Why no Mac support for Guild Wars 2? - Guild Wars Forums

combatchuck · Dec 11, 2007, 10:15 PM // 22:15

As the title says, I would like some input as to why there won't be a Mac version of GW2.

Biostem · Dec 11, 2007, 10:18 PM // 22:18

It's probably not worth it for the 3 people that would buy it.

combatchuck · Dec 11, 2007, 10:38 PM // 22:38

Apple shipped 2.1 Million Macs in the 3rd quarter of 2007. Their sales have been in the top 5 among all PC makers for the entire year of 2007. Even if I were to be conservative and estimate that only 5% of those people would game, that would be 105,000 potential sales. From a 3 month period. Now extrapolate those numbers out to the proposed release date of GW2, and consider that Mac sales are growing like 25-30% per year.

Kale Ironfist · Dec 11, 2007, 10:40 PM // 22:40

One reason:
Boot Camp.

There's really no good reason (financially) to support Guild Wars for mac users. They're more likely to spend more than they'll earn.

Etta · Dec 11, 2007, 10:43 PM // 22:43

The new OSX comes with the finish version of bootcamp. Install xp/vista on it and make it duel boot OS/window. Work perfectly fine, I have it and I use it. GW run just like normal and all games I tested on it run just fine as well, so far.

Infact the new bunch of mac run window faster than pc.

combatchuck · Dec 11, 2007, 10:48 PM // 22:48

I knew Boot Camp would come up. If I were planning to run Windows, I would buy a Windows computer. Dual booting is a crutch used by lazy developers.

Redvex · Dec 11, 2007, 10:51 PM // 22:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Etta

T
Infact the new bunch of mac run window faster than pc.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Mac is a pc.
Mac pc doesn't exist anymore.
Mac have only MacOsx
Mac have a EFI bios but this not increase speed performance

Etta · Dec 11, 2007, 10:52 PM // 22:52

well, take it or leave it, I guess. They have no plan for mac os but who know? Apple is taking a bigger share of the market everyday. Dont hold your breath though.

DarkNecrid · Dec 11, 2007, 10:55 PM // 22:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by combatchuck

Apple shipped 2.1 Million Macs in the 3rd quarter of 2007. Their sales have been in the top 5 among all PC makers for the entire year of 2007. Even if I were to be conservative and estimate that only 5% of those people would game, that would be 105,000 potential sales. From a 3 month period. Now extrapolate those numbers out to the proposed release date of GW2, and consider that Mac sales are growing like 25-30% per year.

Too bad that no one buys a Mac to play videogames.

Also:

Quote:

Initial sales figures from Microsoft show its new operating system Windows Vista made a splash in its debut. In the first month of Windows Vista???s general availability, sales exceeded 20 million licenses, more than doubling the initial pace of sales for its predecessor, Windows XP.

Coloneh · Dec 11, 2007, 11:00 PM // 23:00

the mac-user demographic is trivial compared to PC-users. its not worth the time or money to put out a mac version. buy a PC like all the normal people in the world or QQ more.

combatchuck · Dec 11, 2007, 11:00 PM // 23:00

http://arstechnica.com/journals/appl...ndows-in-japan

Isn't Japan like video game Mecca? Nobody buys Vista to play games either.

http://www.google.com/search?q=vista+game+performance

gremlin · Dec 11, 2007, 11:05 PM // 23:05

More likely to be a consol version than a mac version that is if a consol can handle the updates "which I doubt"

It seems to me Consols have the biggest games market then PCs then Mac.

I would have bought a mac years ago except the number of mac games I see for sale is tiny compared to the competition.

bilateralrope · Dec 11, 2007, 11:22 PM // 23:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by combatchuck

Apple shipped 2.1 Million Macs in the 3rd quarter of 2007. Their sales have been in the top 5 among all PC makers for the entire year of 2007. Even if I were to be conservative and estimate that only 5% of those people would game, that would be 105,000 potential sales. From a 3 month period. Now extrapolate those numbers out to the proposed release date of GW2, and consider that Mac sales are growing like 25-30% per year.

Read DarkNecrid's post. 5% is too high an estimate for Windows machines, and Windows is where the gaming is. Mac's aren't known for gaming, meaning the percentage will be lower than it is for windows.

So you need to reconsider your estimated number of mac players who will buy guild wars. Then you need to estimate how many of them will use bootcamp and subtract that from the rest because the bootcamp users will buy anyway.
Then you need to subtract the people who will use a windows emulator to run it, because they will also buy either way. Then you need to estimate how much a port will cost, along with the cost of keeping it up to date every time ANET changes something.

The best you can hope for is something like what CCP did with Eve Online where they picked a windows emulator* and decided to officially support it.

*I know that emulator isn't the correct term for the programs involved here, but its close enough for this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by combatchuck

http://arstechnica.com/journals/appl...ndows-in-japan

Isn't Japan like video game Mecca? Nobody buys Vista to play games either.

Read the entire article please. Specifically the last paragraph.

Quote:

That said, Mac OS X's sales lead in Japan likely won't last long,

How many of those Macs are being brought for business use ?

Also I thought that Japan was known for console gaming, not desktop. And for the port to be worth it you need to consider worldwide computer use, not a regional one.

Woop Shotty · Dec 12, 2007, 01:37 AM // 01:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biostem

It's probably not worth it for the 3 people that would buy it.

Oh come on, that's just not a brilliant thing to say.

pamelf · Dec 12, 2007, 01:50 AM // 01:50

Avid gamers will always buy PCs... The number of games out there for Mac's is negligible at best. Mac's perform highly with graphic, music, and video programmes, far better than PC's, but PC's have games. I hate to say it, but people who buy Mac's know that their game choices will be limited. The number of gamers who buy Mac's is minimal indeed. There may be many mac's sold, but I guarantee most of them won't be used for gaming...

Woop Shotty · Dec 12, 2007, 02:18 AM // 02:18

Blizzard thought Mac was worth it over and over again...

People like to say that Macs are meant for design, but that's not such a smart thing to say. Comparable Mac and Win PCs aren't going to handle design programs much differently! The difference is the user experience. Knowing Windows kind of makes you feel like a computer expert. It's not as user friendly as Mac, but many people are familiar with it anyway. Mac is very user friendly in comparison. For me, it's stuff like Exposé and all the system things made easy, such as giving folders (incl. burn folders in Leopard) icons.

Windows PCs sell more. The percentage of Mac sales compared to PCs with Windows installations is less, but if you look at the numbers, and ignore them then you're making a bad choice as a company.

Sure, there's Boot Camp. It works. But if I had a choice to have a Win client of have it directly in Mac, I would prefer Mac. I've used Win for something around 12 years and Mac since April, and I already prefer to be in OS X.

Kale Ironfist · Dec 12, 2007, 03:42 AM // 03:42

You're not looking at it from a financial perspective. ArenaNet would have to redesign the game from the ground up just for the small, practically negligible, group of Mac gamers interested in playing Guild Wars.

It's just not worth the cost.

wetsparks · Dec 12, 2007, 04:33 AM // 04:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by combatchuck

Apple shipped 2.1 million Macs in the 3rd quarter of 2007. Their sales have been in the top 5 among all PC makers for the entire year of 2007. Even if I were to be conservative and estimate that only 5% of those people would game, that would be 105,000 potential sales. From a 3 month period. Now extrapolate those numbers out to the proposed release date of GW2, and consider that Mac sales are growing like 25-30% per year.

Thought I would rebold your statement there. They shipped, not sold, 2.1 million macs. If we would continue to take your numbers, 105,000 potential sales is not enough of a buyer base for the work involved to make the game compatible with macs even if they were guaranteed that all 105,000 would buy the game.

OneEyedNewt · Dec 12, 2007, 12:01 PM // 12:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kale Ironfist

You're not looking at it from a financial perspective. ArenaNet would have to redesign the game from the ground up just for the small, practically negligible, group of Mac gamers interested in playing Guild Wars.

It's just not worth the cost.

It's also not just the cost of creating the game on two platforms, but also the amount of testing would double. Everything would need to be tested on both Windows and Mac.

There just isn't enough demand for developers to cover the cost it takes to create games on both Windows and Mac

DarkNecrid · Dec 12, 2007, 12:04 PM // 12:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Woop Shotty

Blizzard thought Mac was worth it over and over again...

Blizzard also rakes in over a billion USD per month (~1.1 billion) and has over 2,700 employee's.

Let me know when ArenaNet gets close.

EDIT: For the record, ArenaNet has 140 employee's atm

Dec 11, 2007, 10:15 PM // 22:15	#1
combatchuck Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Mar 2006 Profession: Mo/	Why no Mac support for Guild Wars 2? As the title says, I would like some input as to why there won't be a Mac version of GW2.

Dec 11, 2007, 10:18 PM // 22:18	#2
Biostem Jungle Guide Join Date: Oct 2007	It's probably not worth it for the 3 people that would buy it.

Dec 11, 2007, 10:38 PM // 22:38	#3
combatchuck Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Mar 2006 Profession: Mo/	Apple shipped 2.1 Million Macs in the 3rd quarter of 2007. Their sales have been in the top 5 among all PC makers for the entire year of 2007. Even if I were to be conservative and estimate that only 5% of those people would game, that would be 105,000 potential sales. From a 3 month period. Now extrapolate those numbers out to the proposed release date of GW2, and consider that Mac sales are growing like 25-30% per year.

Dec 11, 2007, 10:40 PM // 22:40	#4
Kale Ironfist Jungle Guide Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Australia Guild: Venatio Illuminata [VEIL] Profession: W/	One reason: Boot Camp. There's really no good reason (financially) to support Guild Wars for mac users. They're more likely to spend more than they'll earn.

Dec 11, 2007, 10:43 PM // 22:43	#5
Etta Forge Runner Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Mancland, British Empire	The new OSX comes with the finish version of bootcamp. Install xp/vista on it and make it duel boot OS/window. Work perfectly fine, I have it and I use it. GW run just like normal and all games I tested on it run just fine as well, so far. Infact the new bunch of mac run window faster than pc.

Dec 11, 2007, 10:48 PM // 22:48	#6
combatchuck Lion's Arch Merchant Join Date: Mar 2006 Profession: Mo/	I knew Boot Camp would come up. If I were planning to run Windows, I would buy a Windows computer. Dual booting is a crutch used by lazy developers.

Dec 11, 2007, 10:52 PM // 22:52	#8
Etta Forge Runner Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Mancland, British Empire	well, take it or leave it, I guess. They have no plan for mac os but who know? Apple is taking a bigger share of the market everyday. Dont hold your breath though.

Dec 11, 2007, 11:00 PM // 23:00	#10
Coloneh Furnace Stoker Join Date: Nov 2006 Profession: D/W	the mac-user demographic is trivial compared to PC-users. its not worth the time or money to put out a mac version. buy a PC like all the normal people in the world or QQ more.

Dec 11, 2007, 11:05 PM // 23:05	#12
gremlin Furnace Stoker Join Date: Oct 2006 Guild: GWAR Profession: Me/Mo	More likely to be a consol version than a mac version that is if a consol can handle the updates "which I doubt" It seems to me Consols have the biggest games market then PCs then Mac. I would have bought a mac years ago except the number of mac games I see for sale is tiny compared to the competition.

Dec 12, 2007, 01:50 AM // 01:50	#15
pamelf Forge Runner Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Australia Guild: Lost Templars [LoTe] Profession: Me/Mo	Avid gamers will always buy PCs... The number of games out there for Mac's is negligible at best. Mac's perform highly with graphic, music, and video programmes, far better than PC's, but PC's have games. I hate to say it, but people who buy Mac's know that their game choices will be limited. The number of gamers who buy Mac's is minimal indeed. There may be many mac's sold, but I guarantee most of them won't be used for gaming...

Dec 12, 2007, 02:18 AM // 02:18	#16
Woop Shotty Wilds Pathfinder Join Date: Oct 2006 Guild: Ruthless Mafia [RM] Profession: Mo/	Blizzard thought Mac was worth it over and over again... People like to say that Macs are meant for design, but that's not such a smart thing to say. Comparable Mac and Win PCs aren't going to handle design programs much differently! The difference is the user experience. Knowing Windows kind of makes you feel like a computer expert. It's not as user friendly as Mac, but many people are familiar with it anyway. Mac is very user friendly in comparison. For me, it's stuff like Exposé and all the system things made easy, such as giving folders (incl. burn folders in Leopard) icons. Windows PCs sell more. The percentage of Mac sales compared to PCs with Windows installations is less, but if you look at the numbers, and ignore them then you're making a bad choice as a company. Sure, there's Boot Camp. It works. But if I had a choice to have a Win client of have it directly in Mac, I would prefer Mac. I've used Win for something around 12 years and Mac since April, and I already prefer to be in OS X.

Dec 12, 2007, 03:42 AM // 03:42	#17
Kale Ironfist Jungle Guide Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Australia Guild: Venatio Illuminata [VEIL] Profession: W/	You're not looking at it from a financial perspective. ArenaNet would have to redesign the game from the ground up just for the small, practically negligible, group of Mac gamers interested in playing Guild Wars. It's just not worth the cost.