Steam's 'Early Access' lets both Mac & PC gamers try titles still in development
Gaming company Valve on Wednesday kicked off a new "Early Access" initiative, allowing gamers on PCs and Macs to purchase and begin playing select games that are still in development.
The new Early Access program, reflecting the wider state of gaming, is largely PC-centric, but the inclusion of several cross-platform games compatible with Apple's OS X shows developer support for the Mac is slowly growing. Of the 12 games available, a quarter were coded for both Mac and PC.
Mac gamers looking to try out titles as they're developing can check out the strategy-simulation games Kerbal Space Program, Prison Architect, and Patterns, available for $23, $30, and $10, respectively.
The past few years have seen increasing game development for the Mac platform, which has typically been something of a second class citizen in the gaming world. More recently, though, a number of high-profile game releases have seen Mac launches simultaneous with their PC counterparts or following shortly thereafter. For example, the upcoming Bioshock Infinite will be available to Mac owners a few months after it debuts on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 on March 26. In addition to new games, a number of legacy titles are trickling onto Apple's platform some years after first being released on consoles or for PC.
12 Comments
I thought KSP was cute, back when it was a free beta. But… drunken robot pornography?
Second class is true, but you'd think that the narrower spread of hardware and OS versions would make the Mac an attractive platform for game developers.
[quote name="Suddenly Newton" url="/t/156572/steams-early-access-lets-both-mac-pc-gamers-try-titles-still-in-development#post_2297558"]Second class is true, but you'd think that the narrower spread of hardware and OS versions would make the Mac an attractive platform for game developers.[/quote] The problem is that most games are still written in DirectX. Game frameworks like Unity are making cross-platform games easier but PC is still king for ease of development.
@richl: and Unity should die a horrible death. Please.
Second class is true, but you'd think that the narrower spread of hardware and OS versions would make the Mac an attractive platform for game developers.
Apple is the one that does not want that. Valve already said how steam and their games run much more stable on Macs.
Well, macs itself are better, and writing great things for them (even if not so graphic intensive because of directX BS) should come naturally.
Problem is lack of open GL support. Apple chooses not to put the hammer down on that area, but they could. And should.
They have everything to absolutely trounce PCs on every single area. Even gaming.
I hope they focus more on software. They are the best, but could be better.