for Market share... Macs around around 8% in the US and 3.5% worldwide
what does that have to do with anything? My percentages were about Mac WoW players which will not in any way reflect market share.
Of course market share matters. How could it not?
Besides you are missing the very obvious point. If making games for Mac was profitable then there would be a lot more games running on OS. The fact that very few companies even bother shows you how unprofitable it is. There simply are not enough people with Macs, or even Macs at all to make it worthwhile to create games for that platform. When companies do make games for the Mac they do so at a loss. WoW could afford to do so only because they are rolling around in cash.
companies usually start deving for the mac when the profit potential is greater than the cost and they want to bump up their profit margins a few points.
for example valve is soon to be offering steam and all source engine games it has made to the mac platform. in the article i read on the subject it is because it will be easy for them since they can compile the code for both platforms at the same time.
as for wow we know they like to dominate the market. and spending some cash to make even more cash is not new for them. dev a client for a platform with few game choices and you're guaranteed that a good chunk of those that want to game on that platform will buy in.
many mac gamers are willing to spend alot of money, much more than they really have to, to game on their macs. things like buying windows to dual boot on their mac just to game for example. so the market, although small, is there.
Of course market share matters. How could it not?
Besides you are missing the very obvious point. If making games for Mac was profitable then there would be a lot more games running on OS. The fact that very few companies even bother shows you how unprofitable it is. There simply are not enough people with Macs, or even Macs at all to make it worthwhile to create games for that platform. When companies do make games for the Mac they do so at a loss. WoW could afford to do so only because they are rolling around in cash.
no, Market share as a number by itself matters very little, there is much more to choosing to make your product for a certain platform... market share is not even a major concern in it. If it is, its because the people making the decisions do not have a clue what they are doing.
"No one else does it so its not profitable" doesn't fly for any market... good way to have a failing business.
Mac games are not made at a loss, just stating things doesn't make it so.
Blizzard made Mac games well before they had much money, even times when they were in financial problems they still made Mac games... all their Mac games, even WoW, was developed at the same time as Windows and released at the same time. They had no idea WoW would be as popular as it is when they developed the Mac version, the game wasn't even out yet.
Just assuming there isn't enough out there is a bad way to go.
Apple sold over 10 million Macs in 2009.. while that percentage is low for total "computer" sells, percentage compared to all other computer sales isn't what counts. The overwhelming majority of Windows computer sales will never factor into the gaming market.. the computers are either used in an industry with no gaming, or completely incapable of it.... mainly because the overwhelming majority of Windows machines are not sold to normal home users who may play games. On Macs though, they do not even attempt to compete in all areas of the market.. and the majority of Mac sales are to individual or home users for personal computing reasons. Using percentages that would make Macs look like a nice target. But percentages do not always tell everything.
The total number of Mac users that could/would game is still smaller than the total number of Windows users who would/could game. Its possible to even get a higher percentage messing with statistics on the Mac side than the Windows side, but still have a higher total number on the Windows side... making something that has a lower percentage actually have higher sales... then you have to take several other variables into account that are +'s and -'s for each side... I know people try to say it like its simple "market share.. market share" but thats just not how it is.
most of these numbers are all theoretical because there is no way anyone can have the real numbers. Although a large percentage of Apple computer users, that bought new computers in 2009, are possible game players to some degree, even if it was only 0.5% that would be over 500,000 Macs sold in 2009 that might buy a game... thats not even taking into account gaming capable Macs sold in pervious years that are still in use... and its probably well over 0.5%. Getting a profitable amount of Mac gamers would not be difficult, when they are paying you $15 a month.
Runs BEAUTIFULLY on my Macbook Pro 17". I was thoroughly amazed. Better than Boot Camp, better than any other Virtual Disk program out there. Kudos to the creator of Wineskin. Please support it's continued development.
-- I'm just a user of the STO Wineskin. My recommendations are based on personal experience using the software only.
Comments
Of course market share matters. How could it not?
Besides you are missing the very obvious point. If making games for Mac was profitable then there would be a lot more games running on OS. The fact that very few companies even bother shows you how unprofitable it is. There simply are not enough people with Macs, or even Macs at all to make it worthwhile to create games for that platform. When companies do make games for the Mac they do so at a loss. WoW could afford to do so only because they are rolling around in cash.
for example valve is soon to be offering steam and all source engine games it has made to the mac platform. in the article i read on the subject it is because it will be easy for them since they can compile the code for both platforms at the same time.
as for wow we know they like to dominate the market. and spending some cash to make even more cash is not new for them. dev a client for a platform with few game choices and you're guaranteed that a good chunk of those that want to game on that platform will buy in.
many mac gamers are willing to spend alot of money, much more than they really have to, to game on their macs. things like buying windows to dual boot on their mac just to game for example. so the market, although small, is there.
no, Market share as a number by itself matters very little, there is much more to choosing to make your product for a certain platform... market share is not even a major concern in it. If it is, its because the people making the decisions do not have a clue what they are doing.
"No one else does it so its not profitable" doesn't fly for any market... good way to have a failing business.
Mac games are not made at a loss, just stating things doesn't make it so.
Blizzard made Mac games well before they had much money, even times when they were in financial problems they still made Mac games... all their Mac games, even WoW, was developed at the same time as Windows and released at the same time. They had no idea WoW would be as popular as it is when they developed the Mac version, the game wasn't even out yet.
Just assuming there isn't enough out there is a bad way to go.
Apple sold over 10 million Macs in 2009.. while that percentage is low for total "computer" sells, percentage compared to all other computer sales isn't what counts. The overwhelming majority of Windows computer sales will never factor into the gaming market.. the computers are either used in an industry with no gaming, or completely incapable of it.... mainly because the overwhelming majority of Windows machines are not sold to normal home users who may play games. On Macs though, they do not even attempt to compete in all areas of the market.. and the majority of Mac sales are to individual or home users for personal computing reasons. Using percentages that would make Macs look like a nice target. But percentages do not always tell everything.
The total number of Mac users that could/would game is still smaller than the total number of Windows users who would/could game. Its possible to even get a higher percentage messing with statistics on the Mac side than the Windows side, but still have a higher total number on the Windows side... making something that has a lower percentage actually have higher sales... then you have to take several other variables into account that are +'s and -'s for each side... I know people try to say it like its simple "market share.. market share" but thats just not how it is.
most of these numbers are all theoretical because there is no way anyone can have the real numbers. Although a large percentage of Apple computer users, that bought new computers in 2009, are possible game players to some degree, even if it was only 0.5% that would be over 500,000 Macs sold in 2009 that might buy a game... thats not even taking into account gaming capable Macs sold in pervious years that are still in use... and its probably well over 0.5%. Getting a profitable amount of Mac gamers would not be difficult, when they are paying you $15 a month.
Fortunately there is a solution - and a damn fine one right here on the STO forums!
http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=76799
Runs BEAUTIFULLY on my Macbook Pro 17". I was thoroughly amazed. Better than Boot Camp, better than any other Virtual Disk program out there. Kudos to the creator of Wineskin. Please support it's continued development.
-- I'm just a user of the STO Wineskin. My recommendations are based on personal experience using the software only.