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GameSpy Attempting to Dump Mac Gamers
An anonymous reader writes "Inside Mac Games reports that GameSpy is trying to license its way out of supporting the Mac." From the article: "The impact of GameSpy's pricing tactics could be devastating to the Mac gaming market. A number of recent games on the Mac such as Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honor: Breakthrough, Neverwinter Nights, and others use GameSpy."
... make a decision that inconviences the few while allowing them to realign development resources better. I mean, it's like they're considering things like shareholder value.
The Brent Siennas of the world who are all aflutter about this need to realize that the Mac as a gaming platform is a downright miniscule niche, and one that probably takes nearly the same number of resources to support as any other platform. However, the return on investment derived from that platform is probably negative, and any Mac gamer probably does their hardcore gaming elsewhere because they're not willing to wait months or years for the popular games to finally be ported.
GameSpy feels, rightly or wrongly, that this decision is in their best interest, and I'm pretty confident they've done those suit-like activities like market analysis and return on investment analysis to back up their decision. I'm further pretty sure that the Think Different crowd hasn't, and is motivated solely by their want -- no, need -- not to be considered second-class citizens in the gaming world.
If the Mac were a strategic focus for GameSpy, they probably wouldn't have made the decision to drop support -- companies tend to be willing to tread water for markets and products they consider of primary current or future importance.
Anyone here who isn't a Mac zealot really consider the Mac as a gaming platform to be of primary importance?
Here's a parallel -- I'd venture that the Mac share of the computer gaming market (excluding consoles) is on par with SCO's share of the X86 server market.
If major software vendors dropped support for SCO, would there be the same hue and cry?
I like playing Neverwinter Nights on Linux, and, given that Atari now supports Linux on two of its blockbuster games (UT2004 and NWN), I would say it will continue without problems, given that, from what I have seen, GameSpy is just a server locater in NWN, and the actual server has been ported to linux. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but would it not be easier to port from Windows->Linux x86 than from Windows->Mac, because it's on the same platform? Well, anyway, I really don't care about Macs because, even most Mac users admit that Macs are bad for games, and they use them for multimedia. But I do care about linux, because games are the one thing standing between linux and wider acceptance IMHO, and it would be a shame to lose games and developers that we already have on our side.