Mac vs PC market size

#1 For indie games this is kind of irrelevant. Even though the Mac is only 4% of worldwide PC sales, they still have an installed base of 25MM units, and are selling new units at the rate of millions per year. In addition, it is a market that is underserved by game publishers.

Great platform, affluent users, Torque cross platform. A great opportunity.

Jeff Tunnell GG

#2 That's a good point Jeff. Apple does seem to have a large installed base of game capable Macs with more hardware options coming out all the time.
I haven't had much experience with gaming on Macs, how does the performance compare with your average gaming PC or a next-gen console like the PS2 or Xbox?

#3 I think the actual game experience is pretty much the same...the only reason more gamers generally gravitate towards PC's is that there are a lot more games for PC. This is pretty much because developers don't have the time and money, not to mention interest, to make their stuff for Mac too. Unfortunetly for Mac people, that means they get less games (though they've got some good ones). However, this is a huge opportunity (in my opinion) for indy developers. We have the time and willingness to port (especially with Torque), and because of the lack of Mac games, if your game is good, they'll eat it up.
Go cross-platform!

-Evan

PS-This is not to say Mac is in any way a bad platform...most of my art team are on macs.

#4 Jeff is right that it's an under-served market. Your title won't be competing with the zillions of hard-to-distinguish titles it'll face in the PC market. Some small software shops have made a decent living for a long time serving up good little Macintosh games. E.g., Ambrosia Software with a whole bunch of games, including the fantastic "Escape Velocity". Delta Tao with "Spaceward Ho!" and "Clan Lord".

The range of hardware to support is much smaller and more controlled-- no worrying about giant matrices of motherboard, video card, and sound card combinations.

And the customer loyalty borders on fanatical. Give us Macintosh people something good, and we'll love you & keep on loving you.

#5 heh, and here i'd promised myself I would never get involved in a platform discussion. ;]

I've worked and played almost exclusively on Mac boxes for about 6 years now. This past year was really promising for Mac gamers, our hardware was getting faster, and a bunch of titles eventually hit the platform - Giants, Sacrifice, Red Faction, Civ III, Black & White (give or take a month).

This month I picked up a PC, and I've played these titles and a slew of others with considerable disappointment. While each game offered cool things, not much new ground was covered. These problems weren't Mac specific, but some others were...

Most disappointing is that the Mac versions of many of these titles were sorta half implemented:

1. Support for OS 9 or OS X, but not both
2. Shipping with no multi-player support
3. Slew of Bugs even after Shipping Late

So in addition to the concerns we all have about the health of the industry, the glut of mediocre games, and etc., Mac users have their own lengthy history of being snubbed in large and small ways by game makers.

This is just to underscore that the Mac audience, while very clearly under-served, is used to being a computing minority and is highly sensitive to slights both real and imagined -I know I'm uber guilty of this sort of thing.

Delivering a full featured title, with deep and rewarding gameplay (in short an honest and earnest effort) is gonna be key to developing a lasting relationship with that sizeable installed base.

I, like a lot of Mac Gamers, can't wait to see the gang here deliver the cross platform goods.

mm

#6 Concerning multi-player support for Macs and PCs: with the new Torque engine, are there any tech issues that prohibit a PC gamer from playing against a Mac gamer online? I just got the torque engine and have barely touched it, but it seems like this is a great feature.

#7 You can play Mac vs. PC right now in the demo.

Jeff Tunnell GG

#8 I think one of the other reasons the Mac market is so small is because Apple is the only OEM.

Last time I checked, you had to pay twice as much for a mac.

And I hate the one mouse button thing. :(

I had to use that for Graphic Design for 2 years.

Horrible.

#9 Yes, being the only producer of machines does reduce the field a bit. However, also remember Mac was designed toward home, edu, and graphics, whereas the PC was originally targeted at businesses. That alone also accounts for the swing. ;) But, as home and edu markets go, the numbers are a bit better. In addition, it's what percent of the installed/purchase machines will be used for the vertical you are targeting (i.e. Games) that is a useful number -- everything else is FUD.

Macs cost about the same as any 'big name' PC manufacturer. The price differential just isn't there any more. Also, look at all the free software with your brand new iMac: iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, etc. Apple is making the platform more powerful, at basically zero cost to users.

The one-button mouse thing is a misnomer -- Apple still sells them, but for the last 7+ years you've been able to buy multi-button mice and trackballs and graphics tablets for the Mac, and you can now pretty much plug in any multi-button USB mouse into a mac, and on OSX it's recognized and used, and on OS9 with a 3rd party extension, or with actual Mac drivers, you can have full support. I use a logitech trackman 4-button scrollmouse USB on my Mac and PC (KVM switched), and it works just great for Torque.

d

#10 It's true that the Mac users are relatively uncatered to, but this has some interesting repercussions in the type of users they are.

We're used to normally getting games 4 months - 2 years after the PC version, so we tend to have lower expectations for dev time. Games coming out for our platform are rare, but because of that, they sell well. The current trend seems to be, with the new operating system and all: "Oh, look! A new game for OS X! I'm gettin' it!" Many Mac users own relatively complete game collections. The mere fact that a game comes out for the platform normally will garner a couple thousand fanatical buyers. I'd know, I'm one of them. ;)

OS X is really the ideal OS for gaming now... OpenGL is integrated as a fundamental layer of the system, and the base (a modified UNIX called Darwin) is so solid that it makes system wide crashes virtually impossible. I'm a coder, I've done lots of mean and nasty things to this computer, and it's never flinched. Windows should turn its head in shame. :)

Sorry, I'll get off the soapbox now. ;)