City of Heroes making the MMOve to Mac
by Randy Nelson 
{ Oct 30th 2008 at 4:45PM }
Better late than never? Coming just days after Apple's roll-out of new MacBooks with mightier gaming capabilities, NCSoft has announced that its superhero (and villain) MMORPG, City of Heroes, will be released for Mac in partnership with Transgaming.
According to NCSoft, the Mac version of CoH – really the PC version in Transgaming's Cider "wrapper" for Intel-based Macs – will go into beta around the same time as the latest game update, "Issue 13: Power and Responsibility," releases (currently slated for fall). NCSoft is planning the full release for "pre-holiday" in digital form, available from its online store and GameTree Online. There are no plans for a boxed retail release.
Following its release, "the Mac version will parallel the developments of the PC version, providing all game updates, new features, and storylines simultaneously on both platforms," said Vikas Gupta, Transgaming's president and CEO. Excelsior!
According to NCSoft, the Mac version of CoH – really the PC version in Transgaming's Cider "wrapper" for Intel-based Macs – will go into beta around the same time as the latest game update, "Issue 13: Power and Responsibility," releases (currently slated for fall). NCSoft is planning the full release for "pre-holiday" in digital form, available from its online store and GameTree Online. There are no plans for a boxed retail release.
Following its release, "the Mac version will parallel the developments of the PC version, providing all game updates, new features, and storylines simultaneously on both platforms," said Vikas Gupta, Transgaming's president and CEO. Excelsior!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Brodo @ Oct 30th 2008 4:55PM
Thank goodness! I was worried this amazingly popular title would never arrive on the mac
Gavin @ Oct 30th 2008 5:08PM
STFU...every game doesn't have to be a blockbuster to be a good game and this is a good game.
ExMcCloud @ Oct 30th 2008 5:02PM
Was that a PUN? Well if it was it was TERRIBLE
VicViper09 @ Oct 30th 2008 5:13PM
WHY did YOU capitalize PUN
ExMcCloud @ Oct 30th 2008 5:26PM
To put an emphasis on what I was tryin to figure out...No special reason...lolz.....Well? Was it a Pun or not I suck with English
Rollins @ Oct 30th 2008 5:03PM
Excellent! I can finally run CoH on my MacBook with half the frame rate I'd have in Windows under Boot Camp!
If you couldn't tell, I hate Cider. It's useless and has killed many a potential real Mac port.
dark_inchworm @ Oct 30th 2008 5:09PM
Port Meridian 59 while you're at it, chumps.
Bad Mojo @ Oct 30th 2008 5:20PM
Cross-platform play would be nice like WoW :)
Xoviet chiK @ Oct 30th 2008 5:21PM
Note to "Mac Developers": No one wants to play your shitty Cider "ports."
Cider is single handedly killing interest in native Mac game development and Mac gaming in general. Dammit Apple, give us an actual solution, get developers off their TransGaming Cider crutch!
aaron @ Oct 30th 2008 6:13PM
CONCURR!!!
Cider games == buggy as hell crappy performance. I'd rather just use Boot Camp.
Tiptup300 @ Oct 31st 2008 12:19AM
Just upgrade your pc with the newest parts to make things run better.
benjor0x0r @ Oct 30th 2008 5:26PM
Dear Joystiq,
We have observed a splendid spike in newly arriving souls after Randy's use of that particularly dastardly "MMO" pun. Keep up the good work and know you will always have a place reserved for you.
Sincerely,
Hell
Blah @ Oct 30th 2008 7:16PM
I thought the pun was clever and awesome. no joke
PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Oct 30th 2008 8:08PM
The shame is only new macs (maybe some high end older pros) will enjoy the slew of cider ports. We have an intel MacBook & iMac G5 and the crappy integrated graphics (MacBook) & non intel arcitecture (G5) keep us from enjoying games. Not that we bought them for gaming but would be nice. The strength of a mac is in the OS, native (apple) apps and it's ability to better handle professional editing, modeling, music and image manipulation in a more stable environment. Anyone who buys a mac to surf the web is wasting payola. And as such our only PC is a eeePC netbook. We got some older dinosaur PCs with ME & 2000 that have a better shot at gaming than our beefy mac rigs. Nice to see apple giving us a computer at least capable of gaming on.
SantaDuJuan @ Oct 30th 2008 9:48PM
Back in my day PC ment Personal Computer
The title is fine and City of Heroes is a great game.
People are pretty silly here it seems.
flanked @ Oct 31st 2008 12:22AM
City of Heroes was fun . . . four years ago, before it was completely marginalized by World of Warcraft. Why bother porting this aging game now? Does the Mac crowd really represent a large enough chuck of the game playing audience to pursue with such an old title?
Speaking of good games on the Mac that don't require some crappy arcane "wrapper" of computer magic, what's up Blizzard games? I can play World of Warcraft and Diablo 2 just fine on my MacBook. Why are other developers not doing their own ports to Mac when it would actually make a difference?
gameon @ Nov 3rd 2008 6:29PM
dear Brodo, Rollins, Xoviet chiK and other whiny, frustrated purist clods - get a life, and get a machine. the more powerful intel macs work pretty much flawlessly, and the recently upgraded MBs and MB Pros will dramatically improve performance. Blame your hardware, not the wrapper. At least Cider is getting more titles to the Mac than any native developer has in years. a good game is a good game. Furthermore, not only does Boot Camp suck and waste time, it's precisely the reason more native ports aren't coming faster - keep buying PC titles, bozos, that'll help things along. Talk about biting off your own noses to spite your faces...