Skip to main content

Valve you Brillant Basterds



As you all know I have gone to the dark side (or is that lighter side?) but with Valve's ingenious idea of putting Steam onto Macs I can still play games. What this blog is going to be about is the brillance of doing such an action, and how it could create a gaming platform out of Macs. Macs have always been known as lacking in the gaming department, with little support to push it forward. Steam has allowed Valve to put all of its title games unto the Mac which has already just created a new source of gaming for Mac users. The best part though is what this could mean for not just Valve, best the rest of developers.

The Mac, a barren wasteland for games, with the one argument that PC kept pulling out against Mac is its lack of gaming. Now this is not totally true, more and more developers are realizing that Mac users play games and put out games for them. Still though this has not created large number to play, and usually Mac users have to wait for a game to come out. Damn you CIV 5! Now of course this makes sense as Mac is a different operating system so a game has to be made to work on it which well is extra work for now a massive market which explains the lack of games and the long release date for the few that do come out. Valve though has offered its games now to the Mac, which puts a stack of great games into Mac user's hands.

Having Steam along with all Half Life games on Macs is brillant. I mean ya its still not many games but it is a collection of some of the best games out there. This means that when Mac users decide to say "hey, Half Life, I heard this is really good, I will buy it" they will be hooked which will create more demand for games on the Mac, creating a new growing market. The best part, and which I guess is to Microsofts disgust, they also allowed PC users who bough Half Life 2 for the PC to use that same copy on Macs. Meaning now having to re-buy Half Life again if they switch. All this means is that PC users who have been on edge of buying a Mac but didn't want to lose their ability to play some of their favorite games can no make the switch to a Mac, and not have to worry about buying the games again. Steam being for Mac does not just stop there, it has created what could be a downward spiral for Microsoft.

Microsoft always had games, and always will and they loved to make sure Mac users knew that but now Macs are starting to have there own game pool. Valve putting Steam on Mac has created a gateway of gaming for Mac users. With falling sales of in store bought PC games. Have you walked into a gaming store lately, it is sad. PC gamers market has moved online with well pretty much Steam as the main man pulling the weight. This falling in sales has created a even bigger lack of gaming for Macs as no company wants to put effort into making games, putting them on shelves which for a small gaming market will not make much money, and with PC games not doing well on the shelves, the risk is too much. Steam though has created a way for companies to place there games in a convenient place for Mac users to buy games. Since the only cost would be to Valve and programming the game for Mac, the risk because much less and the worry of producing these products without them selling because much less of a worry since it is all digital. Steam creates a potential gaming market on the Mac that could rival PC

Microsoft, your days of gaming glory may be at a end, or at least a new rival will come aboard. Valve has created a way for all Mac users to play games and game developers to make games in a low risk environment. Steam being for Mac could change nothing and could be just another company trying to get more profit or it could be the start of Mac computers taking another step up to go against the juggernaught of Microsoft and to be honest, Mac is already getting pretty close...

Quick Note
I am not a Mac fanboy, I am just seeing a contender for PC gaming coming into play and thought I would put my two cents in. I think it is for the better as it creates a new market and competition for a platform that in the last few years has been declining.

Ross Campbell

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Total War: Rome II

Total War: Rome II  So it took almost 2 years but I think I finally like this game. It's amazing to me because Rome Total War probably up there in most played game. The hours I have put into the game, and the nights spent trying to take over the known world are so many.  The memory of playing the demo for the first time sticks in my brain in the original game. Taking my force and attacking from the tress in a surprise maneuver just had me my teenager mind lost in a sea of tactics and battles. From that point it was nights spent avoiding homework going "just one more turn" as my armies marches across the classical world. There was something to a game that balanced a great real time war scenario with a simple yet fun turn based system that had you stuck once you started. Years went by, and more Total War games came out, but slowly they just stopped being the Total War games I loved. Looking at them I loved certain parts but the dark era of gunpowder nev...
Post a Comment
Read more

Sins of a Solar Empire

Yep, the game I looked so forward to is finally out and its a massive...(in anticipation I decide to keep you waiting) amazing. This has been a game to wait for this year, and should win itself a few awards. From massive epic scale battles to easy but interesting empire management, the game is a killer. You start with one planet, but have the option of conquering solar systems of up to about 20 planets and even to a galaxy which can hold 5 solar systems. This means massive empires but no worries on to much micro management, the game has a simple yet still fun way of managing you empire from a side bar which shows all planets and everything inside them. With such a large area to make you empire and for it to keep fun this game will suck away all your free time. It being an rts you will find a hard time to find a place to stop. Trust me, I will try to play this game for only an hour and then 4 hours later and probably some sort of social event gone by, I am still playing and conquering ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A new Sheriff in town

Hey Folks, won't even go into how long it has been but as tradition, a new gaming machine means a new blog post. Normally I would post if I had upgraded my main computer with something amazing. However my old 2010 iMac is still a beast so I have yet to need to do anything with it. In the mean time Macbook Air and a Macbook Pro have done well to fill any other voids I might have. This being said today I got probably the first time, a fully operational gaming machine. It is not like a  typical gaming machine however. I don't have a huge case, or 2 GPU with i7 whatever in it. Instead i got an Alienware Alpha. This thing takes up less space then a Xbox, or PS4 yet punches even harder. It has a 2 GB Nvidia card in it paired with 8 GB of Ram, and a 250 SSD. It only has a i3 processor but this is a machine meant for games. It is not meant to destroy frame rates, or edit movies however compared to the 2010 1 GB ATI card in my iMac it can beat the pants off of it for sure. I have yet ...
Post a Comment
Read more