Gears of War will be roadie running onto Macs

by Dustin Burg on Jul 17th 2007 10:00AM

We thought we heard the extent of how far Gears of War was willing to stray from its Xbox 360 roots, but now we're hearing about an even further departure. In an interview with Game Head's Geoff Keighley, Mark Rein talked up Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War and accidentally let the news slip that both games were headed to the Mac platform. Rein confirmed Gears' Mac-bound status when answering Keighley stating that "yes, Gears is going to come to the Mac and so is UT". The news was not followed by a release date or how far in development the Mac versions are.

Anyone willing to bet that Gears Mac will have even more content than Gears PC all of which won't be available to 360 owners? Anyone? Nobody? Shucks ...

Source

Tags: apple, epic, epic games, EpicGames, gears, gears of war, GearsOfWar, gow, mac

Reader Comments (47)

Sounds good, but I can't afford to bring my comp up to spec for the game, what with all of the OTHER games coming out for the 360 this year alone. Jebus.

Well...since (i think) macs have less modding options than pcs then this'll be good because then even people that DONT have high-end pcs can play...oh well...just another company going as multiplatform as possible to rake in as much profit as possible...

damn you epic!

Can anyone help me take this knife out of my back?

What's next, Gears on PS3? I suppose you can't really blame Epic, I guess it does cost a lot of money to make a game as good as Gears.

Microsoft seem to be really open about bringing Gears to other platforms besides its own. All except for of course, PS3.

Still, I have a strange feeling Rein may have been joking about this, yet at the same time, UT on the Mac isn't a wild idea either. I'm staying right here on this fence.

They've been saying for awhile that UT was going to Mac and Linux. The Gears part is a surprise though.

I wish Gears would just concentrate on it's #1 platform, improving on the game and making d/l content. Bungie FTW! They only care about Xbox360, and then PC a couple years later.

I'm sure someone will make Gears of War as a mod for Unreal Tournament 3 on Playstation 3. All the same engin heh...

If this doesn't have Games For Windows LIVE support and Achievements then whats the point.

I'm not expecting it to work with that system, but it would be great if they could make it work.

well this is funny tho...Everyone is getting GoW except the ps3 boys...hahah this is awsome :O
poor ps3 boys...
back to the point...i dont think mac version would get any extra content and tbh i dont care i just wanna play gears on my MBP :P
anyways thats some good news :)

'Gears' really started everything up again for Epic, and they're just rollin' with it. I say 'go'.. that PC exclusive stuff doesn't blow me away, and I can wait a few months for UT 2007 to act as an 'after-Holiday dessert' for me.

If I was Epic, I'd be using my newly found fame and industry weight to make as much money as I could too! You KNOW they realize the biggest Epic fanbase is us on our 360s so I don't feel slighted at all or anything. We'll always be first and foremost in Cliffy B's mind.

Now..if Epic went over to Sony or something, THEN I'd be mad..but PCs (or Macs) were never in direct competition against consoles, and there isn't a large financial gain to be had with Sony right now. We're set :)

You've got to think, Apple just said not long ago at WWDC that gaming is going to be a huge move for them with the release of Leopard this fall - id is signed on with them, why shouldn't Epic? GoW on OS X would be an amazing piece of software and I look forward to seeing it.

Might as well make a watered down version - Gears of War wii! LOL Use the Wii Remote to chainsaw people and grenade tag people.

ok... so they have the manpower to port the entire game over to Mac, but they don't have the manpower to port the new PC content to Xbox 360? hmmm...

@14
the didn't say the didn't have manpower

Cliffy clearly said that, there has to be an incentive to get the PC version... that would be the content you can't get on the 360.

I'm honestly expecting the content to show up for the 360 eventually anyway. They can have it as a download for free and pack it into future versions of the game after the holidays to sell more copies. Why not?

In the meantime, it's worthwhile saying only the PC version is going to get it for them. I'm obviously being optimistic, but we'll see.

Since Epic said the pc version extra content was an incentive to by it, I believe they will use this logic to also give the MAC version its own content not found on other platforms.
Epic to me is acting like a big dousch bag whore that I wouldnt fuck with a ps3 fanboys dick.

So because I have a high-end mac that dual-boots to Windows, and an Xbox 360, I can get three copies of the same game! I get all the available content possible!

Woo.

"ok... so they have the manpower to port the entire game over to Mac, but they don't have the manpower to port the new PC content to Xbox 360? hmmm..."

I agree...They have the man power to completely redesign the game for a Mac...but then they can't do a simple, and yes, it would be QUITE simple to port the rest of the PC "exclusive" content to the 360? Thats bullshit. They just realise that with the release of Halo 3, GOW will die off.

I'll get serious here for a second.

Gears Of War is most likley the only franchise in gamming to date that has the pontentual to crush what Halo has got going on, but it needs to stay where it belongs.
Epic just seems to be destroying thier credability with us in thier quest for more money. I dont care so much about pc release and neither do most of U guys. But when the new content isn't brought to the homeland, well its like an undercover agent that has lost thier true identity. Where just left here, waiting to here from our valuable Epic with not so much as a peep from them in our direction. GOW is butter, I'm affraid though, Epic is spreading it too thin.

Porting the 'exclusive' PC content isn't about man-power or time, it's about incentive. CliffyB is has gone on record stating that the content needs to be exclusive for their to be any interest in the PC version, which is completely understandable.

We're not getting the extra content, just deal with it.

But when Gears 2 comes out, who will get it first? We will. That's what really matters here.

A Macintosh port is actually much easier for companies to do these days. Mac hardware is now identical to Windows hardware, translation layers have been developed to map Windows calls to OS X calls (Cider), and there are several Mac game developers that specialize in porting games from Windows and will do all the heavy lifting (MacSoft has done all the previous ports for Epic). With the Gears move to PC, the Mac port is unsurprising except in its early announcement.

I do wonder how they will handle the networking layer since there is no Mac equivalent to Live. Best case they can port the Live code and allow Mac/PC multi player, worst case is that they have to use their own network code and Macs will only be able to play against other Macs. No achievements either. Still good news for the Mac folks (but I'm sticking to the 360 for games).

#6 said "I wish Gears would just concentrate on it's #1 platform, improving on the game and making d/l content. Bungie FTW! They only care about Xbox360, and then PC a couple years later."

Uhh, that's because there are many games on the PC that are FAR better than Halo. Bungie sticks to where it can compete.

I could care less about Macs or PCs. I have my 360 and I'll get all my love for Gears that way, I would like the extra content but Epic isn't really upsetting me in any way. Everyone needs to calm down, load up their 360 with Gears in the tray, and go cut some people down with their Lancer. Oh, and I don't completely agree with GoW having the potential to crush Halo, just because the story was lacking. But if they can get GoW2 to be a lot longer, with a better story, then they'll be on track to help Halo and the 360 completely demolish all competition(at least seen through my eyes).

Not entirely sure what all the hate is flowing about regarding ports of GOW. Sure, PC gamers are getting a bone thrown their way with the Brumak encounter, but nothing about the bonus content appears to be substancial...

Also, it's not disingenuous of Epic to do a Mac translation of the game. It likely won't take many resources to recode the PC version due to the Intel-mac architecture and Transgaming's "Cider" engine, that stands to help bolster the Mac gaming segment and make speedy ports possible.

This is Bullsh*t...

@23

By better U must mean in ur opinion right?
Surley U cant mean in terms of sales a success.
I am not a big Halo fan but, I'm pretty sure it has seen much much more success in sales than almost any pc game U xcan think of. With the exception of maybe(And thats a big MAYBE)wow, what are these other many games on pc that finacialy put the Halo franchise to shame?
Sure isnt Quake or UT which are the best known pc fps. Yeah I think they are way better games but not in sales.

@24

In my opinion, the first GOW has more than out done the first 2 Halo games and DID surpase Halo 2 as xbox lives most played game. Sure Halo 3 will beat GOW #s however, GOW2 is going to crush Halo 3 in sales and online players. Its a bet I'll make anyday.

#26 It has seen amazing sales, yeah, but not with the PC versions. The console version sells like hotcakes, but the PC versions are always met with mediocre response.

On the other hand, Epic owns the PC FPS market.

Not that I'm some uber-loyalty hack, but EPIC is killing me here - I understand the need for new revenue streams, but come on - the DLC released for Gears has been OK at best, and there have been no patches/fixes for GLARINGLY OBVIOUS and ANNOYING problems! And every version but the original is going to be better then? I read his lil interview re: GoW on 360 not getting new DLC to bring it up to speed with the PC version rapidly approaching... His Smug Self sez "You've had GoW for a year, so you should be happy," and "if you waited for a year for a game on your platform and it came out the same with nothing new, you'd feel cheated." Pshh! So now we gotta go through life satisfying everyone and supplying games for every platform available? COMMUNISM!
Why No DLC to bring GoW360 up to line with PC? "GoW is still being patched together [laughs]... We're making sure the PC version is the best, and we dont have resources to pull over the architecture from one platform back to 360..."

What a Joke.
No More Epic 4 me.

@27

Yeah , I dont care how Halo sells anywhere really.

But yes Epic has got PC locked down right now in FPS land, but I would only give that to them due to lack of motivation from ID. They didnt even make Quake 4, WTf? Im not saying it was a bad game(ON PC), But eitherway, ID needs to be putting out a killer AP at least every 2 years if they really wanted to stay on top.
ALso question, wern't the first UT's on pc made by 3d realms not Epic?

Man this is great ... we do some serious gaming at my office, and have yet to find another game that plays on our Macs better than COD2. Now with this Gears announcement we might have found something else to play. Good news for Mac owners.

"Man this is great ... we do some serious gaming at my office, and have yet to find another game that plays on our Macs better than COD2. Now with this Gears announcement we might have found something else to play. Good news for Mac owners."

You're lucky you get to game at work...

I don't get the point. The only macs that will be able to play this are the high end Mac Pros.

None of the iMacs have graphic chips that are capable of running Gears, and they aren't upgradable.

Are they going to support the 360's wireless controller on the Mac? :)

I was hoping to hear such an announcement.

@14 Maybe someone else is porting it, like Aspyr. They port a lot of PC games over to the Mac.

OMG why dont you just buy a ps3 so u dont have to worry about these things forget about playing on a HD tv and by a PS3 its that easy unless you bought one already. when the PS3 loses an exclusive its all fun and laughs and pointing out every flaw in the PS3 ARCH but when the 360 loses a game you start crying! you sound like the ps3 bitches when they lost Devil May Cry and A. Creed stfu up and let your wallet talk. I wouldnt be surprised if the PS3 got a piece of gears and then all hell breaks loose and xbox fanboys start talking about boycotting epic.

Dustin, I already poured my old school gamer wisdom on you once and seems that you forgot the lessons grasshoper...

:D

As soon as the GoW PC sales die (wich shouldn't take long based on the imense "growing" that PC gaming is experiencing in the last 5 years) they will release this content on live for the amazing deal of 2500 MSP. And you know who is gonna be the first one to buy it?

Exactly, grasshopper.

Now go and pratice your lessons of today...

@35:

Don't even get me started on PS3.

The bitch costs a leg and an arm, have NO "need to buy" games released till now, will have the worst exclusive lineup in 2007 (if you're happy withexlcusivisity of 2 FPSs on the worst control interface for FPS EVER, go ahead and enjoy all the 60 days of exclusivity of Haze and UT3) and nothing but promises from the biggest hyper and liar company of all gaming history.

PS3 still the WORST option in gaming ECVER since the release of 3DO.

At the rate good games are coming out to it, US$199 would be the right price point for PS3 in 2007.

#28 -

The first few Unreal games were developed by Epic and published by Digital Extremes. When Epic got bigger, they started publishing the games themselves..

I think that just like with costly map packs, Epic like Microsoft realizes that, after a certain period of time, you have to offer it for free (or in this case for the 360), so that people who would otherwise never buy the game will later pick it up as a budget title oozing with content - another statistic for the next "look at how awesome we are" press release.

That has been the case with content that was suggested would never be free, and I would think that Epic would follow suit. After the initial period of sales driven by the exclusive content of Gears of War for PC, and when not even GameStop charges you the full MSRP for the game, I think that they will release the additional PC campaign missions as a ~$10 360 expansion through the Marketplace.

Just my two cents.

This might be off topic, but Justin Long needs a beat down.

@37 where the f have you been under a f'in rock you can' tell me you havent seen heavenly sword. little big planet, metal gear solid 4, killzone 2, FFXII, Uncharted, Grand Tourismo 5, TEKKEN 6, Dark Sector, FFXIII versus, Warhawk (64 player servers announced! by the way its not supposed to look photo realistic). Unreal might not come out until march on the 360 and there has been talk of HAZE being a complete exclusive and most of these new upcoming multiplatform games are built from the ground up on the PS3 so your bet is on the PS3's version. theres not 1 person in here who can name that many exclusives that look worth while playing on the 360 there first year and Q1. Soon home will be the most immersive network known to consoles (it was built to go against xbox live not just for public appeal ). O ILL NAME ALL THE GAMES I BOUGHT!(NOT INCLUDING MULTI PLAT) GEARS OF WAR(GOOD) LOST PLANET(OK) DEAD RISING(GREAT) VIVA PINIATA(UNEXPECTED ) HMMM.... exclusives and then theres the hope of getting HALO 3.

Now this is too far. I bought GoW for the 360 even paid extra for the Collectors. Even though I have a Vista rig that could play it I still feel that 360 owners deserved extra content as the success on the 360 enabled the PC version.

But the Mac version is just too far. I hate Apple the business model is make an inferior product and just boast about it not being Microsoft. Don't most Macs also have really poor graphics cards anyway. How on earth can you play it on a mac.

Next thing you know Halo 3 will have a PC version with an alternate ending in which MasterChief is a hot girl and makes out with Samos.

And Justin Long looks really excited about it.

@ #32 "I don't get the point. The only macs that will be able to play this are the high end Mac Pros."

See, that's called speculation. You don't know WHAT the system requirements will be. You didn't make the game, so you don't know WHAT kinds of optimization they have going on either. Hell, I'll bet you can't even cough up a release date.

Plus, what about the Macbook Pro's that are out now? Those have 8600m GT's under the hood.

Hey, if Elder Scrolls Oblivion can run on my iMac (Boot Camp) with the sliders slid all the way up, Gears should run OK.

A Mac Pro will DEFINITELY run the game very well, but PC games don't usually come out unless two year old hardware for the target platform will run it. Otherwise, they won't be sure if they can even SELL the game.

Let's wait until EPIC releases some specs before shooting off about how "Macs can't run it", because NOBODY HERE honestly knows unless they MADE the game.

"Don't most Macs also have really poor graphics cards anyway. How on earth can you play it on a mac."

Mac Video Cards are decent, It's not that hard to research dude.

The only models that really lowball it are the Mac Mini and regular Macbook. But what do you expect from economy machines?

Like I told the other guy. Unless you MADE the game, don't speculate, because you seriously don't have any idea WHAT the system requirements are dude. Apparently EPIC thinks their game will run. Who is more informed here?

You don't like Apple?

Well tough! Apparently SOME people do! EPIC recognizes this. That's why they make the big bucks.

So, Be a gooooood PC gamer, Buy Gears of War to run on your Vista box and pray to god that you don't run into me in a deathmatch. That is, unless you like the sound of a rusty chainsaw that isn't yours.

All I care about is Unreal Ed for the mac version. The lack of mods on my 360 is saddening to me, as that was half the life of the game. Beyond that, I'm just glad I'll be able to get my hands on the extra content, even if it isn't on my 360. I do feel for the rest of y'all who don't have or don't want to have to buy the whole game again though.

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Gears of War will be roadie running onto Macs

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