League of Legends will shut down its Mac client Tuesday, so play now

by Jessica Conditt on Sep 4th 2011 1:30PM

Riot Games has officially canceled OSX support for League of Legends, concluding after 13 months of work with TransGaming and Mac beta-testing. The Mac beta client will be shut down "indefinitely" at 12 a.m. on September 6, this Tuesday. LoL Mac-ers, if you didn't have plans for Labor Day on Monday, now you do. Riot hasn't eliminated the possibility of a Mac version in the future, but it won't be any time soon.

"We realize our current approach regarding the Mac platform won't guarantee the quality and frequent updates we deliver today on the PC and are expected by our player community. We will continue to investigate the opportunity to provide player access on the Mac Platform in the future that aligns with our service and content update standards. We are committed to building a solution that will work on the Mac in the long run, but it will take some time."

Mac beta testers who used the store can keep their accounts open and continue playing on PC, or receive a full refund on their purchases, which would close the account entirely. As consolation, Riot will give all Mac testers a code to unlock the Champions Pack, which can be redeemed if a majority of your logins come from the Mac client and you enter the Store before service is shut down Tuesday.

Via: Reddit
Source: League of Legends

Tags: beta, champions-pack, league-of-legends, mac, pc, riot-games, Transgaming

Reader Comments (62)

Three Things: BootCamp Windows 7

@xiLeShadow

That's...2 things man...

@xiLeShadow

I'd be shocked if there were "serious gamers" on the Mac that didn't already have bootcamp going.

@Mogg ... buy.... license?

@SirUrza

"I'd be shocked if there were "serious gamers" on the Mac"

no need for the sentence to go any further ...

Blitzcrank in the image, one of my mains.

@Jhoalot

I don't play LoL and I have no idea why people downvoted you...but I did it too because apparently it's the right thing to do.

I'm a PC guy you know, so I feel the need to act like a jerk; it's something I can't control.

lololol pc owns mac.

@Yothe

see now..you know what's going to happen cause of that comment 3.2..1 next person will start it.

@Hayatoblaze91x LOL, mac gaming.

Macs are increasingly popular in the consumer space, yet Mac gaming is still not taking off, why is that?

Given that their specs now leave consoles in the dust, I'm surprised by the lack of love OS X has been getting. We saw Rage at WWDC, but now it has been kicked into the long grass.

The audience may be small now, but do you really see Windows retaking that ground?

@hahnchen Because Macs run games like crap.

http://themacgamer.com/2010/05/28/half-life-2-performance-mac-vs-pc/

@hahnchen

"Macs are increasingly popular in the consumer space, yet Mac gaming is still not taking off, why is that?"

Because it's still a massive minority, it's like 3 macs to 50 PCs, and it just doesnt make that much sense to develop for the mac, when they are capable of booting with windows anyways.

@BrianH

"massive minority"

That sounds weird, but you know what i mean, there's very few macs for each windows PC

@hahnchen
"Given that their specs now leave consoles in the dust,"

I don't know about that. They still don't have good gpu's. Even the $1200 macbook pro has intel graphics. You have to spend almost 2 grand to get a Radeon HD 6490M, which is still midrange at best. This alone means that anyone serious about playing games on a computer is going to get a PC for much cheaper so they can get much better performance.

Add in the fact that with a PC you still get a better library of games (Though steam for mac is helping quite a bit) and that you'll get the most hardware and software support gaming on PC, and it's not really much to wonder about.

@hahnchen

Gaming Macs according to Steam have declined in popularity from around 7% of the market two years ago to 5% this year. Desktop and laptop computing has been stagnant at the 5-7% market share for the past 25 years and because of the company's insistence on being the primary provider for all hardware and software, they're beginning to lose the mobile space as well. All Apple had to do was adjust its business policy to allow custom hardware producers and license out their software and they could have managed to pull out a significant market share in both desktop computing and managed a majority share in mobile. Instead, by insisting on being the sole-source provider for everything (hardware, software, iTunes, etc), they'll eternally be a small player and game developers will overall avoid the platform because of the small market share.

@hahnchen

Consumer space =/= gaming space.

The PC population that switched over to using a mac probably did not care for "serious" gaming. Windows gaming doesn't have any ground to make up.

@hahnchen
Simply put, Macs aren't good for gaming. You have almost no customization options when it comes to upgrading the hardware, given Apple's desire to control everything about how you use their computers. PC game players love being able to control their hardware, not have their hardware control them. Need a bigger, better, faster GPU to squeeze out higher resolutions at higher frames per second? Need to run multiple GPUs in SLi/CrossFire? No problem!.... On Windows.

Plus, there's the fact that most games are made with DirectX, which is made BY Microsoft FOR Microsoft. Not as many games are made with OpenGL, because, while it's still a great platform, isn't as robust as DirectX.

If Apple didn't want to retain such a lock-tight grip on everything OS X, there may be a chance it'd have better footing in gaming. Though, if they let other manufacturers make OS X computers, then that would mean Apple would have to make sure OS X is compatible with A LOT more hardware, just like Windows.

I suppose the tl;dr version is: "lol Mac"

@hahnchen

Mac computing hardware is like a $500-$700 price point on the PC. Don't get me wrong, they make AMAZING displays, but all the money is on the fancy cases and slimline designs.

@(Unverified)
That's a chicken-and-egg argument though. The reason that Macs don't run games as well (on the exact same hardware) is because the video drivers aren't given as much effort. Without good video drivers and a perceived lack of an audience, game developers don't put much work into making Mac games. Without making Mac games, there will never be a big audience, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

@ LaughingTarget
Maybe you should look at a little bit of history. Last time Apple licensed to other hardware makers, it almost went out of business. This time, they are keeping it all in-house and have become one of the most profitable companies in the world. I think it sucks that Apple doesn't care more about gaming, but they're certainly not worse off for disregarding it.

@aristokrat

Their so profitable because by keeping it in house they can charge twice the price the hardware is worth and people are still buying it.

@aristokrat

Not entirely correct; Apple did not almost go out of business because they decided to license to third party manufactures like Motorola. They were already bleeding prior to that decision. Apple was making crap product in the early to mid 90ies and it showed (Performa and Quadra series). I believe Steve Jobs came back at that point and helped them get back on their feet with better marketing, new products (I believe iMac was introduced at this point) and off shore manufacturing. Also, Microsft made a hefty investment into Apple which helped them in the long run.

I worked for an Apple retailer and went through this pain...

TLDR, listen to your own advice?

@(Unverified) Actually the reason for those performance statistics is that Valve games using Valve's tools run in a emulator essentially. If you look at games that are actually compiled for the mac, the performance is going to be about equal (depending on the hardware and the software developers).

Becomes increasingly the most popular DOTA clone.

Removes support for larger audience.

@Alexisonfire

Honestly I have a hard time believing that. Theres a shitload more PCs out in the wild then Macs.

@Faenix

But no matter how you cut it, Mac & PC is a bigger population than PC.

@Alexisonfire

And I'm sure that the Mac population is insignificant. I'd love to see how many "beta testers" for the Mac version were actually bootcamp users before they got the beta client.

I like League of Legends but i really hope Valve charges an upfront for DOTA 2. I know LoL has champion bundles, but has anyone sat down and tallied up how much it would cost to get all 80ish of them, insane. Or am i the only one who actually would like to have access to them all? Not to mention rune pages and skins you sometimes feel compelled to buy. >

I don't want Windows to hog up my hard drive. >.>
I guess i'll just go without LoL. Valve is making DOTA 2, so maybe it will be cross platform.

@mguniverse
Dota 2 is multiplat. Ever since Valve came out with steam for mac they've been really good about keeping it supported.

Normally, I wouldn't care, but my girlfriend plays on her Mac so this is lame.

You know your platform is shitty when a developer pulls their shitty game from your platform.

@Shinobi13

Now there, my friends, is a troll. Someone alert the headmaster.

@Shadowbender
Or someone who points out the hilarity of certain issues.

@Shinobi13

Haha, what? Let me try one:

The wii is better than the 360 and Ps3 because devs aren't even bothering to put their shitty shovelware on them.

"LoL Mac-ers, if you didn't have plans for Labor Day on Monday, now you do."

Lol? You dare make light of this tragedy? Miss Conditt, you...you TROLL!

/s

@hahnchen I'm pretty sure "increasingly popular" is still a fraction of the Windows market share AND it's probably easier to develop for Windows since its been the main platform for so long.

"LoL Mac-ers" sums it up pretty well

I just don't understand when someone say that you cant play on a Mac. Yes there is NO game out here, is that what they mean? Because Mac have the power to play game somehow... I play Borderland, Starcraft 2, many old titles of CnC and everything run smoothly with high graphic...

Anyway, not a big lost for me but for maybe like 5000 players that suck.

And yeah, bootcamp is pretty usefull.

You can't guarantee the frequency and reliability of updates? Seriously. Mac App Store sounds like that'd fix that problem...

@britboyj27

That's not what they're referring to. Someone actually has to MAKE the update before it can be distributed - they're saying they can't keep the Mac version at the same pace as the Windows one.

It's as if the cries of frustration from four people were drowned out in the wave of apathy.

Playing Dota 2 anyway, so, meh.

I call BS on this. How can it be difficult to support if the support is already there? it seems like RIOT is cutting corners and pinching pennies because the Mac client for LoL works great.
"won't guarantee the freqent updates"
Hu? my client updates just fine every time there is a patch... there isn't a special patch for the mac, how do I know this? if you look at the package info that downloads it has the PC's .dll and .exe files in it...

I use it almost every day and this pretty much pisses me off that I'll now have to install boot camp to play LoL when using my laptop.

@SOLIDAge

Actually they have to make special versions of each patch for PC and MAC. That's why you don't see many games with Mac Support getting updated so often, or the Mac version takes a bit to come out. It's actually rather hard/annoying to keep Mac and Linux properly supported for games. That's why there are specal studios who tend to do it for other companies, but they charge a high premium.

@SOLIDAge

"the support is already there"...? That's the part they're saying is too difficult for them. It may have worked fine due to their hard work in the past, but they're cleansing their hands of it.

Also, the only thing your comment about the package info proves is that the content was made on a PC, it doesn't prove whether or not its the exact same content. Considering Riot is willing to cut off a source of income to stop supporting Mac OS, I'd say it's definitely not the same patch for both Mac and Windows.

This is great news! Now I'll have my life back. Trolololol.

I wasnt even aware there was a OS X client...
I tried to get into this game a few weeks ago and couldn't find a damn thing on their site regarding OS X, except one part where they said they didn't support it.

So I stopped trying to play.
Thanks LoL.

@jtrjuwrue5iiejie5ijeie3i5

It was in beta only.

This does seem like kind of a strange backstep for Riot, especially considering DotA 2 will have PC and Mac support.

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League of Legends

League of Legends will shut down its Mac client Tuesday, so play now

Reader Comments (62)

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 1:36PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 1:49PM Nytemare457 said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 4:03PM SirUrza said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 2:57AM Design by Adrian said

Posted: Sep 5th 2011 2:40PM darkfocus said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 1:44PM Jhoalot said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 3:27PM Ospov said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 1:47PM Yothe said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 1:53PM Hayatoblaze91x said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:00PM NeoZeroo said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 1:54PM hahnchen said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:05PM BrianH said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:07PM BrianH said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:20PM CaramelZappa said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:25PM LaughingTarget said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:42PM MrBNuts said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:49PM BPMOmega XBL PSN Steam said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 4:05PM SirUrza said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 10:25PM aristokrat said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 11:02PM This Little Man Says His Name Is said

Posted: Sep 6th 2011 3:12PM Mopo said

Posted: Oct 10th 2011 1:46PM Dulcimer said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 1:57PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:26PM Faenix said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 3:01PM Alexisonfire said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 4:06PM SirUrza said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 4:57PM Xplicit said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 1:58PM mguniverse said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:28PM CaramelZappa said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:04PM SolidSage said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:09PM Shinobi13 said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:16PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:48PM Shinobi13 said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 3:32PM Acosta02 said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:14PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:15PM blackangel209 said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:28PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:30PM MarcanProulx said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 2:36PM britboyj27 said

Posted: Sep 4th 2011 3:08PM Electrium said

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