I could be wrong.

[KamisoriX]

Hey, mac was always popular. Only not as a gaming rig. I love my mac, YAY!!

[naddie]

Mac owners are mostly interested in RTS/RPG/MMO players, which is why Blizzard always had Mac versions of their games from the beginning.

I know that sounds like a very logical explaination, but in reality...
Spoiler:

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I'm just talking out of my ass

[8IronBob]

Yeah, it's not like John Carmack which has the most versatile FPS engines to date. After all, Carmack and id Software seem to have a big Linux community, as well as Windows, and quite a few Mac gamers on his side as well. His games are all over the place. Duke Nukem was all over on consoles, the PC, and I believe there was a Mac version of Duke 3D somewhere, and just recently, JonoF did a Linux version, not too sure where exactly to d/l the Linux version of Duke 3D, tho.

However, to have Prey on other formats such as Mac, Linux, other consoles, such as Wii, DS Lite, PS3, PSP, heck, even Dreamcast (why not revive a dead console?), that's gonna require the same fanbase that Bill Gates has gathered up over the past 10 - 15 years already. I mean, the minority of gamers do have to feel left out once in a great while. Well, Carmack has partners to make his games available all over the place, I highly doubt that Venom wants to do any more ports than the X360 at this point. Just let Prey gain popularity and profits, then maybe we'll see other platforms get the game based on popularity on the platforms it's already on...

[Otto]

Aspyr ported DN3D and SW to the Mac, IIRC. Huh. Looking at their website, they seem to have also brought over D3 and Q4.

[Mac W]

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

[Otto]

There ya go. I've heard games generally tend to run just fine on that. I wonder if the standardized hardware config of a Mac would produce a smoother experience than the widely varying PC experiences have been. I have had no problems at all with Prey on PC.

[Quason]

Originally Posted by Otto

There ya go. I've heard games generally tend to run just fine on that. I wonder if the standardized hardware config of a Mac would produce a smoother experience than the widely varying PC experiences have been. I have had no problems at all with Prey on PC.

I'd say that would result in everyone playing on medium settings on their Macs as opposed to some people playing on maximum and some playing on minimum on their PCs.

[9Nails]

Mac's are good for games like the bathroom is a good place for your bed.

They just completly lack the optmizations to be a gaming OS. Even the hardware pooh-pooh's the OS. I can pick many superior gaming systems over a $4,000 Mac... This is not to say that Mac's suck or don't have their place. It's just that gaming is not where a Mac is well matched.

Realistically, you probably could use wine to play the game on a mac...It might be harder than on Linux, but I'm sure its possible...

The only issue would be it would have to be an Intel Mac and it would have to have some serious graphics power to play the game...

Currently, the mini is too weak graphics wise to play the game, the Imac is probably in that category as well, and so the only realistic way to play the game on a mac is to wait for the new PowerMacs to come out and try it then... If you have an Intel Mac now however, you might try installing Wine, just to hone your skills at installing, configuring and using it.... That would get you game that much sooner.

Codeweavers reportedly will be releasing a new version of their pre-packaged Wine for the Mac platform. If you don't want to bother compilling wine, that might be one way to get it..

Since this is an OpenGL game, I would imagine it would work with crossover, and what little DirectX in this game if any, is already implamented in Vanilla wine anyways, so I can't see where that would be a problem either.

Sadly Wine is probably the only way to get Prey on the Mac... With the Mac going Intel, many Developers are just saying.. "Install Boot Camp and install Windows". I feel your pain, brother. Who knows, maybe These guys will take a shine to the new Macs... I hope they do.