Apple Gaming Division?

[MacRumors]

According to an anonymous report, Apple and ATI have been in talks about either creating or purchasing a Game Development unit.

The purpose of such a division would presumably be to create compelling games for the Mac platform to help attract more PC users to switch to the Mac platform.

Such a move would not be uncharateristic for Apple, as their decision to create Safari as well as many of their iApps were in part to fill a void not provided by 3rd party developers on the Mac platform.

Apple does appear serious about improving gaming performance on the Mac. Recent reports noted that Apple, ATI and NVidia are actively recruiting developers to improve OpenGL [edited] performance.

 

[brap]

Sounds quite reasonable, actually. It's not like they don't have the capital to do a Microsoft *coughbungiecough*.

And, um... it's OpenGL

 

[chameeeleon]

Did I not speculate in the thread about Apple improving graphic performance that Apple would start developing their own games to accompany iLife and iWork?
Anyways, I think it's a great idea. They live by the "if no one will do it right, we'll just have to do it ourselves" philosophy.

 

[liketom]

yayyy about time but that would mean they would have to up graphics cards in all the cheaper Mac's ?

64mb min

 

[Diatribe]

Wow. Now that would be something. This is one of the few areas where they are actually lacking. Though what kind of games would be Apple-like?

 

[Diatribe]

And, um... it's OpenGL

What's wrong with OpenGL? 2.0 is quite capable and I don't find it to be worse than DX...

 

[chameeeleon]

I think he meant the spelling - as opposed to Open-GL as it was written in the article.

 

[Diatribe]

I think he meant the spelling - as opposed to Open-GL as it was written in the article.

Oh. Ok. Nitpickers.

 

[dxp4acu]

Pickers of nits.


But, seriously, that would be cool!!!

 

[SpaceMagic]

Yeh but what would an Apple produced game be like?

Age of Empires from MS is Amazin. One of my favourite games.. What would Apple make? Shoot the Aqua buttons? Je ne sais pas

 

[BwanaZulia]

This is really the best news for Apple and the Mac platform.

Go out there and create KILLER games only available for OSX, market them heavily and let the gamers of the world drool (or buy a Mac).

BZ

 

[isgoed]

Yeh but what would an Apple produced game be like?

Age of Empires from MS is Amazin. One of my favourite games.. What would Apple make? Shoot the Aqua buttons? Je ne sais pas

Hmm Let's see; It gotta hvae network play, It should be for boys and girls and should have stunning graphics. So a MORPG would be a possibility. A racing game maybe, but most likely a stategy or simulation game.

Typically games microsoft also makes (Age of empires, Flight Simulator, etc).
edit: or they could make an adventure.

It would be cool if apple made a development environment like direct X. If they made a complete 3D engine with an included physics engine, auto-fullscreen configuration, user interface creation tool, OpenAL and an *OpenGL 3D File Format* + *editor* (man how I wish for that). Mac games would be spit out like a vulcano. Blitz3D on the PC is such a thing I believe.

 

[Naraa Haras]

tools

It would make sense for Apple to purchase a game company, not for creating complete games, or content, but rather for improving gaming tools. There's more to making games than just drawing pictures and making a story.

It sounds like Apple is making an investment in the gaming infrastructure, much like they did with Sprockets in OS (7.5+). This is good, especially if they allow these extensions to relate to the wider Linux world. At this level though, what ever they create will likely be closely tied to PPC and Altivec.

The whole problem, it seems, is that OpenGL is slow. That could be in part due to Aqua overhead, but there's likely improvements to be made in processor efficiencies. Another issue may also be weaker integer performance on PPC.

In any case, a good, performance-minded, highly technical and enthusiastic game-orientated team would make a logical addition to Apple's development force.

 

[brap]

It's quite a shame that The Creative Assembly, makers of the Total War games were just recently acquired by Sega. They'd have been awesome...

Yeah, diatribe... i was pickin' nits. My partner's a schoolteacher, so I get used to it!

 

[Sol]

Apple game engine

What does Apple know about games? Buying games developers for exclusive first party titles is a hit and miss process that wastes a lot of money.

ID made a lot of money renting their 3D engines to other developers who made generic FPS games. Apple could create an engine fine-tuned for Mac hardware and offer it to game developers as an alternative to making ports.

 

[liketom]

apple needs games like medal of honor and call of duty

that's what i like to play

 

[AoWolf]

Man if they bought blizzard that would be so awesome. I really don't see them doing there own stuff. They would need to use a game title that is both mac and PC compatible and wright it so that it would shine under tiger.

Oh well we can dream can't we...

 

[Diatribe]

Yeah, diatribe... i was pickin' nits. My partner's a schoolteacher, so I get used to it!

Don't worry about it, I just thought you were talking about OpenGL as a system...

 

[dongmin]

It's quite a shame that The Creative Assembly, makers of the Total War games were just recently acquired by Sega. They'd have been awesome...

Yeah but Apple could probably buy Sega, at the rate their stock is going.

A lot of gaming related rumors lately (OpenGL development, mobile multimedia chip, downloadable ipod games, recruiting game developers).

I'd say the rumors regarding ATI are simply about improving gaming graphics performance on macs. I just don't see Apple actually making the games themselves. At best, I can see Apple purchasing a game company but I have doubts even about that. Typically Apple acquires companies to get engineering talent and code base to make their own applications. I would think game developers require a certain amount of independence to make cool stuff.

 

[Zoboomafoo]

Man if they bought blizzard that would be so awesome. I really don't see them doing there own stuff. They would need to use a game title that is both mac and PC compatible and wright it so that it would shine under tiger.

this would be silly. why pay someone to make a game for you when they already do it for free?

they should buy gameranger. lol.

i'd be more inclined to say they should make their own. but if they felt like buying someone crazy like nintendo. lol. THAT would make people jump ship. haha

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

What's wrong with OpenGL? 2.0 is quite capable and I don't find it to be worse than DX...

And where exactly have you tried OpenGL 2.0?


I say buy Blizzard. They make the best games out there, they have superioer support, and all their games run great on any mac!

 

[cubist]

Game development is going in the same direction as movie development: huge, complex, gigantically complicated games that take years and cost millions to develop. Ultimately, it would not make sense for Apple to do it in-house. Pixar, on the other hand...

(edit) and stay away from DirectX. Anyone who says anything favorable about it knows nothing about its internals. It is a classic Microsoft layered API, consisting of DLLs upon DLLs and byzantine data structures. It started as a kludge (WinG) and got worse from there.

 

[36183]

half life and counter strike on mac anyone?

 

[Neerazan]

Sony?

X Box games tend to get ported to and from PCs, why not set up a strategic alliance with Sony and port PS2 / PS3 games to OS X, not to any M$ platforms?

Or just go and buy Blizzard, as they are IMLTHO great at everything they turn their hand to...

 

[Poff]

normally, most things that seem too good to be true are.

*still hoping*