Gears of War, UT3 coming to Macs

by Scott Jon Siegel on Jul 17th 2007 11:55AM

At this rate, it's becoming difficult not to play Cliffy B's roadie-running extravaganza. During an interview with Game Head's Geoff Keighley, Epic VP Mark Rein revealed that Gears of War is in development for Mac OS X, along with Unreal Tournament 3. This news follows Epic's E3 announcement that Gears is in development for PC, with additional features not seen in the Xbox 360 version.

No development details or release dates were mentioned. Given the casual nature of this announcement, however, one can assume that both Gears and UT3 will be ported from the PC to OS X using Cider, rather than being developed natively. No love for PowerPC users; though it might be time to consider that Intel-based Apple you've been eyeing ...

[Update: It appears these are coming to the Mac natively, not through the magic of Cider, according to this comment from MacSoft's Ryan Gordon: "And no, neither game is using Cider." Impressive. Thanks for the link, David!]

[Via X3F]

Source

Tags: apple, Cider, epic, gamehead, gearsofwar, Mac, macosX, markrein, PC, unrealtournament, ut3, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (75)

Way to shit on us Xbox 360ers Epic!

Wait how is epic shitting on you pc users? Uhhh isn't this a good thing since Epic is allowing more people to play the game?

I meant xbox users. My bad.

@Ska Oreo

It works like this: Gears of War (a game I want) is now coming to Macs (a system I have) so I no longer need an Xbox 360 (a system I was thinking about getting) to play it.

Now I have one less reason to get an Xbox 360. If I choose not to get an Xbox 360, then that's one less reason for developers to want to put games on it. If developers put less games on it, Xbox 360 owners get shit (shat?) on.

Granted, this one game is unlikely to make much of a difference, but if others follow, it could become more noticeable.

Anyway, about the news: Ooh, a new game for my Mac! See Valve? Mac users do play games.

soon gears will be on ps3 just wait until epic say fuck you Microsoft your broken out of money now and makes gear of war ps3

Microsoft out of money? You're a moron. Seriously.

Lawrence, you hear that bell?

That means that lunch is over and your summer school class is about to begin.

Get off the computer.

Wow you're an idiot. Microsoft out of money? Are you kidding me? And also I really doubt that it will be coming to the ps3 since the game is published by Microsoft game studios.

Umm. Wow? Didn't see that coming.

So, is the Windows Gears of War tied to Vista? I wonder what excuse MS will come up with as to why OSX can play it.
Still the only PC game I play isn't out on Mac. HL2 :(

Gears of War will be playable on both XP and Vista...and obviously OS X. :P

slvergun just wait your gonna be shited on even more when you here about the new epic games for ps3

I don't understand what some developers have against PPC Macs. They could develop for the 360 which is running a triple core Power PC, but they cannot make GoW Universal App... That SUCKS!

This is great news for us Mac users!

I'm not a big fan of Cider, it just worries me that companies will stray further from developing on Mac OS X since Cider lets them use their Windows code... I wish more companies would take after Blizzard, but I'll take what I can get :-). Then again without Cider they probably wouldn't bother anyway.

That said, Jay, I don't really think there is a good reason for a game to only run on Vista. Sure it has DirectX 10 but just because it's MS's propriety technology doesn't make it better than OpenGL.

I dunno if the assumption Joystiq made is true... Epic has always been, along with Blizzard, a strong supporter of the Mac platform... UT2k4 was simultaneously released on Mac with the PC version, and network play between the two is flawless.

Well, be prepared to pay $3000+ for a powermac (not including an overpriced monitor with a whopping one video input) even capable of playing this game.

I seriously doubt you'd be able to find a $3000 PowerMac, and I doubt that Gears would run on the PowerPC platform anyway. If you're going to spend that kind of money, might as well go for a loaded Intel-based MacPro. You could easily spend $3k building a quad core vista based machine too tho...

Typically ignorant Mac hater... You got serrrrrrrved, Reductant

Considering that most of Epics' earlier games on Mac are recoded into OpenGL completely natively instead of passing it through something like Cider, I don't think assuming that it'll be run through Cider makes a lot of sense. Just want to point that out.

Anyone else feel like all of us on the 360 kind of got shit on by Epic? First, UT3 goes to the PS3 first, then Gears is going to the PC with exclusive content, and now Mac users get Gears too?

I feel kind of betrayed by Epic right now.

you must have never heard of the word "business"

"the purchase and sale of goods in an attempt to make a profit."

glad i cleared that up for you

preach it.

Not really. I've already had the chance to grow tired of Gears before everyone else has. Besides, when I buy and play one of Epic's (or any developer's) games, I don't feel that they owe me some sort of emotional attachment.

Betrayal? Please.

Don't mistake your own life with the grander scheme of things... You played the game, you had fun. Now others will be able to do the same. It's not a big deal.

Please don't act like you only played the game because it was an exclusive or something - that's the wrong reason. Microsoft has love for you, but they're not IN LOVE with you. Understand?

Other companies will see the benefits of a well-made game being ported to other platforms, and hopefully follow suit. More people have more fun. Winning situation.

WOW this is great

now macs have 3 great FPS:

1. GoW
2. UT
3. Marathon

nice way to round'em out.

And come on, no reason for 360 complaints.

Will there be cross platform mac vs pc?

mac powered up pc don't cost 3000$ it cost most likely 1500$ for a good one and with graphics and everything you get mac mini for 500$ + microsoft will be getting fucked more by epic when gears make it on ps3 next even though Microsoft and there publishing name epic don't give a shit about microsoft

Please stop talking lawrence.

I second that. Please spare us.

You're the kind of moron who gets Mac users a reputation for idiotic zealotry. Or maybe you're just a Vista fanboi trying to give us a bad reputation. Either way, I don't care, so long as you shut the hell up.

Thanks.

Also, don't even bring up the Mac Mini on joystiq. It has a GMA 950 graphics card, if you can even call it that. I guess "Integrated graphics chip" would be more accurate. Now, to a moron that probably doesn't mean much, so I'll put it in simple terms. You probably couldn't even run UT 2004 on a Mac Mini, let alone Gears of War or anything made in the last few years. Hell, you probably couldn't run Unreal 99.

So save up your allowance and in a few years you'll be able to get a Mac Mini. Starcraft is still fun, so you'll be all set on your nice new gaming rig. Just spare us the whining when you waste 50 bucks on a game with even the most basic 3d graphics, because it's not going to run.

I am willing to bet my iMac will play these games fine. I play Oblivion and many other games in XP, looks just as good as the 360 versions.

Lawrence please go take an english grammar class. Then a typing class, then kill yourself.
Thank you

Mac Pro cots $2500 minimum. I guess you could get an iMac to play this game, but that's a proprietary desktop? Not appealing to most gaming enthusiasts. And no way the Mac Mini will play Gears of War.

here's a newsflash for you reductant. this game is being put out for people who already have their Mac.

Not sure why when you see games released for other platforms you get all uppity. This type of story has nothing to do with your life, so why post multiple times about how expensive a mac is?

BTW you can run any monitor on a mac, no reason to get the overpriced Apple display aside from astetics (and I agree, 1 input is stupid.)

Yeah I love me some Gears and all and I thank Epic for the great game BUT...

They're starting to get on my damn nerves. It wouldn't surprise me if they say Gears is going to the ps3. And in all honesty it would piss me off too.

So I'm praying that will NEVER happen. PC/Mac is fine and all even though I'd rather it be a console game. But since they've already made the stupid decision to put them for computers its too late.

Just do NOT put it on the ps3 for the love of God. I don't think they will but if they do they know there will be HELL to pay for that abomination.

The only reason Gears was EVER on 360 was it was the ONLY console available at the time that could support it.. that's the only freakin reason. People who thought there was an MS-Epic love affair have been played.. by MS. They hyped it at the time cause it made sense.. now, it makes sense to port it to PC, Mac, and eventually PS3.

I wouldnt be surprised if there was a Wii version.

Won't happen. Since Microsoft published, I really really really doubt that they will allow Epic to release the game on the ps3.

What is this... cold... feeling.

Is this... death?

Knife... in my back... it's so cold...

--

At any rate, at least we got to play it. Can't really blame them for wanting more money. That is the way of this generation.

So what? PC gamers felt betrayed too when Epic decided to develop GoW for 360 only, even though they owed all their previous success to PC gamers.

No, neither of these two games is using Cider. It's a native port. Or so says Ryan Gordon, who's porting them (and many other Mac-games):

"So, uh, yeah...apparently Mark spilled the beans:
http://insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ID=15395

...so I guess I'll be talking about these here soon.
And no, neither game is using Cider.

--ryan."

http://icculus.org/cgi-bin/finger/finger.pl?user=icculus

I won't rule it out completely but I doubt Cinder will be used in either of these products. Epic has a much stronger product to sell if Unreal Engine 3 is ported to run natively on Mac OS X than if it is run through something like Cinder. Remember Epic is a middleware provider not just a game developer. Being able to say that your middleware runs natively on nearly every platform under the sun is a major plus.

lol, mac gaming

Guys, we are not getting shit on by Epic...we are getting shit on by Microsoft. Gears of War is a Microsoft Game Studios property, developed by Epic. It is Microsoft that gets to choose which platform they wish to put this property on...not Epic. If it weren't, why the hell would Epic NOT put the game on PS3? It only makes business sense to put it on every platform to maximize profits. The answer is that they can't.

I still don't understand how Epic, or even Microsoft is shitting on consumers.

Well, because they are releasing "exclusive" 360 games on other platforms. While I fully expect this to happen after a period of time, 1 year is flat-out unacceptable. It diminishes the reasons to go out and buy a 360. More 360s will be sold if the only way to play Gears is on the 360...same for Halo. Now that 1 year has passed and they chose to release it out to PC and Mac, what is to say they will not do the same with Halo 3? Has a new precedent been set that 1 year is an acceptable exclusive timeframe? To me it isn't.

Gears on the PS3? Closer than you think, but not the way you may expect it

http://www.n4g.com/ps3/NewsCom-52066.aspx

Of course it isn't running on Cider. Unreal is a cross-platform engine and it will run natively on PC, Mac, and Linux along with any other console or other platform they decide to support. It was the same with UE2.5.

guys, Once Halo 3, Mass Effect, and all the other AAA titles hit, the 360 isn't going to "need" a year old game to be successful. It's a great game, but it's time non-console gamers experienced it. Microsoft published it, so of course it's going to Windows. It going to an Apple product is a little weird, but it has no chance of going to PS3. I had fun with it, but this fall I'm going to be shooting up Spartans online. I'm sick of getting stuck on walls, to be honest.

SOMEBODY @ microsoft F'ED up badly!!!

When microsoft shelled out $25 million in development costs to Epic, the exclusitivity checklist went like this:

"MS: So, in exchange for this $25 million - you agree not to develop GOW for PS3 and PSP?
Epic: Correct
MS: As well as any nintendo systems?
Epic: Correct
MS: Let's see....what else can we exlude? hmmm...think about that covers it then.
Epic: Well alrighty then!"

a few days later...

"Epic: LOL microsoft nubz forgot to exclude development for the Mac. Stacy! Get me Steve Jobs on the phone, pronto! ROTFLMAO!!!"

like i said, someone at MS F'ed up badly and needs to get canned!

Maybe that's the way it happened if you lived in a retarded cartoon world. It's time for your nap, son.

I'm sure that Microsoft 100% supports this.

Getting Gears out to a larger audience only broadens the games fan base and helps further establish the franchise.

Gears 2 and 3 will be timed exclusive on 360 and console exclusive forever (I'm pretty sure about that).

I see this as a win-win for everyone but PS3 (of course PS3 will get some loving with UT3).

Ugh! Please don't post links to that garbage fanboy fest that is N4G. That site is so uncredible and pure garbage, when you let the wacko's run the nuthouse that's what you get at N4G.

Some people need to come to grips that the 360 HAS NO EXCLUSIVE GAMES that make the system worth owning.. If you want a unique experience that won't be sold to the highest bidder or to fuel a non-console agenda you need to pick up a PS3 or Wii. You won't see games like Resistance or Killzone 2 on any platform but the PS3 and you won't see Mario on anything but the Nintendo plaforms. But MS is using the 360 as a doorstop to get their PC/Mac gaming rolling.. Mass Effect will be next along with Halo 3..

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Gears of War, UT3 coming to Macs

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