A sign of the Mac gaming apocalypse?

by Alan Rose { Aug 1st 2006 at 10:00AM }

Anyone else notice that Peter Cohen's monthly Game Room column is conspicuously absent from the September issue of Macworld? Has the preeminent Mac magazine abandoned gaming coverage in favor of more productive, ad-friendly content?

Let's examine the facts. Peter's column has appeared in every issue for at least the past three and a half years without skipping a beat. However, the availability of top tier Mac games has been increasingly on the thin side -- even more so than usual. In the August issue, for example, Call of Duty 2 was the featured game. But like a quality starter with a bad bullpen, the bestselling WWII shooter was backed up by Flip or Flop Home Edition, Jets'n'Guns, and Lumox 2 - not exactly chart-burning stuff in the Windows gaming lineup. There was also a re-review of Quake 4 (but recycled content doesn't count).

Macworld's Game Room web site, which includes Peter's blog, is still up and running and interestingly enough, Jason Snell's editorial in the September issue discusses the advantages of publishing online over hardcopy. Perhaps, the dearth of Mac games no longer affords the privileges of the printed page, and in the age of Boot Camp, Mac gamers must now seek sustenance in *gasp* PC Gamer. Or maybe Peter just took a much-needed vacation.

Tags: apple computer, boot camp, game room, jason snell, mac gaming, macworld, peter cohen

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Jay @ Aug 1st 2006 10:21AM

I welcome the end of mainstream gaming on Mac. I rarely play any big games on either my Mac or PC at all these days, though I am a little fond of HL2 deathmatch. Freeware and indy games have me more than these big names. Cave Story had me hooked more than any recent game on any system (barring Castlevania Sorrow series).
Also been playing a bit on Armagetron Advanced which is pretty fine too.
incidentally since reducing the amount of time I spend playing games I haven't touched my windows PC. /FLAME ON!

...And with that I'll get back to producing my own little games, which I've always found more fun than actually playing games.

blahblahblah @ Aug 1st 2006 10:30AM

ytmnd is better than any pc game.

Markster @ Aug 1st 2006 10:59AM

Does anyone think that the graphic for this should have featured the "bomb"?

Anonymous Hero @ Aug 1st 2006 11:06AM

If a tree falls in the forest...

Jigzat @ Aug 1st 2006 11:10AM

Considering the sustained 5% marquet of Apple Computers plus the fact that most users are PROs the state of macgamming is not a surprise. I'm a mac user and i have barelly played in my 4 years old imac. i rather play in my PS2. But the PC gamming (Wintel) is not in a good shape either it hasnt been on a good shape since ever. Most people choose console gamming over PC games.

But to be fair honest PC gamming can be resumed in a few games like THE SIMS, SIMCITY AA CounterStrike WOW. And except for CounterStrike the others are in the Mac plataform, so the problem i think is the whole PC gamming industry.

At least in my case if a want to play a PC game i preffer it on my my Mac without any Bootcamp crap.

KBeat @ Aug 1st 2006 11:15AM

I hope his column isn't gone, but I would not be surprised in the least. I'm a long time Mac user and former Mac gamer, who now plays exclusively on consoles. With the notable (and much appreciated) exception of Blizzard, the only games released on the Mac are very late PC ports.

I may go back to my Mac for some gaming when the Burning Crusade expansion is released, but for now it's the 360. Thanks for the memories Peter.

TCGiant @ Aug 1st 2006 12:30PM

Up yours! Jets n' Guns is one of the best side-scrolling shoot-em-ups ever made.

Mac gamer @ Aug 1st 2006 12:35PM

Im a Mac user of 15 years and I used to play Marathon and Myth from Bungie on the Mac way back then. But now I play on my xbox360. Why bother to play on a little monitor when you can play on a 51" HDTV?!?

naib @ Aug 1st 2006 12:50PM

I used to be content playing quake3 on my G5 tower. Quake4 runs pretty good, but aspyr has yet to release any source. No client side mods for awhile. Even when the source is released, some mod devs(ra4) don't even plan on a Mac build. =(

That combined with how poorly Civ4 runs on my G5 has me loosing hope.

Good thing I have a 360 and a DS to fall back on.

*plays Tapps for Mac gaming*

Miharu @ Aug 1st 2006 1:25PM

I would play more on my Mac, but it's a mini and it won't run anything too well. When I do get a better Mac I will buy some games... Out of my Mac games, 80% are by Blizzard.

The ZeroCorpse @ Aug 1st 2006 2:13PM

My Mac Mini rocks. Of course, it's an Intel Core Duo with 2GB of RAM, and it runs from a firewire 7200 RPM 150GB hard drive, so that makes a little bit of difference in my gaming quality. This thing's as upgraded as it gets until I decide to swap out the CPU some day.

Still, I prefer my DS or Xbox 360, although I have been known to play a PC game in Boot Camp from time to time, and I leave Neverwinter Nights and Warcraft III on my Mac for the occasional session.

Richard @ Aug 1st 2006 5:20PM

With the advent of slotted processors on the higher-end Macs and the use of standard pci-e, Apple could attract the hobby gamers, because gaming is tied the ability to upgrade major components. And I'd love to see Apple support either SLI or Crossfire

devian @ Aug 1st 2006 6:35PM

Wait... people actually game on a MAC? Hold on a sec... some gamers own a MAC?!?

GSI @ Aug 1st 2006 7:00PM

Mac gaming...AH!

That's like "Microsoft Works."

lol

gewel @ Aug 2nd 2006 12:57AM

ah mac gaming. something thats thin now but wait......
intel is king on both computers and the new architecture that will be coming in the next 6mo. to 1yr. will be something that will turn heads and gamers alike.
take for example that windows is now able to be put on a mac. why wouldn't it be conceivable that eventually games will be much bigger in the future on a mac and the more macs that exist the more games will start to be made for it.

me.... i love both systems os x rocks though :)

mac_man @ Aug 2nd 2006 2:00AM

That's precisely the point of the article, gewel. Now that Windows runs on Macs, there's absolutely no need to make Mac-specific versions of games anymore. And from an economic perspective, why should publishers and devs go through the conversion expenses, when it will only be for 5% of the computer market share (and less than half of that share will actually buy games)?

It's possible that Mac magazines could continue coverage of games that are playable via Boot Camp, but covering PC games would kind of defeat the purpose of a Mac magazine - and there are already other mags for that.