Do you support a Mac OS X client in Star Wars the Old Republic?

[Lethality]

And more proof that you don't let facts get in your way. Read the quote from Trent Oster, as stated on March 15th, even have a link to it on his Twitter. Trent Oster has been the guy talking about this game, the guy in charge of the game. But he must be lying right? The webpage you show, don't state any platform, but the other additional platforms were announced a week or more later. Facts are facts, the PC version was the first and confirmed version of the game.

 

And... that changes my statements how? The end of the Microsoft-controlled gaming era is coming to an end. That means PC gaming will change forever, and there will be fewer and fewer of the types of games that require certain hardware or software, because developers will choose to make their code base portable, not stagnate on in platform - because that platform will not be dominant any longer. There are more significant revenue opportunities elsewhere.

[Lethality]

Current Mac hardware can run the game on max settings thats true, but to get a Mac to do that you have to pay a decent amount more then to get a PC to do it. also your making it sound like all PC users just use there PC for gaming, when in fact they can do everything a Mac can do, and they do it for half the price.

 

Cost doesn't matter... the 5 million people per quarter that buy a Mac already spent the money. So why not give them a game to buy... and subscribe to?

[Wolfeisberg]

And... that changes my statements how? The end of the Microsoft-controlled gaming era is coming to an end. That means PC gaming will change forever, and there will be fewer and fewer of the types of games that require certain hardware or software, because developers will choose to make their code base portable, not stagnate on in platform - because that platform will not be dominant any longer. There are more significant revenue opportunities elsewhere.

 

Cause PC gaming hasn't heard this before in the last 30 years People just like you, arm chair analyst, stated the death of PC gaming because of Consoles, and because of this reason and that reason, and so many other reasons, yet the PC gaming market is growing and growing and growing. No profession analyst is agreeing with anything you say. You still seem to think that Mobile gaming market is going to out run higher end gaming market to the point that developers will not want to develop for it anymore, but there is zero proof of that, nothing to show that it would happen.

 

You have a hard time believing that the Casual market and the high end market can both co-exist, they can and they will with all the given information out there, and what the real professionals are stating. The casual market on the Ipad are what, below $10 games? And the best selling Ipad game still doesn't come close to the best selling, or even average selling PC game which sell for $40-60 a pop. Not to mention PC gaming hardware is a 10 Billion a year market, with it being around $15 Billion by 2015.

 

Both markets are going to co-exist, there will be developers who will do the iOS, there will be those who will do PC, and there will be those who will do both either with the same game or have more then 1 game being made each for a different platform. The High End gaming market it huge, extremely bigger then the current Tablet/Smartphone market is, and nobody is going to want to drop that market to make casual games that sell for less then $10 on tablets and may sell 1 million copies, maybe, though most have not come close to that mark.

[Gerandar]

Cost doesn't matter... the 5 million people per quarter that buy a Mac already spent the money. So why not give them a game to buy... and subscribe to?

 

Because not all 5million of you are banging at the gates to play this game. so why would EA/BW pay to develop it when there is no guarantee at a return of investment, a bunch of Mac users are already using bootcamp and paying EA/BW to play as it is why spend money you dont have to?

[Lethality]

Cause PC gaming hasn't heard this before in the last 30 years People just like you, arm chair analyst, stated the death of PC gaming because of Consoles, and because of this reason and that reason, and so many other reasons, yet the PC gaming market is growing and growing and growing. No profession analyst is agreeing with anything you say. You still seem to think that Mobile gaming market is going to out run higher end gaming market to the point that developers will not want to develop for it anymore, but there is zero proof of that, nothing to show that it would happen.

 

You have a hard time believing that the Casual market and the high end market can both co-exist, they can and they will with all the given information out there, and what the real professionals are stating. The casual market on the Ipad are what, below $10 games? And the best selling Ipad game still doesn't come close to the best selling, or even average selling PC game which sell for $40-60 a pop. Not to mention PC gaming hardware is a 10 Billion a year market, with it being around $15 Billion by 2015.

 

Both markets are going to co-exist, there will be developers who will do the iOS, there will be those who will do PC, and there will be those who will do both either with the same game or have more then 1 game being made each for a different platform. The High End gaming market it huge, extremely bigger then the current Tablet/Smartphone market is, and nobody is going to want to drop that market to make casual games that sell for less then $10 on tablets and may sell 1 million copies, maybe, though most have not come close to that mark.

 

This time is much, MUCH different. It's actually happening.

 

I never said the high-end market won't exist... but it will be a niche of a niche, more than it is now. That means fewer choices for those gamers. It is a withering market.

[Lethality]

Because not all 5million of you are banging at the gates to play this game. so why would EA/BW pay to develop it when there is no guarantee at a return of investment, a bunch of Mac users are already using bootcamp and paying EA/BW to play as it is why spend money you dont have to?

 

Because only a tiny fraction of a fraction of Mac users will buy Windows to run on Boot Camp. There are millions of Mac WoW players, and BioWare would have had them had they made the right decisions and had some foresight.

[johnduane]

Gee, Blizzard wrote their engine to support PCs and Macs. Must be something to it.

 

Granted, when you don't actually create your engine, it may be more work, but it's probably something that was considered when they went with the hero sandwich..

[Gerandar]

Because only a tiny fraction of a fraction of Mac users will buy Windows to run on Boot Camp. There are millions of Mac WoW players, and BioWare would have had them had they made the right decisions and had some foresight.

 

 

Really? your sure? I mean you speak for the Mac players of WoW? they COULD have had them or they COULD have wasted even more money(there budget was pretty much used up just making the game for one platform)

[Lethality]

Really? your sure? I mean you speak for the Mac players of WoW? they COULD have had them or they COULD have wasted even more money(there budget was pretty much used up just making the game for one platform)

 

The "risk" seemed to work for Blizzard. And Valve. And id. And countless others.

[Gerandar]

The "risk" seemed to work for Blizzard. And Valve. And id. And countless others.

 

But they already have a decent amount of Mac users playing why should they invest money into a native mac client when there is no way to guarantee a return of investment. just because it worked for one company doesn't mean it will work here.

 

in all likelyness we will see a mac client some time down the road I just hope they dont prioritize it in anyway shape or form.

[Lethality]

But they already have a decent amount of Mac users playing why should they invest money into a native mac client when there is no way to guarantee a return of investment. just because it worked for one company doesn't mean it will work here.

 

in all likelyness we will see a mac client some time down the road I just hope they dont prioritize it in anyway shape or form.

 

They don't have a decent amount of Mac users playing, I can guarantee you that.

 

Further, when you call support and reveal you're playing on a Mac through Boot Camp, they do not support you.

 

Finally, remember the Doctors have all but revealed it already. They stated the importance of the Mac market and their intent to serve it next... yes, they missed the big boat. But there are still a few dinghies they can catch.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Lethality

[Gerandar]

They don't have a decent amount of Mac users playing, I can guarantee you that.

 

Further, when you call support and reveal you're playing on a Mac through Boot Camp, they do not support you.

 

Finally, remember the Doctors have all but revealed it already. They stated the importance of the Mac market and their intent to serve it next... yes, they missed the big boat. But there are still a few dinghies they can catch.

 

You can't really guarantee anything without having the numbers EA/BW has, but I can throw guarantee's out as well

 

I guarantee they have a decent amount of Mac user. as for the Support use a OS that is currently supported and they will gladly help you.

 

I have no issues with a Mac client as long as it is not on the top of the "Must get done ASAP" list.

[Lethality]

You can't really guarantee anything without having the numbers EA/BW has, but I can throw guarantee's out as well

 

I guarantee they have a decent amount of Mac user. as for the Support use a OS that is currently supported and they will gladly help you.

 

I have no issues with a Mac client as long as it is not on the top of the "Must get done ASAP" list.

 

Except your "guarantees" are founded on nothing except defensive forum rhetoric.

 

Don't believe me? Call up support right now, tell them you're playing on a Mac, and see what they say.

 

Please post it here.

 

The Mac client is a must-get-done ASAP priority. It's the single-largest revenue generating event short of a total expansion they could do.

[Toxen]

No. dont waste time making it for Mac. get a real gaming rig for god sakes.

 

Just like Frankenstein's Monster was a real man?

 

I guess good ol' Dr. Frankenstein was just an "enthusiast".

[Wolfeisberg]

Except your "guarantees" are founded on nothing except defensive forum rhetoric.

 

Don't believe me? Call up support right now, tell them you're playing on a Mac, and see what they say.

 

Please post it here.

 

The Mac client is a must-get-done ASAP priority. It's the single-largest revenue generating event short of a total expansion they could do.

 

Or putting the money into game fixes, new content, and marketing could bring in more players all together, then spending the money on making an OSX version.

 

Mine or yours, either one is a valid view, and neither one of us has any data to back up what we say would bring them in more money.

 

EA is a money making business, and they look into costs vs reward all the time based on various pieces of data at their disposal. At this time, they have determined that spending the money on Mac OSX is not going to give them as much reward as doing something else, what ever that may be.

 

It doesn't matter what the doctors say, ultimately it will be EA who decides if they want to spend the money on it, and when. If the doctors are serious about it, it will be up to them to have enough data to prove that it is a worth while investment at this time.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Wolfeisberg

[Lethality]

Or putting the money into game fixes, new content, and marketing could bring in more players all together, then spending the money on making an OSX version.

 

None of those things would be as big a single case infusion as releasing an OS X version... and entire new market opportunity.

 

Mine or yours, either one is a valid view, and neither one of us has any data to back up what we say would bring them in more money.

 

EA is a money making business, and they look into costs vs reward all the time based on various pieces of data at their disposal. At this time, they have determined that spending the money on Mac OSX is not going to give them as much reward as doing something else, what ever that may be.

 

It doesn't matter what the doctors say, ultimately it will be EA who decides if they want to spend the money on it, and when. If the doctors are serious about it, it will be up to them to have enough data to prove that it is a worth while investment at this time.

 

There's a lot of common sense behind what I am saying, not to mention part of my job entails knowing this data. And as I said in my other thread, it appears to me in the words the doctors are using that the wheels are already turning to support the Mac.

[TheIronMonkey]

Just a couple of minor comments

 

- for those who say "get a real gaming rig", my Mac has an Intel CPU, more ram than my desktop and a more modern graphics set. So, really, all you are showing is your ignorance re Mac hardware.

 

- and, yes, the ONLY reason I played WoW for a small while was JUST BECAUSE they had a Mac client I could try and I wanted to play with my laptop in my living room vs my desktop in my computer room. So yeah, having a Mac native client DOES get you an audience you wouldn't have otherwise.

 

But as stated, is a business decision and if they don't see the potential $$$ there, well...

[Keena-dk]

I definitely vote for a Mac client as well. Booting between OS's are annoying to say just 1 thing. In any case I would prefer Mac clients for any game vs. running 2 OS's.

 

I'm not gonna jump into the discussion about PC vs. Mac as it is completely irrelevant. The fact that some prefer PC while others perfer Mac, well that is just how it is. Both should be able to play games. We are talking 2012 here, and PC's are no longer the only gaming platform out there.

 

I played WoW for several years, half of that time on a Mac and I loved it. I do agree though that now that BioWare did not seem to focus on this area to begin with, then they might as well fix the child issues with SWTOR first, but in any case the latest updates seem to focus on tiny issues, and not game breaking problems. I do not experience any major issues at all either, so perhaps the worst tweaking is over now(?). Of course now the main focus is the 1.2 update, but I still hope BioWare has some people working on a Mac client on the side.

 

P.s. People that just come here to flame PC or Mac or compare the two, or play "all knowing" in regards to what BioWare should use their money on... Stay away, use your "intelligence" elsewhere.... If you don't use a Mac, don't bother commenting if it is just to throw your negativity into the forum.

 

P.p.s Of course it is ultimately BioWare that looks into where it can make money, but as others have said there is a market in regards to Mac users, which I am sure BioWare will look further into profit vs cost wise.

 

To all, have a great Easter!

Edited April 6, 2012 by Keena-dk

[jomiv]

Here to show support for the Mac client. Like the ones before me; I'm tired of running bootcamp just to use SWTOR. As it is something about the windows half of things makes my Macbook Pro just don't let it be the same. I played WoW for a few months to see if everything would look nice and it did.

If the cost of waiting for a client is waiting for them to work out all the bugs so the Mac client can have it all almost perfect.. Then sign me up. They have to make it soon though.. Tired of having windows on my MBP.

 

Oh, and if you're going to attack me for having a MBP or just having a mac in general.. ****. idgas. I bought this beast for school since I am a music major.

Edited April 6, 2012 by jomiv

[Sheff]

Just a couple of minor comments

 

- for those who say "get a real gaming rig", my Mac has an Intel CPU, more ram than my desktop and a more modern graphics set. So, really, all you are showing is your ignorance re Mac hardware.

 

- and, yes, the ONLY reason I played WoW for a small while was JUST BECAUSE they had a Mac client I could try and I wanted to play with my laptop in my living room vs my desktop in my computer room. So yeah, having a Mac native client DOES get you an audience you wouldn't have otherwise.

 

But as stated, is a business decision and if they don't see the potential $$$ there, well...

 

The reason people say that mate is because to get one that's powerful costs a stupid amount of money. For example, I went on the Apple website and tried to match an iMac to the specs in my sig.

I couldn't get an exact match as the GPU's they offered were inferior, plus you would need to buy a 120mhz monitor and gaming keyboard and mouse.

But altogether it came to £8021.02. That is very nearly three times what I payed for my PC.

So generally, people are not ignorant about Mac hardware, we know how much it costs compared to a PC which is substantially easier to game with. Hence people saying you should buy one if you want to game.

[Sirsri]

The reason people say that mate is because to get one that's powerful costs a stupid amount of money. For example, I went on the Apple website and tried to match an iMac to the specs in my sig.

I couldn't get an exact match as the GPU's they offered were inferior, plus you would need to buy a 120mhz monitor and gaming keyboard and mouse.

But altogether it came to £8021.02. That is very nearly three times what I payed for my PC.

So generally, people are not ignorant about Mac hardware, we know how much it costs compared to a PC which is substantially easier to game with. Hence people saying you should buy one if you want to game.

 

Where on earth did you get a pair of 680's for under 800 pounds? With the rest of a computer. They MSRP at close to 450 pounds including VAT.

 

I'm in canada, and a 680 is I think 600 CDN including tax, which is about 450 pounds. I can't see how, shy of some very shady dealing you could possibly get the deal you're claiming based on your sig and what you said.

 

Don't get me wrong, macs have seriously over priced parts, hard drives and ram, and they have very delayed GPU's so it's tough to get relatively new parts. They're not great for gaming, and it's not worth the effort writing mac clients most of the time. But suggesting you could get a PC for a 3rd the price of a mac is generally fraudulent. The mac pro line are for professionals, that's server parts, professional grade GPU's etc. They have PC counter parts but no one buys that kind of thing for home use. The quadro line of nvidia cards, the firegl line of AMD cards, the Xeon cpu line of intel cpu's are not cheap. Apple doesn't actually have a 'home user desktop' range of products, nor have they for ages. They have laptops, half laptop (i.e. mobile gpu) mid range iMacs, and professional workstations. Their laptops are yes, like 1500 pounds for anything sensible for gaming, but that's no where near the number you're quoting.

[Sheff]

Where on earth did you get a pair of 680's for under 800 pounds? With the rest of a computer. They MSRP at close to 450 pounds including VAT.

 

I'm in canada, and a 680 is I think 600 CDN including tax, which is about 450 pounds. I can't see how, shy of some very shady dealing you could possibly get the deal you're claiming based on your sig and what you said.

 

Don't get me wrong, macs have seriously over priced parts, hard drives and ram, and they have very delayed GPU's so it's tough to get relatively new parts. They're not great for gaming, and it's not worth the effort writing mac clients most of the time. But suggesting you could get a PC for a 3rd the price of a mac is generally fraudulent. The mac pro line are for professionals, that's server parts, professional grade GPU's etc. They have PC counter parts but no one buys that kind of thing for home use. The quadro line of nvidia cards, the firegl line of AMD cards, the Xeon cpu line of intel cpu's are not cheap. Apple doesn't actually have a 'home user desktop' range of products, nor have they for ages. They have laptops, half laptop (i.e. mobile gpu) mid range iMacs, and professional workstations. Their laptops are yes, like 1500 pounds for anything sensible for gaming, but that's no where near the number you're quoting.

 

It's about 3k approx what I payed for my rig. So bear in mind that for the iMac to be on par you would have to add the cost of two new GPU's to that 8k, as well as £250 for the monitor, £150 for the keyboard and around £80 for the mouse.

So it roughly works out around what I said.

[Trolltar]

Untrue, Mac users are growing. Also Mac's are not bad for gaming as the hardware in them is usually fairly good for the video editting and 3d rendering software that is used on them.

 

Actually, Macs are about 5% of the worldwide PC market. When you include Ipads it goes up to 12-15%. Not that that matters, because who's playing SWTOR on an Ipad?

[Sirsri]

It's about 3k approx what I payed for my rig. So bear in mind that for the iMac to be on par you would have to add the cost of two new GPU's to that 8k, as well as £250 for the monitor, £150 for the keyboard and around £80 for the mouse.

So it roughly works out around what I said.

 

my mistake I misread your 8021 pounds as 802.

 

But that goes to my apples to premium gold encrusted apples arguement. And that the mac pros haven't been refreshed in something like 2 years.

 

I build a system on the apple UK website that matches or exceeds yours (remember the i5's are faster clock for clock than the LGA1366 i7 970, so a quad core i5 is about the same) as about 3000 pounds. They don't have a 512 cruicial SSD and you can't put in gtx 680 into an iMac. But you can't compare an i7 to a xeon dual socket. If you want to compare to one of those you have to start looking at dell servers. There are a bunch of those around here that cost 40k each that were apparently used to teach students, and well, they got destroyed. Not my plan. But that's beside the point.

 

Your computer specced out I can see as about 3K pounds, I have an i7 980x but otherwise basically the same setup (smaller SSD though, and 18 TB of HDD space) which ran about that here, again though canadian dollars, parts are priced differently here. Which is on a parts basis not much different than trying to spec out an iMac with comparable stats. As I say, apple massively ramp up the price on RAM (though server ram is different than desktop ram if you want ECC when looking at the mac pros, which makes it a lot more expensive), and their HDD's are double the price of buying OEM. Their iMac line is parts wise about the same as dell or HP price out. You pay a premium on a pre built system windows or mac. But a comparable system to what you have is no where near 8k pounds. More like 2.2 + crucial SSD + 2xGTX 680's, and that's including a monitor keyboard etc. And a sandy bridge mobo and cpu (and native SATA 3 which you don't have, which significantly boosts the SSD theoretical performance).

 

As I say, apple doesn't really have a 'desktop' line. Which is dumb in the context of making mac games because it means they're all seriously neutered for no good reason. The iMacs are half laptop half desktop to accomodate the form factor, and the Mac pros are more in line with server parts where 8k is a drop in the bucket. Do we really want to compare to the latest 20K USD setups you can buy from nVIDIA which are designed for GPU computing? It's a nonsense comparison.

[iResist]

Developing a Mac client for 5% of the PC market (yes Mac's ARE ONLY 5% of the PC market)... is not worth the money.