Call for Comments: To SteamPlay or Not

Bridget

You should definitely put the game out on Steam. I downloaded a game from the GameAgent store and it took ages. Either invest in the infrastructure or abandon it and put your games on Steam.

Many people don’t know about GameAgent and, frankly, Steam is one of the first places new Mac gamers will look for titles. Maybe offer a financial incentive for buying the Mac version alone if bought from your own store, but not being on Steam is a major omission that affects knowledge of Aspyr. I guess it depends on what you value more highly – wider recognition of Aspyr and potentially higher sales versus direct sales to potentially fewer people through your own store.

http://korpil.net/ Korpil

Hmmm… I think you should go for it… it’s not like there are thousands of PC users that will also own a Mac to play the game with it…

There will be a serious number of people like me, who don’t own a PC (just Macs) and therefore will buy a new license.

SteamPlay is really a good way to go, since you are protecting your investment in games, should any of us have to move to the other platform, at least we will still “own” our games.

In my case, I bought Half-Life 2 from Steam 5 years ago, that was my last game on a PC. Fast forward to 2010 when Valve introduces SteamPlay and guess what? I didn’t have to pay again to play Half-Life 2!

The result? I instantly bought the other Half-Life 2 games!!! No questions about it…

But hey… it’s your game. Any decision you take will not affect me, since I haven’t bought Civ 5 for PC yet…

http://www.randomthink.net/ Brian Arnold

I bought the PC version and set up Boot Camp just to play it, in hopes that a Mac version would be coming shortly after and that my purchase would carry over.

I sincerely hope I can play both ways. Honestly, if I have to re-buy to play on the Mac, well – I probably will, but I’d really like it if I can at least access my saves on both OSes.

Terry

I bought the Civ 5 in bootcamp ‘hoping’ that it would be Mac supported on Steam. I purchased from Steam opposed to other retailers for that reason.

I understood this may not happen, but I was hoping Valve would compensate Aspyr for Mac users given they would have increased sales. I would happily pay an upgrade to get steamplay of $5-$10. But would not repurchase at half or full cost.

WhySoDevious

I have not yet purchased the game, but I do know one thing: I only plan on getting the game if it’s available as a digital download from Steam.

Evan

I did buy Civ V on Steam to play via Boot Camp, but with the expectation that I’d be able to also play the Mac version once it came out, on the same license.

Does Steam not compensate Mac porting companies for Mac games that are downloaded this way? If not, that seems a major problem with their system–you guys do a lot of work and certainly deserve to get paid. I’d be willing to pay an additional fee (something like $5 or $10) to also play on the Mac, but if I’d have to buy a second copy at full price I expect I’ll stick to Boot Camp, inconvenient as it is.

Sarah

I bought Civ V for the PC and have been playing it on my Mac through Wine. Even though the performance isn’t as great as it probably would be on Boot Camp or on the Mac version of the game, I have no intention of rebuying the game when it comes out for Mac. I think it’s unfair to penalize those of us who wanted to play the game when it was actually released.

Doug

I would and have tried to buy from your online store , time and time again. I get an error each time. Its so fustrating.

Sami

For me personally I like the SteamPlay feature it gives the hybrid disc digitally. As I consumer I’m don’t like paying for something twice. The games should come for both OS, just like another big company does with almost every game they release and that’s why I love them. I haven’t bought PC version, because I was waiting to see when the Mac version will come out. I understand as a third party company you have to get you payment, but still it’s not fair that we Mac users has to pay again for the same product, even though we have Bootcamp, I don’t like the idea to reboot just so I can play a game, which I can play on my main OS with the programs I use. But still like I said I’m waiting for the Mac version to buy, because I mainly use Mac OS. I prefer it to come as SteamPlay even though I’ll buy the Mac version if it’s not there.

Chris

I have not yet bought the game, as I’m waiting to see how this plays out. I would certainly prefer to by on steam play, and will buy the PC version on bootcamp if the mac version comes out and is buggy or costs more than the same PC release.

Certainly steam play is preferable overall due to the flexibility it offers, and I’m certainly not going to buy the game twice to play Mac/PC if it can be boot camp played.

I hope you do get some compensation for a steam play download (if you don’t you should), but as others have said, multi platform is a convince not a must for most people so I don’t think total Mac+PC sales would suffer.

http://www.johng.co.uk John Griffin

It is very important you make Civ 5 SteamPlay compatible.

Valve took a bold step forward and immediately added a ton of value by making their games SteamPlay compatible. Just knowing I can buy from you and not be locked in to playing on the Mac only is major selling point. Many other games including Civ 4 are SteamPlay enabled so this expectation has already been established and is expected by your customers.

Surely it’s in your interest to get people moving over to the Mac to play games? You’ll grow the market by using SteamPlay but you’ll fragment it if you don’t.

I have not purchased the PC version as I’ve be holding out for the Mac release.

http://www.regales.ca Nfora

I purchased the PC version because that’s what was available. I played it in Boot Camp, but dislike having Windows installed on my Mac (after all, I chose a Mac to use a Mac, not to use Windows).

Did I necessarily expect to get the Mac version for free? No. Very little had been said about a Mac version when the PC game was released, and so I didn’t have any expectations. Will I purchase the game a second time, just to play on my preferred platform? Not a chance.

Had the game been available at launch on both platforms (as I believe it should’ve been. In this day, simultaneous releases are something companies should actually be planning and preparing for from the beginning of a development cycle) I would’ve chosen the Mac version, without a doubt. But since I didn’t have a choice, I purchased the Windows version. I’m not going to spend more money to solve what is, after all, a minor inconvenience.

I do want Steamplay support. It makes sense, especially with the other Steam integration already present.

Zzen

I haven’t bought the PC version and was waiting for the Mac version. I think the PC-purchasing users here are early-adopters / hardcore Civ players, but I think there’s a lot of people who haven’t bought anything yet.

However just as @whysodevious I will only buy it as a digital download from Steam. I buy all my games only through Steam. I hate all the juggling of what’s installed where, what platform etc. With Steam, when I get a new computer I just download the Steam client and all my games are there. I love Steam!

http://www.jeremycrittenden.net Jeremy

I definitely assumed there would be a free download of the Mac version of the game if you’ve bought the PC version, as with other SteamPlay games.

Poops

I bought the PC version to play via BootCamp and in hopes I’d get the Mac version for free or get with big discount.

For example: I bought the retail PC version of Football Manager 2011 and got the Mac version for free

Chris

Pre-ordered PC version in bootcamp. Would be upset if I had to pay full price again. Wouldn’t mind paying $10 to upgrade to SteamPlay though to help you defray porting and other costs.

Cougar

All games available from Steam are SteamPlay. Civilization IV is SteamPlay.

So yes, the expectation is definitely there, especially for people who don’t follow Mac gaming news and are not aware of how porting works. Go read the Kotaku comments on the announcement, half of them are “no SteamPlay, not interested,” people don’t understand that a porting company needs to make $$.

But there are other reasons you should be including SteamPlay beyond this expectation. For one thing, it’s just a fact that Windows plays games better. Right now, I barely meet the Mac minimum specs. Without a demo, I would feel a whole lot less risky about buying the game if I knew I could play in Windows if I needed to.

Secondly, patches. Civ IV had a terrible problem with massive patch delays, making multiplayer impossible. If this happens with V, I know that I can always go into bootcamp if I need to.

Thirdly, Modding. Modding support will probably not be 100% on the mac, nor will we see the sdk. If it’s SteamPlay, I cam boot into Windows for this purpose.

So, at the very least, if you cannot afford to give away the game to people who bought the PC version, then give us the PC version for Mac buyers. Supreme Commander 2 works this way.

Rob

The use of Steam as DRM took this from a must buy to a no way i’ll buy it…

Steam is the worst app port i have ever used in my 20+ years on the Mac… I recently deleted it and will not be trying it again until its a proper mac app.

John C

I will almost certainly not buy the Mac version if it’s not SteamPlay enabled. I’ve not bought the Windows version yet, as I’ve had enough other games to occupy my time while I wait to see how the Mac port pans out. I’d much rather play it on the Mac, but my MacBook Pro is ever so slightly below the Mac hardware requirements, but within them for the Windows version. I can’t drop $60 to hope that it might run okay on the Mac and risk an unplayable game, so if I have to pick one or the other, Windows it is. With SteamPlay, I could try it on the Mac first and if it’s too slow I can just suck it up and play it via BootCamp.

So put me in the “No SteamPlay = No Sale” column.

Lucio

As Terry, I also bought Civ 5 on Steam “hoping” that it would be Mac supported via SteamPlay.
And if I have to re-buy the game to play it on the Mac, well…I’m sorry, but I probably won’t…

ben

I also bought the PC version, and play via bootcamp. I would be unlikely to buy the Mac version at full price, but would pay a small upgrade fee to enable playing on both platforms.

Nathan

I haven’t bought the PC version yet, but SteamPlay is a definite positive. Being able to switch back to the PC in the future or easily transfer to a new Mac is solid value that would make me want the game more.

http://cerebralgardens.com Dave

In general, I now try and buy all of my games through Steam, because I can play in Boot Camp if the Windows version comes out first and switch to the Mac version later. I only want to play the games on Mac, but will put up with Boot Camp if I have to in order to play when it’s released.

As more and more people switch to Mac though, I’d expect the Mac version to release the same day as the Windows version. Maybe that’s the answer, use SteamPlay for titles where the Mac version releases later, and don’t use it if Mac/Windows versions release on the same date.

I would expect Aspyr to receive a portion of my original Windows version purchase when I downloaded the Mac version though. Considering I’m only buying the Windows version with the intent of switching to the Mac version when it’s released. Steam knows I’m a Mac user since I have Steam running on my Mac, so when I buy a Windows version, they should automatically allocate some of those funds toward the Mac port etc.

Hope my rambling help.

Trevor

I bought Civ IV on Steam because it had Steamplay. I would not have purchased it otherwise. I like playing on my PC at home and on my MacBook on the road. I find bootcamp too irritating to use.

I will only buy Civ V if it supports Steamplay.

Alex

I’ve held off purchasing to see how the Mac/Windows/Steam functionally played out.

A. We’re seeing an aful lot of games that are SteamPlay enabled, Torchlight, Eshalon, all of Valves games, etc… So there’s an expectation there.
B. Civ V is rare in that it requires Steam to be installed anyway, given the level of integration with Steam services there’s an expectation there as well.

I understand Aspyr needs to make money, but as is if there is no SteamPlay functionality I’ll probably breakdown and buy the Windows version on Steam. My reasoning is partially because of the aforementioned, there’s expectations for those services now, I want to support companies that let me play the way I want to play. Mostly, I have a 4 year old iMac, a couple month old MacBook Pro, and a beefed up Gaming PC. Would I play Civ V on the MacBook Pro, probably. I have to travel a lot for holidays and other events and I generally use it as my portable gaming machine (both Mac games and I have a windows partition). But until I get a new iMac (which other than an aging x1600 card my 4 year old iMac is still fine) I do most of my Computer gaming on the PC in the basement. The fact is I’ll play more on Windows right now than I will on OS X, SteamPlay is great because it doesn’t matter what platform I’m on, I can access my games but in the case of if it comes down to OS X or Windows, I’ll have to err on the side of Windows right now.

Ian

I have held off on purchasing the game until a Mac version is released, but given the terrible state of Apple’s OpenGL performance in most cases, I was really hoping that a SteamPlay version would be available in case I need to play it in Windows via BootCamp instead. I realize that you guys probably paid a hefty price tag to be able to port the Mac version of this wildly popular franchise, but it’s a disservice to the users when games perform so much worse on the Mac than their Windows counterparts, or have certain graphics options disabled. That’s generally not your fault; I blame Apple and the driver companies entirely for being so far behind in graphics performance and features.

So, please please please provide SteamPlay support, and if so, I will absolutely buy the game on day one from the Mac Steam client. If not, I’ll probably wait for the reviews and benchmarks to figure out which platform to buy the game for.

Taro

I bought the game for PC and would like to play it one my mac at the office with my work mates. If it’s not a “dual license”, I won’t buy it.

I mean, why would anybody buy a game twice?

Ron

Absolutely support it, this is the future, providing dual platform users a seamless experience and not gouging them for cash either. I won’t buy this until SteamPlay is supported.

Janichsan

Since I’ll definitely buy the boxed version (which I still prefer), I don’t care that much about SteamPlay. It would be a neat addition, though.

Dr Jykill

I bought Civ V through Steam to play via BootCamp. I “hoped” and continue to hope that it will support SteamPlay. As others have mentioned, because Civ IV did, I made the logical/educated guess that Civ V likely would. If it doesn’t, I only have myself to blame for putting my trust in Aspyr to do that. I have bought it once, I certainly will not buy it twice. I had hoped during the year or so the world knew that Civ V was being made that Aspyr or someone would announce that a Mac version was coming or would come or even a whisper that it was being looked into. Had that happened I would have held off buying the PC version via Steam and waited to get the mac version regardless of distribution (however I do prefer Steam for buying needs). Because no announcement came, I did what a lot of people did, I bit the bullet, bought the Steam version for use in BootCamp and now wait and hope that it supports SteamPlay.

Zach

Personally, I have been holding off on any purchase of Civ 5 until there is a way to purchase it on Steam. I organize all of my games within Steam and (with no offense intended) I find Steam to be a service which is miles ahead of Game Agent. Please allow me to purchase the Mac Civ 5 through Steam sooner rather than later.

Andrew Carter

I would prefer to buy on Steam. I don’t want to use GameAgent mostly due to the limited downloads from Digital River. Steam allows me to easily install and play the game anywhere I want using my account. This feels like a much better model than GameAgent.

BkG

I was ready to go the PC-bootcamp path, but you announced the November date while I was still making up my mind. I am now holding off until Mac version is released, as I strive really hard not to use Windows code at home if possible. How its priced doesn’t matter to much to me — but not having CD-based copy protection does; I waste time swapping CDs in and out every day.

And, I really, really wish you would finalize the Requirements — I expect to buy a new Mac just so I can run this, and I need those Reqs to make sure my choice is right. Games I can download right away — hardware has shipping times.

Impatient,

Richard Maine

I have been holding off on buying the Windows version of Civ V and playing it under BootCamp specifically because of the possibility that it might mean I’d need to buy it twice in order to run in natively under OS X. I sure far prefer running natively as it is a PITA to continually reboot every time I want to switch between playing a game and doing something else; I’ve done that with other games and I don’t like it.

Unlike one other poster, I’m a fan of Steam now that it supports Mac. I’d rather have no DRM at all, but understanding that I’m not likely to get my rather, Steam’s DRM is at least good about being reasonably non-intrusive. I refuse to buy games that need a physical media check for every time you play. That’s caused me too much pain in the past; never again. Steam’s offline mode helps for things like my laptop.

I actually bought 2 legit copies of Civ IV for my Mac. I bought a DVD copy long ago and found the media check so annoying that I used an illegal cracked copy instead of the legal one I had bought. That caused other annoyances (notably with patches), so all in all I was not very pleased. When Steam came out with a sale on a package of CIV IV plus the 3 “expansions”, that prompted me to go ahead and buy it even though I already owned a legal copy. (Ok, the good price on the package didn’t hurt either). I’m happy I did that and it has given me a much better experience with the game as I don’t have to choose between a legal copy that needs the DVD versus a hacked copy without the latest patches.

If Civ V is steamplay, I’ll certainly buy it. I already would have if I were sure it was going to be. If it isn’t, I’ll probably wait to see what feedback is like (or to see if it goes steamplay later).

Perhaps it is impolitic to mention (but I’ll be polite in doing so) one advantage steamplay would give me. If the Mac port turns out to be particularly buggy and fall too far behind the PC version in patches (ahem ), steamplay at least gives me the option to play under BootCamp while waiting for the Mac one to improve. Maybe it won’t be a problem anyway, but I like having backup options.

Geoff

Thank you for opening the door to feedback. As a long-time Mac user and Aspyr customer, I would prefer to see the game entirely distributed and managed through Steam — if at all possible.

I have purchased retail Mac games for years, many from Aspyr. I eventually shelved Civ IV and its expansions, however, due to frustration at having to keep the physical disc with my MacBook Pro at all times. Instead, I turned to DRM-free retail games (like MacSoft’s Age of Empires III) and Steam.

Steam, which has apparently been on quite the rampage in the PC world, has been a breath of fresh air over retail games. I have purchased all of Valve’s first-party titles already, along with a few indie games. Since Steam launched, I have purchased more games than I purchased in the past three years combined. The disc-less model and occasional sales events (which are more difficult to coordinate with boxed product) have won me over.

Basically, I have become fully committed to the Steam ecosystem. Civ V (PC) seems to be a game with great hooks into that ecosystem. The threat of losing that with a non-”Steamy” Mac version has, quite frankly, put me off altogether. If I see Civ V Mac show up in the Steam store, Ill buy it in a heartbeat … even at full retail price. If it never shows up there, I won’t give it a second thought.

I hope you take these comments under genuine consideration. I won’t buy another $50 boxed game with Mac-only multiplayer when there is a valid ecosystem for cross-platform digital distribution and multiplayer gameplay. And yes, I would expect to have access to the PC version after buying the Mac version (if it happens).

Thanks.

Dana

I was eagerly waiting for Civ V since I first heard the announcement nearly a year ago. I paid $50 for it the day it was released… But I bought it through Steam because I read that when you buy a PC game from them, when the Mac version is released, you get access to both. I have a Mac. I would MUCH prefer to play Civ on the mac side of the computer, but I’m not shelling out ANOTHER $50 to do so. I’ll just reboot the computer into bootcamp thankyouverymuch. (which is a pain, and because of that, I don’t play it much, I’m more likely to play something that is on the mac side).

Please release this with SteamPlay. At the very least, offer a much reduced price for those of us who already paid full price to play.

-dana

Adrian

I know that I purchased the game for PC and knew that I would have to use bootcamp to play it. I was so excited for the release that an idea of a mac version did not come to my mind. I don’t think anyone expected that a mac version would come out anytime soon and that definitely weighed on my decision to get the PC version. However, now that I know a mac version is coming out and so soon after the PC release I am really hoping that I did not spend that money for the PC version in vain. I certainly did not expect to get a free mac version when I purchased the PC version, although many titles on steam do support that feature and I truly enjoy that feature as it is easier on my wallet and more in vain of my idea of digital download ownership. Understanding that every free mac copy with the purchase of the PC copy comes somewhat directly out of Aspyr’s pocket I hope that you will make the mac version free.

Bismarrck

I pre-ordered the PC special version because no news about Aspyr or Civ 5 was announced at that time. But I regret doing so as that the mac version is only three months late. I really hope I can get Mac version for free, or $5 or $10 as upgrading! Besides, I have pre-ordered the Mac version. I wish Aspyr could give us a final announcement on steamplay before the releasing date as I could choose to cancel my pre-order or not. How stupid if I paid a full price twice for such a SteamPlay title?!

Graf

I haven’t purchased a copy of Civ5 on PC from Steam. Since i have a new mac air which is below your specs I have to wait and see if it plays or not. Of course without a demo I would probably have to borrow or download a pirated copy to find out.

But I have purchased other games on Steam when they are on sale ($5 bioshock); just in case I get it “for free”. I played a bit (to get myself excited) on a PC and am waiting for them to release a Mac version digitally.

It’s a bit frustrating. I would like to have games combined into my steam account. But I recognize that quality porting (like Feral did with bioshock adding small but important features like better menu control and a battery indicated) costs money.
So I support the idea of having to pay extra to “add” a mac version to Steam when it comes out. I am fine with that being a “whatever the market will bear” price. If I don’t want to pay 50 dollars now I can wait a year or two and get it for 30 or whatever.
The lack of that functionality in the Steamplay offering seems to be a very aggressive play on Valves part. As a gamer I appreciate that stance but as a mac user (with a weaker machine and thus wants native ports) who has seen a very limited pipeline of great games I feel like they’re cutting off supply of games by saying “no money”.

In summary even though I am a dedicated Mac-user (now anyway) I would like to have each game as one platform independent game on Steam and I am fine having to buy the mac game separately (or pay extra to activate a Steamplay Mac+PC option).

el8

As others have said, I’ve purchased the Windows version to run in Boot Camp hoping that when the Mac version was released it’d be available through steam as well (as other PC/Mac games are).

As another poster above said, maybe some sort of fee (perhaps $5 or $10) could be charged to have a Mac license as well? I can’t see paying another $50 for the same game just to play it in MacOS.

Marcelo

Thank you for sharing the company’s concerns. I thought also that SteamPlay could be a problem for the company’s profit.

However, seeing that Civ IV was available through SteamPlay, I assumed that Civ V would also be available. So I bought the game (pre-order) for windows to play it though Bootcamp (or Parallels) assuming to get a Mac version later for free.

However, even though I’ve been really looking forward to the Mac version (I check your blog every day ^^), I wouldn’t buy the same game again. Playing it in Windows is not convenient, but more convenient than 50 dollars. Frankly, I would be disappointed with Aspyr…

Summarizing: I bought the Windows version assuming the Mac version would be granted.

Hope you guys can come to a conclusion soon ^^.

A.Cole

I vote for putting it on Steam. I have preordered the box version, but I do like having Steam as my backup – especially being able to play without a disc handy.

Tibrim

This is a tough question. Based on the language in the post, I’m guessing if Aspyr goes the SteamPlay route, there will be no compensation for those previous purchases of Civ 5 for Windows. With that assumption, here are my thoughts.

I purchased Civilization V on release day for Windows. I’ve always been a Civ fan and looked forward to these game since its announcement. At the time of release, I had heard rumors that a Mac port was on the way. Now here is where it gets a bit tricky. There has been this presided set with how Civ IV was handled in relation to SteamPlay. Many may be expect future installments to follow suit. The tricky part is, Civ IV wasn’t a recent release when it jumped on the SteamPlay bandwagon, at this point any extra sells due to this decision was a bonus. On the other hand, Civ V is a recently released title and Aspyr is rightfully looking to capitalize on potential sales. So the big question is, how many sales are potentially lost if we enable SteamPlay?

That I can’t answer, but I can tell you what I’ll do in either case. I’ve purchased Civ V for Windows. If it goes the SteamPlay route, I will likely start playing it under Mac OS X. If it doesn’t go the SteamPlay route, I will continue to play this title under Windows. There is no sale to gain from me.

Nothing makes me happier than to see great games coming to the Mac, so no matter what the decision ends up being, keep up the great work!

Heatseeker2

I am a dedicated mac gamer who has purchased hundreds of mac released games. However over the years I have not purchased many mac games because I did not know they had even been ported. My main mac gaming website that I liked to visit, Inside Mac Games has not been updated in the past years like it used to be.

Steam to me is a way of finding new and exciting games in a single source. As most of the purchases I am now interested in for my computer are digital releases, steam allows for all my games to be accessed in one place, by one vendor. I don’t like the idea of having bought digital copies from D2D, gameagent, Macgamestore, and other digital sources. If i ever delete the files for the game then I have to recall where I bought the game from. Gathering patches is another issue within itself.

I have no problem with paying for mac only releases, even though I can boot camp I just find myself not doing it. Granted prices may be higher, but sadly as a long time mac gamer I have accepted that. I just need to be ensured that I am getting a product that will continue to be updated and work after many years.

I will be definitely be buying Civ 5 at some point and time. If it turns out to be purchasable through steam (steamplay or not) it will be a day one purchase. Otherwise, I will purchase it when I get around to it.

Bottom line is I purposely did not go out and buy the windows version of Civ 5 expecting to gain access to the OS X port through steamplay. I don’t know why everyone assumes that because a game comes out on steam and is on both platforms that they are entitled to steam play support (looks at the initial steam release of Civilization 4).

I have waited patiently for Aspyr to release their mac port and I hope to be purchasing a mac version on Steam.

ZildjianKX

I held off on buying Civilization V after what happened to the Mac version of Supreme Commander 2, but unless you closely followed that, you probably had the expectation that you would get the Mac version for free, especially since that was the case for Civilization IV.

On a side note, I’m really happy that this is going to be distributed through Steam and not via game agent. Realistically, you guys need to loosen your DRM, it’s not competitive or fair. It should have unlimited downloads and unlimited activations. Those reasons alone will prevent me from ever buying anything through it.

8-bitDesigner

I’m actually holding off on buying this game *until* it’s on Steam for OSX. Sure, I could boot into Win7 and play it there, but what I’d rather do is play it on my Mac, via Steam. Getting the PC version would be a very, very, very nice win, and one I’d definitely pay a premium for (digital deluxe edition pricing, maybe?).

If the game isn’t coming to Steam for OSX or isn’t going to support SteamPlay, then honestly, I’m probably going to hold off on buying it until well into next year when the price for both games together (OSX and PC versions) approaches the $40 mark, or just buy the PC version at a later date.

8-bitDesigner

By the way, this should go without saying, but you guys are freaking awesome for at least asking about this, and for being frank and honest about how you make your money of the work you do. Keep up the good work!

jstjoe

I, like many who have commented above and many more still silent, purchased the game in Steam with the expectation that when/if a Mac version was released I would have access to it free of charge. I bought Civ V in Bootcamp because when the game came out for Windows there was no date for a Mac launch, but I would much rather run it in OS X.

Thomas C

I’m also on the list of people currently running Civ 5 under bootcamp. I’m really impressed that the mac release is this soon after the pc – a pleasant surprise! Being a long time mac user, and having played I think every release of Civilization from the start, I was not expecting such a quick turnaround. Nor do I feel “entitled” to a shared PC/Mac license.

HOWEVER! I do think that it’s the current, and growing, state of affairs where cross platform compatibility can only serve to grow a market and overall adoption. If Given the available Steam technology, it would be a poor business decision to not have a shared license.

And, of course, I’d much much rather be running the game under the MacOS. I’d always have a twinge of annoyance, disappointment, when playing if I had to buy the game twice.

Brett K

This is kind of a loaded question. Of course people are going to want something for nothing.

I’m in the same boat as others in this post. I’ve purchased the game for Windows when it was released. However, I had hopes that it would be a Steamplay title. Having said that, I completely understand that because you are a 3rd party company that is not going to make any profit on Steamplay downloads so it is not in your best interest to do that type of release. If you could work out some sort of deal with Valve about charging a $5-$10 Steamplay charge for people who purchased the Windows version I think that would be the best of both worlds. Or if that is not an option, give us an option where we give you our Steam community name and after verification that we own Civ5 for PC you give us a download code for the Mac version via Steam?

Bottom line, I’m not going to pay full-price for a version of a game I already have. I only play games via Steam now, and the PC game industry is beginning to see that too (thus using the Steamworks SDK). Especially with the hardware requirements of this game, and Apple’s sorry state of OpenGL drivers/implementation, the performance is an unknown quantity and not worth the risk of a full price purchase.

http://www.gameagent.com BlogLady

Nice feedback, guys!

Just want to note a few things. Please check out our FAQ v2 for more details, but because the game is SteamWorks it does not matter where you purchase (disk or digital). The build is the same. You will have Steam authorization rules and Steam encryption and access to Steam save game files, etc., no matter where you purchase it. So GameAgent DRM is not on the digital build and disk check is not on the disk.

http://blog.gameagent.com/2010/11/10/civilization-v-mac-faqs-v2/

Out of curiosity for you two machine owners – do you guys have PC home and Mac mobile? Or vice versa? I have to admit, I can’t even navigate a PC anymore I”m so entrenched in my Mac world.

Jonas

A 5-10$ charge as suggested by Brett K might be what I would be willing to pay for the convenience of not having to reboot into Windows (or use Wine/Steam) to play Civ5. I would certainly not buy the game a second time. In fact, I had hoped that the game would become available for both Mac and Windows with one single purchase, similar to Blizzard games.

I have a PC home and a Mac mobile (which I purchased for the then unparalleled hardware).

James

I bought for PC to play via Boot Camp, because there was no news on a Mac version and typically the Mac version comes out as much as a year later. Mac users asked whether a Mac version was in the works and were told nothing, and were in fact told to look to previous history as a guide (i.e. wait a year). So I and many others bought the PC version.

If this game is really coming out for the holidays then it must surely have been under way before the PC version came out. If that’s the case, and it was withheld from people who were asking specifically so they wouldn’t be double-dipped, then that’s really disappointing.

Should Aspyr get paid? Yes. I don’t expect or demand you to make this a SteamPlay title (even though I’ve been bugging you to let us know one way or the other). However, I am really annoyed that this release was kept under wraps when it would have absolutely influenced people’s buying decisions.

Is this a case of 2K trying to eat Aspyr’s lunch by luring Mac users to buy the PC version?

Tim Z

I have recently started using the mac for gaming in the last year. This is primarily because of steam. Before that point I kept a separate PC for gaming only. I have passed up a purchase of supreme commander 2 because it is not on steam. I know who aspyr is and respect your work, but until you are distributing games on steam, you will continue to lose sales from me.

I am sure there are a lot of converts like myself out there right now. The addition of steam on the mac really is a game changer for the mac games industry as a whole and not being on that train is only going to hurt you in the long term.

Honestly, the only developer that can me to work outside of steam is Blizzard and they are the 800lb Gorilla of the PC games industry right now.

Ryan Brown

I agree, we need more aspyr games on Steam.

Marcelo

As of me, I have a Mac home and a Mac mobile. I’m playing Civ V in Bootcamp and/or Parallels.

Keep up the good work!

Cougar

@ Tim Z SupCom 2 is on steam. You just have to buy it from Virtual Programming, but you get a code that you type into Steam that lets you download it as a Steam title.

http://www.richgates.com Rich Gates

I bought the PC version on Steam with the thought that Steam Play would allow the Mac version to be downloaded as well. I really don’t like having to reboot into Boot Camp every time I play the game. I really hope you don’t expect another license to be purchased, because I won’t do it.

David

I’ve been waiting for a Mac version of Civ5 on Steam before I buy it. I also know a lot of my friends on Steam, who also play on Macs, have been doing the same.

This isn’t a time to be greedy, Steam Play won’t cost you millions in sales, in fact, it will encourage more to buy it.

Finn-Henning

Hello there,

I believe if you allow the Steam Play feature then several “would-be-buyers” will pick up the product. I personally do not enjoy jumping into bootcamp or use parallels or something similar.

Richard Hill

As i purchased the mac version and have to play the pc version instead since it wasnt completed on time , even though it runs perfectly well through wine , no i will not pay twice!

Richard Hill

Another thing the effort to port the game to native cocoa ,would be worth paying for but we both know you guys wont be doing this , when centega exists.
i

http://www.mookeo.com Matt Dyson

My situation is similar to the one you suggested above.

I have an imac at home, I no longer have a PC apart from at work (and that is business only). However when Civ V came out I had the biggest internal struggle of “to buy or not to buy”. I decided in the end to purchase it and do a little playing on bootcamp awaiting the eventual mac port which I expected to get for free, my logic being that I already own all of the Civ IV collection and I can play that on either my mac or my bootcamp partition so why should Civ V be any different.

If it comes to be that I have to pay again to play the game in OSX quite simply I won’t. I don’t like playing the game using boot camp, it’s a hassle to reboot into windows every time i want a game as I pretty much use OSX 100% of the rest of the time, heck it stops me from playing the game that much as it’s just a pain.

So simply put, If I wasn’t to be able to play it on OSX for free you wouldn’t be seeing any money from me anyway, it’s not out of spite or anything like that, it’s a simple 50/50 between “I just don’t have money to throw around” and “I’ve already paid for the game so I don’t see why I have to pay again”. I’ll play the game less (due to bootcamp hassle) and therefore be a lot less likely to buy any future add-ons or expansion packs.

Jessica

We bought 1 copy for Windows (to play on our HTPC/media center Windows computer), with the hope that it will become playable on our Mac laptops through SteamPlay. We held off buying the second copy for our household (two of us want to play) because we wanted to see whether or not SteamPlay would happen. If it doesn’t, we won’t be buying a second copy through Aspyr.

1) We can always run Steam on a Mac through Boot Camp (even if it’s a pain to reboot). We can’t run Aspyr’s Mac port on Windows. Therefore any second copy of Civ 5 will be purchased for the PC.

2) All of Valves games are SteamPlay and I see this as a HUGE value-add that makes me much much more wililng to pay for their games.

3) I will be rather annoyed because it feels to me like Aspyr knows that everyone has been asking about SteamPlay and has been avoiding committing one way or another. If the decision is made to *not* go SteamPlay it will feel to me like Aspyr was hoping to profit from users who were anticipating/hoping for SteamPlay and will now have to buy a second copy.

Jessica

Additional comment:

As far as I’m concerned the choices are:
1) Buy SteamPlay Civ 5 from Aspyr (Aspyr gets *some* of my money)
2) Buy Civ 5 PC version so I can at least play via BootCamp (Aspyr gets none of my money)

Philip Olson

I installed boot camp (and steam) to play Civ V on my laptop with the understanding that a Mac version would exist, and that I could use it instead (at no additional cost). Otherwise I would have waited because rebooting is not fun. It’s my first steam experience, but this is how I thought steam works, in that one purchase can work on multiple computers [regardless of OS].

Lasse Skole Hansen

I definitely see it as a positive, that it’s not gameagent-DRM’ed or disc-checked, and sold with Steam-DRM, which is much less instrusive – will I be able to register it with my steam account and re-download it as many times as I want?

Anyway on topic: I only have one mac with fast graphics but limited space, so I recently deleted my windows 7 partition, to sort of make the final jump to pure mac gaming and steam and save some space. As far as I’m concerned there is one group of beneficiaries when making Civ V Steamplay-enabled, and that’s the users.

To us it’s just a whole lot easier and more pleasant to be a customer with either Aspyr or Valve or 2K or whomever when it’s all handled via Steam. Has Valve not got numbers showing you the financial benefits of Steamplay, or is that a bit more complicated when you’ve only done the port, which is “free” to some users (who obviously have already paid Firaxis or 2K 50 bucks). What I’m getting at, is that “free” is probably not the appropriate word from a user-standpoint, given that users who benefit from your port for free already paid a lot to play Civ V.

Thanks a lot for hearing your perhaps future customers out on this – this sets a really positive example, and I’d now consider myself quite a fan of you guys:-)

Pelle

I purchased the PC version on release and play it through wine/XQuartz. I did expect the Mac version to come out on Steam, but I realise it might be problematic for you. I most likely won’t buy the Mac version outside of Steam since I’ve already lodged 40+ hours into the game and don’t play it as much any more.

Brent

I’m in the same situation as Jessica. I have a home computer, a PC, which is used for most gaming, and a Mac laptop. I purchased the game through Steam for PC since that is where I was planning on playing it most, under the hope that I’d not need to repurchase for my mac for my mobile gaming. My girlfriend is a gamer as well, and we’d like to play each other in Civ V (she has the same computer set up as me: PC at home, Mac for mobile). If it is a Steamplay version, getting the second copy is a no-brainer. If we need to choose between Mac an PC versions, It’s doubtful we’d go for the mac version.

http://carrtrubl.com bcarr

I have to say, bravo for actually taking comments from Mac gamers on the matter. I have a few suggestions/points to make and I’ll be on my way.

» Taking the SteamPlay route must be some sort of revenue-destroyer for you. It does get you more sales—as even Apple is touting Steam as the premiere game-platform for the Mac now—but I can understand that splitting the profit of the game a multitude of ways is going to leave everyone (save Valve) with scraps for what the game is worth.

» Because of the SteamPlay compatibility of the previous installment in the franchise, quite a few people are going to be expecting a Mac port of Civ V to be coming along any day now. It’s a decision that probably wasn’t made by you that you’ll now have to take into consideration with this whole situation.

» Save portability has to be something to be considered to make this port even worth it. As far as I can tell, a few of the games that support saved games in the Steam Cloud don’t translate between platforms very well, if at all. Torchlight is a great example of simple save files not being transferrable across platforms, even though SteamPlay is possible for the game. Solve that problem with Civ V and you’ll have the happiest customers ever to purchase a SteamPlay game on Steam, PERIOD.

» If you must release a SteamPlay version at a premium, throw in some of the DLC with the SteamPlay purchase. I suppose some customers who already paid 50$ for the Windows version of the game might not purchase it again without some sort of enticement. One of the simple DLC packs for the new leaders shouldn’t be that difficult to include and you’ll probably see more sales in the long run if this route is taken.

Mike

I bought the PC version of Civ V when it was released because I didn’t except a Mac version. I only have a Mac at home, so with an old copy of Windows XP laying around I installed Boot Camp and did everything through there. I still only boot into Windows just to play the game. But I would love if I got the Mac version for free and be able to not have to use Windows.

Jessica

I’d also agree with the commenter Richard Hill — I’d be more willing to at least contemplate paying some amount for a Mac port on Steam regardless of SteamPlay, but only if the Mac port was native Cocoa. Since Civ V won’t be native Cocoa, chances are the performance might be so bad on my Mac that I might as well just buy and play the Windows version via Boot Camp. If there is SteamPlay, then I would buy the Mac version, try it out and then use it on Windows if the Mac version’s performance isn’t good enough.

Jacob

I definitely purchased Civ5 for PC to play via BootCamp on the expectation that I would get the mac version for free when it came out. I admit I assumed that because Civ4 supported steamplay, Civ5 would as well. At the time, Civ5 for Mac did not have an official launch date. If I’d known it would be so soon, I would have waited. If I’d known the steamplay support was in question, I would have waited. So while I realize that you are not responsible for my mistaken expectations, I would certainly be a much happier customer of both Civilization and Steam if you support steamplay so that I can play Civ5 without rebooting (I will not repurchase it for Mac if you don’t support steamplay).

Ed

My two cents:
-since the system req’ts are pretty current on this one, probably aren’t many gamers that will have both PC and Mac systems that can both run the game. (But, the ones that do are the sort of gamer that don’t balk at paying up for stuff.)
-I’m guessing most of us who bought the PC version in September and are now interested in the Mac version have been running on Bootcamp
-So while we’d rather play this puppy ‘clean’ in OSX, we’re not gonna dish out another $50 to save the trouble of rebooting. (More likely to dish out $50 to get a copy of Parallels and be done with it.)
-Bottom line: no one ever promised us a free Mac version – so it isn’t owed to us. But if you offer it, I don’t think you’ll be canibalising too many sales. But you will be going the extra mile for alot of loyal customers.

David

Living in Alaska it is a pain to find boxed versions of anything. Steam has worked for me since before I switched to Mac. It still works (or works again) since I’ve switched. Unless there is a SteamPlay option, I will not be buying another Aspyr release. I want the option of running in CrossOver. I’d love to give Civ 5 a try, but will not buy it twice, and probably wouldn’t bother setting up Bootcamp if/when the Mac version runs as reliably as the previous Aspyr games I’ve purchased (Civ III, IV, SimCity…)

Josh

Civilization IV’s inclusion as a Steamplay game was a definite boon for me, a Bootcamp gamer. Having the same occur for Civilization V would be fantastic. Please Aspyr, make it so.

ben

I haven’t bought the pc version but am going to buy the Mac version. Since I run both PC and Mac getting the Pc version would be nice addition. I have a lot of games on Steam and and I like it when the Mac version come out and I just get it. So having the opposite happen would be nice.

Jean

I’d be happy to get it through Steam. I’m a Mac-only gamer but I’ve been using Steam ever since they started supporting OSX games.

Dann

Run mac laptop on the road (or iPad if I am feeling lite), and Both PC and Mac at home. Upgrade cycle is 4 years staggered, so sometimes my mac is superior (like now, far exceeding min specs), and others my PC is superior (like by Jan 31st). Right now, I play Civ V on a pc which should be fine spec wise, but the game handles memory poorly, so it bogs down. I would prefer to use my mac, but would not likely buy the title twice as I have said previously.

If only there was a tool which could tell you which platform downloaded the title, and how it was used such that tracking could provide data on Mac/PC Steamplay usage. Some universal system folks logged into which your game depended on… Hummm. (hint hint)

Either way, good luck on the decision, kinda a rock – hard place position frankly. Either lose revenue but possibly greatly please fans, or gain revenue, but lose customers and customer opinions.

Anonymous

Concerning your question
“Out of curiosity for you two machine owners – do you guys have PC home and Mac mobile? Or vice versa?”
Most people I know use a mobile mac – which is why I (and probably a lot of other people) would love to see the minimum spec. for the graphics card to be the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. It works in Bootcamp this way, so why shouldn’t it in OS X?

Snap

I bought the PC version because I own 2 PCs. I’d probably buy a Mac version as I own 3 Macs. However, not offering a SteamPlay version of Civ V for Mac while still being on the Steam store and having Steamworks integration would set a very bad precedence for future titles doing the same thing. There is an expectation that if a PC and Mac version of the same game are available on Steam that Steamplay is a given. I know originally Civ IV was going to go against that but better judgement won out in that case.

I honestly didn’t expect a Mac version of Civ V from Aspyr because of the exact issues you are discussing here. 2kgames should have had the Mac version done internally and added Steamplay. The day of separate Mac ports being done by different companies is coming to an end IMO. Perhaps Aspyr should look into being acquired by a large PC publisher soon.

Snap

@Anonymous “Most people I know use a mobile mac – which is why I (and probably a lot of other people) would love to see the minimum spec. for the graphics card to be the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M. It works in Bootcamp this way, so why shouldn’t it in OS X?”

Because Mac OS X drivers for video cards are a joke and will never be on par with their PC counterparts. Games that run perfectly fine on even integrated graphics on PC won’t launch on a Mac. This is nothing new and won’t ever change until Apple actually provides true graphic drivers for Mac OS X instead of the porting mess we get now.

Josh Reynolds

I’m in the same boat as many of these people and purchased the PC version counting on steam play. You will look so unbelievably greedy to the world if you don’t support it and I’ll be so offended I’ll avoid your titles in the future.

Patrick

Same as the people above. I bought Civ 5 through steam thinking I could deal with degraded performance inside a vm until the mac version came out. Civ 4 has Steamplay and didn’t think much of it. I doubt I’ll buy it again, but knowing there’s a more playable version out would probably just turn me off to it all together and occupy my time w/a diff game.

Morgan

I’m sure many of the people posting here understand the difficulty of licensing, development and support on the Mac platform given the relatively small size of its gaming market. However, I think it’s misleading to state that “giving content away for free is a difficult business model to support” when the only customers you would lose by supporting SteamPlay are ones who would voluntarily buy the game twice (I’m sure a small number).
The argument really comes down to your customer/technical support costs for PC purchasers switching to primarily playing on Mac (who paid money to 2K and not Aspyr). I’m sure you can objectively weigh those costs vis a vis the amount of bad will or lost sales you would generate by not supporting the feature.

Outside of SteamPlay, the decision to sell via GameAgent exclusively or also sell via Steam I should hope would be a no-brainer. While you control the customer experience and a larger chunk of the sale via GameAgent, I’m sure your sales figures through Steam of Civ IV will point to a larger pool of potential customers.
I’ve played the CoD series on PC (pre-Steam) and would even re-buy it on Mac if it was available on Steam. As a Mac games developer, you should be happy with the high profile Steam has brought to gaming on the Mac. Especially when retail shelf space for Mac games tends to be nonexistent.
While running your own competing digital delivery service may put you in a difficult spot, the development part of your company should want to sell to the largest number of customers.

Personally, I haven’t bought Civ V on PC yet as I was waiting for the Mac version. I’d be really disappointed if you didn’t at least offer it for sale through Steam. SteamPlay isn’t a necessary feature for me, but it sounds like a few of the above posters would be upset about its absence.

Saku

Hi

I’m a PC desktop / Mac mobile user. I haven’t bought any version of Civ 5 yet because I’ve been waiting to see what happens with the Mac release.. I would like to play it on my Mac but, at the same time, I’d like to have the option to play it on my more powerful desktop PC in case my MBP can’t handle it.

I do bootcamp Windows, so most likely I’m going to go Steam anyway if just for the clarity (install and play easily on any computer and have it with the rest of my games). A Mac version would be a sweet plus, though. I hate dropping everything and rebooting (or switching machines totally if I’m at home) to be able to play.

http://nvinnyc.com Nick V

I own high-end desktops for both Mac and PC. Since I’m a dedicated gamer I bought the PC version when it was first out. It would be cool to get the Mac version for free via SteamPlay but I would understand if that doesn’t happen for monetary reasons.

Timot

I’m a mac user, and a long time Aspyr customer (Jedi Knight 2 ftw). I’d love to see Aspyr games support steam. It’d be great to retro fit others *cough*callofduty4modernwarfare*cough* to bring them onto steam. I understand there’s probably a thousand legal and financial hoops to jump through, but it’s something that would probably work out in the long run.

Hans

I run Mac OS X on a hackintosh as my main OS and rarely boot into Windows except for certain games. When Civ 5 came out I held off on purchasing hoping that a Mac version would be announced until enough of my friends were playing that I decided to just buy the PC version. So I’ve been rebooting into Windows for it, hoping for Steamplay. I understand the financial problem of offering Steamplay for free and not seeing any money from people like me who have already bought the PC version. Is there a way to charge for an upgrade to Steamplay? I’d pay, say, $20 to play on the Mac and support Aspyr, but I would not purchase the game at full price again just to play on the Mac side.

As for machines, all our machines at home and on the road mainly run Mac OS X. I built the hackintosh instead of purchasing a Mac because Apple doesn’t offer a good gaming machine in a reasonable price range.

J

Hey,

I recently went over to Mac from my PC, and since my life has become a lot easier. Most of the learning experience of using a mac involved finding out that many websites on the internet detect whether you are using mac OS or windows, and the programs, patches and downloads adjust to your operating system accordingly.

To cut to the chase, a mac friend of mine recommended i use steam (which he excitedly explained had just been released on mac). Silly as i am, i carried on with what i had learned so far, got steam and assumed instantly it would recognise my mac OS and provide only those games that are supported. None of that however… I went through the Civ V buying process quite quickly (very excited as i am a very VERY big Civ fan since the original sid civ), and therefore overlooked any ‘PC only’ signs (WHICH I DID NOT NOTICE) and bought the PC version. Surely it wouldn’t be hard to have some sort of ‘warning’ that pops up to let you know that which you are purchasing wont work! You would get that much in any games shop just by looking at the game case… making that mistake through my own naivety has, for the time being, persuaded me not to use steam again.

Seeing as i cannot play the game and have tried various different things to get it running, it goes without saying that i except the 40quid i spent on it should give me a mac version. I understand that there are licensing difficulties, however when the mac version comes out, surely idiots (like me) should be able to get a mac version seeing as we cannot use our PC ones?

To be honest, I AM GUTTED.

Jon

I don’t really have a horse in this race as I don’t currently own a mac, but I have been enjoying the thought of many of the games I own on steam being steam-play titles, as I do plan on purchasing a mac at some point. I was expecting it would be included with Civ V since Civ IV was one of the launch titles.

However, I don’t think it’s entirely fair to just ask you to give the game away… If I understand correctly and you are serving as publisher, and not 2K. As I understand it, pretty much every steam-play title out there now are games where the publisher published both mac and windows versions of the game… so while I would like to have the steam-play version for mac, I can understand if that doesn’t happen. If you can work out revenue sharing between 2K and yourselves for both versions, then please do support steam-play.

For what it’s worth though, I don’t think it will lead to increased sales if you don’t. Even when I get a mac, if it’s not a steam-play game, I simply won’t play it on mac. I have it for one system already, and while I love the game, I am not going to buy it twice.

Paul

I purchased the game on my work PC, my own computer is a Macbook, i would much rather be able to play on my own machine, rather than lugging out my work PC laptop at home whenever i was to play Civ 5.

Dustin

If it’s not on Steam it’s really not worth it to me to bother with. I like Civ, but as a rule I don’t buy games that don’t have a mac version, so if it comes to Steam on mac, I’m sold.

Tim

I just want to chime in that I am one of the (I would think many) that hesitate to buy several of the games that you offer via GameAgent, though were you to offer said games via Steam I would undoubtably have already bought them or be planning to buy them.

There are several reasons for this:

- I’m not interested in managing tons of different accounts for digital media downloadable game content.

- As tactfully as I can put this I have a lot more confidence in Valve/Steam staying afloat than a Mac specific and smaller company offering a similar service. That said I very much appreciate that your company is working to get great games on the Mac, I just am not a fan of your delivery mechanism.

- What if I want to play my games on a Windows machine some day? I know that is pie in the sky, it is unlikely, but I like having the option open.

So as you can see I don’t even own the games you have ported myself, but I am hesitant to buy your undoubtably great product only because of how it is delivered. Something to consider though, if you did go SteamPlay somehow you would likely lose some sales to those people that own the PC versions of your games, but you just might gain more in sales of games to people that would have never bought the games in the first place via people who are on Steam but have never even heard of GameAgent. I would wager that that is not all that unlikely of a scenario. Thanks for listening and glad to hear you are considering working with Steam.

Tim

I bought Civ V through Steam and currently play it through through bootcamp. I only bought it under the assumption that when the Mac version was available I’d be able to download that on the same license. If there was a 5-10 dollar fee I’d probably pay it, but I wouldn’t be very happy about it, and no way would I pay full price for the game again.

Xen

I wanted to get Civ V when it came out to use under bootcamp, but I decided to wait it out for a proper Mac edition. Even with SteamPlay I didn’t think it would be guaranteed that we would get both the PC and Mac versions.

I’m so glad I waited for Civilization! And I have to give major credit to Aspyr for such a quick conversion on the Mac version. I was afraid I would be waiting a whole year to play Civilization V on my Mac.

Awesome work guys! Can’t wait until next week!

Alex

In response to the new question I have

2.16 Ghz Core 2 Duo iMac w/ x1600 as my primary home machine. This machine isn’t so great with games anymore but still grinds away photos, video, etc as fast as ever.

Home built PC w/ Radeon 5970. Primary PC gaming device.

MacBook Pro 13″ w/ 320m, I game on this quite a bit on the go or even on the kitchen table.

Jeff

Every other game I own has been a free download on Steam once it’s ported. Charging now is just a bait and switch. If you wanted to sell the mac version separately, you should have made that clear BEFORE I paid for civ5 for PC.

http://www.hairyidea.com/ Weston

I purchased the game on Steam, not only to play it, but in the hopes that if the Mac version came out that I’d get it through SteamPlay.
I’d be disappointed if it were only available through GameAgent because then I’d be forced to buy the disc version and would likely have to tote that around forever. There’s a reason I haven’t bought any game off gameagent yet, mainly having to do with the drm, it gets in the way, Steam Doesn’t. With Steam, you just download the client, login (and download the game if need be), and play.

Ed

I have been waiting for the Mac version of Civ V so please put it on Steam ASAP so i can buy my copy. And please, don’t attemp to rip us off by asking 50 eur for a copy on steam vs 30 on dvd at Game just like EA and other publishers….

James

I did purchase the game for PC, simply because I wanted to play it when it was released. At that time, there was no news of a port for the Mac so I took it as what it is: a PC game. However, if a Mac version does get released, I will not buy it. Nowadays, who really can afford buying the same game twice? It’s not Aspyr’s fault, I know. I don’t understand why the publishers on the PC end didn’t want to do a simultaneous release. Any publisher who doesn’t recognize the Mac community as a sizable source of income for a AAA title…are idiots. They should’ve approached you from the get-go.

It’s a shame that you will lose money because of their poor planning but as much as I would like to support the Mac gaming community, I just simply can’t afford to do so, not if I have to pay full price for the same game.

Cougar

@ Weston: Civ V on GameAgent only uses Sream for DRM, as does the boxed version. No need to tote around The DVD.

H.

I bought the PC version to be able to play it while it was still fresh. I play most of my game in bootcamp, since they are not avalible for mac, but whenever I have the chance to play it on macos instead, I do exactly that.

So when I bought this, I was hoping for a mac version at some point, so I could continue where I left off e last time I played on bootcamp.

My opinion is that not including steamplay would make the later releasedate for mac equal to not releasing it at all.

http://reddit.com/r/civ Marx

I purchased Civ V with the expectation of a Mac Port down the road, seeing that every previous Civilization was ported in due time, I saw Civ 5 as no exception. I pre-ordered the game on steam, and since release have spent ~200 hours playing. I leaped at the announcement of a Mac Port, and couldn’t wait for more details! Now hearing you guys are questioning the implementation of SteamPlay, but are still using SteamWorks for Multiplayer, DRM, and Saved Games, leaving out SteamPlay feels like a swift kick to the crotch for one of my favorite games this year. I own a PC I use only for gaming, and a Mac I use for work / traveling, I can only hope to see it pop-up on my Steam library, and enjoy my Steam Cloud saved games, but I will *not* buy the game that I have already bought, one that I bought expecting for a Mac Port that used SteamPlay.

tcown

I’m not overly interested in Steamplay but I certainly would appreciate Mac games on Steam. I ditched my PC partition on my Macbook Pro sometime ago but like the convenience of buying on Steam as well as the achievements.

John

I hope they use steamplay because I have a mac, and I just buy games on steam.

Mac Gamer

The expectation is that this game will be like others on Steamplay, ie, buy the pc version and you also own the mac version, and vice versa.

You are either in or you’re out. If you’re in, release the game on Steam and live up to your customer’s expectations.

Adam

I too purchased the PC version on Steam with the hopes of SteamPlay in the future.

On a side note, I would love to purchase more digital downloads of Aspyr’s games, but flat out refuse to use GameAgent. The DRM is horrible. Please offer your other games on Steam or another platform that isn’t so restrictive.

dan

I’m really only interested in having the game available to me on my Steam games list. I love having all of my games available to download at anytime through Steam. If SteamPlay isn’t included, will it still be possible to purchase through Steam?

Does Valve require SteamPlay for a game released on Steam (Mac)? I could care less to play it on PC and feel it *shouldn’t* be required. Those buying the PC version already did so without SteamPlay being available, so I don’t see why it needs to be included.

That said, I don’t think I’ll purchase the game unless it is made available through the Steam store.

Will

I will only purchase Civ V if it is available on Steam, with SteamPlay. I frequently migrate from one computer to another and the ease with which I can be both platform and license agnostic with Steam is very appealing to me.

If the game is not available on steam, I will be a lost sale. If it is not available on SteamPlay, then I will wait to purchase until the price goes down. If it is available on Steam with SteamPlay, I already have the cash in hand to purchase it on day one.

llobster

I have a desktop PC on which I bought Civ V via Steam. I also have a MBP which I travel with weekly. Even though I’d really like to have Civ V with me during the week on my Mac (I don’t use BootCamp, and Civ V doesn’t play well on VMWare), I don’t think I could justify paying full price again. I understand the business rationale obviously, but my personal use of Civ V wouldn’t increase enough through the week to justify buying it again.

http://halmaghi.com Hora

My only computer is a MacBook Pro set up with bootcamp, a Windows partition which I use exclusively for games. I kinda bought Civ5 thinking that eventually I would get the Mac version through SteamPlay – if I had known that it wasn’t going to be free I wouldn’t have bought the PC version since I’ve only really played it a few times (and that’s because I hate having to reboot… I would play much more often on my Mac).

I really hope it’ll be free, or if not at least 50% off, I can’t justify paying $120 for a game… Plus, apparently we’re gonna have to pay for DLC so I’d rather save my money for those.

FullMetul

Steam Play would be wonderful, I already have the game for windows but I can’t play it on my mac computers . Being able to install it on the mac without dishing out another 50$ would be wonderful especially so I could play with my friend who’s picking up the game for osx next week.

Teh Bagder

I made the decision to switch to Mac last year. Mostly it was rooted in having little time to have to deal with the foibles of Windows. I’m in school full time and I need a computer system that is going to stay up and allow me to get my schoolwork done without the OS crapping out all the time. I used to be a really heavy gamer and bought a lot of games through Steam, but also through retail and other distribution systems. When I found out that Valve were going to implement Steam on Mac and offer the ability to get PC/Mac hybrids I was over the moon. I had already previously bought Civ IV through retail, and had bought it again via Steam for the convenience. Getting the Mac version through SteamPlay was absolutely brilliant. I use Parallels and BootCamp for running Windows games, but I spent most of my time in OS X, so these games often get neglected. Having the games available on the Mac though… that’s what gets play time. As others have said, making games dual platform will sell copies, and that volume will generate more revenue that if you keep games only on the one distribution system. These days the only games I don’t buy from Steam are purchased through Big Fish Games, and they’re now also on Steam. So, in a nutshell, make the game SteamPlay, and I’ll buy it, as I’m sure countless others will to. Don’t do it, and it really can be counted as a lost sale. So, the question becomes do you want a portion of the digital sale price through SteamPlay or do you want 100% of nothing?

Jason Kenney

I generally expect that the game will be able to use steam and play against Windows users, as well as being able to store save data and dlc between mac and windows clients.
I also hope (on another note) that THIS time we can play and make mods on the same level as the windows users.

Rafael Miranda

Aspyr surprised us all at MacWorld New York ten thousand years ago with their announcement of Tomb Raider II for the barely-living Mac gaming market. Since that time I do remember reading interviews with those whom are players in the Mac game publishing market and remember noting that the original game publishers and franchise owners would usually want a LOT of money up front as well as a stake in the earnings which are always a smaller margin than their PC counterparts. To help- in an albeit miniscule manner- fuel the progression of games being ported to my favorite platform I still hold strong to some decisions I made long ago (if you’re a Mac gamer who stuck it out through the 1990s you understand me most)- I almost exclusively game on whatever Mac I happen to have, I will NOT install Windows on my Mac to play PC games and support Windows, Microsoft and game publishers whom do not make their games available for Mac either directly, from the ground up like Blizzard or indirectly- where companies like Feral Interactive and Aspyr Media, Inc. come into play.

The raison d’etre for any business is to make money at the end of the day. The likes of Aspyr and Feral, et alia, I believe and God knows best, are made up of sincere Mac enthusiasts whom I would like to ensure remain successful and porting AAA titles for our benefit and theirs for years to come- if their bean counters believe they would feel more comfortable releasing boxed and Game Agent digital download before rolling off to Steam then that’s how I’d purchase the title IF I want the title. If its on Steam? Fine by me, too. We, end users, enjoy the success of whatever Mac gaming is available… and it’s only been improving thanks, I believe, in no small part, to Aspyr.

Topo

I bought the game and have been playing it using BootCamp. I assumed that I would get the Mac game on the same license because that’s how it worked with Civ IV. I wouldn’t buy the same game twice, sorry.

Another reason why SteamPlay would be a good idea is that you could work towards achievements from several computers with different OS’s (if you own several computers with several OS’s).

Preben

I haven´t bought the game yet, but will buy either the Mac or PC version to play it on my Mac Pro.

I´d prefer to buy the Mac-version of the game BUT ONLY IF IT´S SOLD THOUGH STEAM. If the Mac version is NOT sold through Steam, I will just buy the Windows version instead (using Steam) and play it using Windows 7 (Boot Camp).

Ilmyryn

I bought the PC version assuming since Civ IV had been released for Mac and PC as one purchase V would also be. It was presumptuous, and I figured I could end up losing out. But I certainly hoped it would be a Cross platform Steam game. I would not buy the same game twice for full cost. If the mac one comes down to $20-30 in a year or too I might pick it up for Mac then too.

Myles

This is Civilization V – I’m going to buy it wherever it’s available. That being said, I would prefer a Steam version, as I’ve gotten reasonably invested into its infrastructure. I still use discs and other digital retailers, mind you, just grudgingly.

Realistically, though, offering Civ V through Steam is going to have associated costs along with it. If you guys feel as Feral does, that you just couldn’t afford that cut, then by all means, stick to GameAgent. Better to have Aspyr continue to produce Mac games than to have Civ V on Steam and lose you guys. From what I hear you guys got kind of screwed with Civ IV’s release.

That being said, Steam is a great service, and represents a surprisingly large segment of the Mac gaming populace, now – Even on InsideMacGames, which owns the MacGameStore, all of the users respond to a new game announcement with either “Getting this on Steam!” or “Hope this is available through Steam!”. So, keeping in mind I have no idea the costs and realities you guys face in releasing one of these titles, I think you guys could manage to release the title on Steam and still wind up happy.

Matt

Thanks for actually reaching out to your customers about this. Too often, decisions like this are made without any discussion or interaction with customers, so the attempt at least is appreciated.

I purchased the PC version of Civ V because I simply didn’t want to wait. No announcements had been made about a Mac version, no release date set, no information about it was available at all. Did I really want to wait another year to play just because I wanted it natively on my Mac? Not a chance – I’ve been playing since Civ I, and waiting was not an option.

What I think is really important in this conversation is figuring out a better way to handle that aspect of the launch. You need to get something settled definitively for what is happening on the Mac side of things prior to the launch on the Windows side. You need to be communicating to us what you’re doing, when it’s going to be released, and what your licensing expectations are going to be.

If you had told me a week before the Windows launch that i would have a Mac version in 2 months, that would have a significant impact on my PC purchase decision. “Hmmm, is it worth waiting 2 months for that? Is it worth dropping an extra $50 to get a version on both platforms?” And if you had told us up-front what your licensing was going to be (“Yes, it’ll be SteamPlay”, “No SteamPlay, but Steam-enabled”, “Steam-reliant, but only GameAgent digital downloads” or whatever), we would have had that knowledge to again further our decision-making process.

As someone mentioned above, this also benefits you more in the long run. If you go into the process anticipating it will be a SteamPlay app, your pricing models and licensing with Firaxis/Valve are going to reflect that. I’m not familiar with Valve’s revenue sharing when it comes to SteamPlay games, but I would expect there’s some cut to you as the Mac porting machine for every Mac client downloaded and installed, so you would stand to make at least some money from folks that start out on Windows and move to Mac at a later date.

Bottom line? I bought it on PC because I had heard nothing about what was coming on the Mac side. If you release it with SteamPlay, I will be grateful and happy about that as it would match the latent expectations I had based on the Civ IV release on Steam. If you don’t, I’ll probably break down and buy it on the Mac side of things eventually. I won’t be overly thrilled about the extra cost and will probably wait until the price drops $10-20 after a few months, but I’ll do it anyway.

Michal

It’s hard to give my feelings without knowing what the realities are behind SteamPlay’s revenue-sharing parameters. I don’t think anyone here really knows what’s at stake for Aspyr if they enable SteamPlay.

For one, I bought the PC version on release day for a number of reasons:
1. There was no announcement of a Mac version, though history suggested it would /eventually/ be out. It could have been a matter of years, for all we knew.

2. I specifically looked to see if SteamPlay was enabled for prior versions of Civ, and it was. Again, not being aware of the realities behind-the-scenes, I assumed that this would be the case for Civ V once it was eventually ported.

3. I’m strictly a Mac user, but I do have BootCamp available for some Windows testing I rarely need to do. I used to play the Orange Box there before Valve released the Mac versions through SteamPlay. Right now the main reason I use BootCamp is just for Civ V.

My hope is that SteamPlay is enabled and that Steam has the ability to analyze whether a player primarily uses the Windows or Mac version and then they can split revenues appropriately. Money should go where credit is due.

I’d also gladly pay an “upgrade” fee of, say, $10-15 or so to enable a Mac version on my Steam account.

I doubt it would be easy to implement either of these solutions. If I have to pay full price for the Mac version, I’m afraid it’d be no sale from me, despite begrudgingly booting into Windows just to play.

Jenn

I bought the Windows version to play on my home Mac via Parallels, but the performance was terrible so I’ve been playing on my work laptop PC, which is less than ideal. If I had known the Mac port was going to be coming so soon after the PC release I would have held off and got the Mac version. I fully expected the Mac version to be SteamPlay enabled so I could play it on either platform and wouldn’t have to pay twice for something I already own.

Robbie

Like a lot of others that have posted, I also bought the game the day of its release. I have thoroughly enjoyed playing it with my friends and colleagues online.

My best argument for not having to pay for a second game is this. When Civ 5 was released there was no mention of a Mac version being available. We all assumed that there would be a Mac version at some point, but a timetable was neither given nor hinted at. So if we wanted to play Civ 5, all of us Mac users were forced to wrestle with either Bootcamp, Parallels, or some other solution instead of being able to play it on our native Mac systems…which we all love!

We weren’t given any sort of hint or clue by Aspyr or Firaxis as to when the Mac release date might be. Had we known in September that the Mac version was going to be available in November and that we would have to pay for a copy again then I believe most of us would have gladly waited until the 23rd. But we believed that a Mac version may be several months if not over a year away as was the case with Civ IV. So we had to buy the windows version if we wanted to enjoy this next generation of Civ. Kudos to your company for getting the port done so quickly!

So because we had no indication of the release date (until about 2 weeks ago), I don’t believe we should have to purchase another copy. If you want to somehow revoke the windows license and give us a mac license, I’m sure most people would be happy with that. No one here wants to rob game companies.

Emmett

I bought Civ V for my Windows desktop, but I have a Macbook and would love to be able to play it on my Macbook as well. I was sort of expecting to be able to when I found out the game was coming out on Steam.

Nic

I’m in the same boat as some others here – I bought the PC version because I couldn’t wait any longer but the Mac is really where I’d prefer to be playing. SteamPlay’s ability to have access to your games (including saved games via Steam Cloud) at any of your machines, whether they are Macs or PCs, is such an awesome benefit and really makes a huge difference for my enjoyment of gaming in general…I really really hope you decide to integrate Civ for Mac so that it is fully cross-compatible with the PC version. I’d even be willing to pitch in $5-10 if I had to in order to get these features, but I don’t think I’d be willing to buy the game a 2nd time – especially if my saved games aren’t compatible between Mac and PC and automatically handled via Steam Cloud. You’d generate a log of customer goodwill by adding these features even outside of any revenue considerations, something you shouldn’t sell short.

Geoff

To clarify my earlier comments, in case it wasn’t plain, as a Mac-only consumer I have NOT yet purchased the PC version and have been waiting for the Mac release.

Having said that, unless the game is sold via Steam, I won’t be purchasing it. That’s just where I am in the market. Even if the Steam Store release is Mac-only (and not SteamPlay), that’s OK with me … but I won’t be making a retail or GameAgent purchase.

Does Valve track initial purchasing platform and allow revenue distribution based upon that? It seems to me that the real issue here is Valve/Steam not fully addressing these new multiplatform issues in a way that respects the needs of the porting developer.

Shawn

I bought COD4 on gameagent and frankly after experiencing Steam wouldn’t do it again, given the choice between the two. Updates to COD4 were hard to track down, and my PC using friends are on Steam anyways, and I’d only play multiplayer anything with them. It’s much easier via Steam to setup that ‘friends’ play experience, with an existing friends list.

I have Mac only, so don’t care so much about SteamPlay, but LOVE the concept. With SC2 (although not steam, still cross-platform for single purchase) I was able to log in to my account and download it on my company laptop during an unexpected extended trip to have something to do in my hotel room at night for the week. That little added value is a big deal in a purchase decision I think.

The real thing that gets me about steam is that I’m not a big game purchaser. As I’ve gotten older, I have limited time with family and work obligations, so I typically only buy 2-3 of the major games a year. Since steam came out on Mac though, I find myself buying games when they have great sales, which I think is genius! I’m buying games I would have NEVER put full-price money towards, for $5 or whatever, and 2/3 of them I haven’t even played once yet! They’re just so cheap and easy to purchase (I go online to throw 20 minutes at torchlight or something, and up pops “hey for $5 you can have Left 4 dead2, today only”. one-click purchase, and it’s sold. They get $5 they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, and I got a game I didn’t play for 3 weeks, until I mentioned it to some of my PC friends who said they’d wanted to buy it but didn’t know anyone to play with, so then they go out and buy it to play with me, and valve makes another 2 sales of the game. To me, that’s a winner right there. I’m thrilled that I feel like I got a deal, they sold 3 copies that never would have sold otherwise, and we all have fun and spend more time on Steam to play, which just leads to more advertising and future sales on future games, etc (as soon as L4D went on sale a few weeks later, one of my friends bought the 4-pack for us all, since we had been enjoying L4D2, and that was $10 each–another $40 for a 2yr old game).

http://www.mpcgamers.com Peter

I bought the PC version and played on crossover games. I would love to see steamplay! I understand the problems of giving the game away for free though. Maybe a small $10 fee would be cool.

patarroyo

I am very eager to find out what is an acceptable deal. To me, a fair price would be between 5 and 15 dollars. There are all kinds of guesstimates to be made. How many people would buy a $5 license? A $10 license? $15? Knowing that distribution curve would help Aspyr make an informed decision. They need and deserve to make a profit.

I also think there needs to be better communication between Firaxis and Aspyr on future releases of the Civ franchise so that they are SteamPlay ready from the getgo, with simultaneous PC and Mac release via Steam. Both stand to benefit from the arrangement. As the de facto situation is Firaxis is outsourcing the port to Aspyr, perhaps the deal needs to be adjusted to account for either free SteamPlay, or a marginal fee of $5 or $10 dollars (free is obviously preferable to most of the users here).

Finally, kudos to Aspyr for listening to us, no matter how they weight our words. It is good for the community to be able to say its opinions in a way that all can easily see. I think that informs the gaming industry what it is that we want as consumers. Clearly, Mac is no longer a non-gaming platform, and many of us are using both PC and Macs. Please take note. And make Apple fix OpenGL already.

Wim van der Burgh

You should put the game on Steam, because it encourages me to buy it. I love working with Steam, it’s very reliable and the payment actions go great.

http://Myi40.com JasonR

I have held out buying the PC version because I didn’t want to assume the MAC version would be free. If i knew the MAC version would be free, I’d have bought the PC version.

As it is i will buy the Mac version when it comes out, but I hope the PC version is available to me for free as well.

Dave

Many mac gamers now use Steam as their primary source of gaming, and rarely stray away from it. Because of this, I believe that by making Civ V steamplay, although you’d be making less on each individual game sold, you would be greatly increasing the number of gamers aware of the game’s release. I know that everytime I log into steam, the big adverts on the front page cause me to have to fight my cursor away from the buy button, regardless of how interested I am in the game.

Brian

I bought CivV on Steam for PC and play with Crossover Games. It’s not ideal but works. I am hoping that the Mac version is on SteamPlay since native support would be better, but I do not plan on repurchasing the Mac version just to have it. I’d rather have it available on SteamPlay and possibly buy future DLC.

Chris

According this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0048X7P4E/ref=s9_newr_gw_ir02?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=180WNM73CB35GKYXEB12&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470939031&pf_rd_i=507846) Target is selling a Win/Mac/Linux/Unix Special edition for $100.

While I do not believe the accuracy of this product, perhaps there is some truth to this. Maybe a “Combo” pack is in our future, and Special Edition buyers get the combo.

As for my thoughts on this – I am one of those mac owners that has an old macbook pro which falls under the mac requirements, but is above the windows requirements. Simply put, the only option on my macbook pro IS bootcamp. Will I get a new macbook eventually? Probably. Will I want to play CIV V on the new one, most definitely. If there is a way for me to get both (even at a premium price) I will do it. If there is not, and I have to choose Mac or PC, I must choose PC since that version plays on all my hardware.

Josh

I bought civ 9 pc in e HOPES I would get the mac version free. But, I didn’t expect it

Bruno

I have bought the PC version to play on bootcamp. Would I prefer to have it on Steamplay, and be able to play on OS X? Definitely.

Would I pay more, even if it is “only” 5 dollars, to do it? Hell no. I already bought the game, and can play it fine on Windows.

Chris

Under no circumstances would I buy the same product twice. I use a Mac, and only grudgingly use a PC at work. I’ve waited for Civ5 for the Mac because I have no interest in installing BootCamp on my machines. I’ll probably wait to see how the integration with Steam for Mac users plays itself out before buying. As others mentioned above, both a Windows and OS X version should have been released at the same time with the Steam issues worked out well beforehand. Asyper, releasing Civ5 this way not a smart decision–why risk alienating potential buyers of your products. Hopefully this whatever issues there are will be worked out before I’ve finished shopping for the holidays.

Ultraway

A repeat of already said above : both a Windows and OS X version should have been released at the same time !

I’ve waited too for Civ5 on Mac because I have no interest too in installing BootCamp on my machine.

I’m not sure Aspyr is guilty about this. From the beginining, I found Firaxis very “unclear” about a Mac version of Civ5 and there needs to be better communication between Firaxis and Aspyr on future releases of the Civ franchise for sure !!! Come on … to all the Mac users who bought a PC version ( ciderized or bootcamp or whatever emulation ) : why should we play a game with issues, glitches and so on ? Oo So, if you have to pay for your Mac games BECAUSE you were too hurry, this is not Aspyr fault ( for once )

Before talking of what is SteamPlay or not, let’s talk about Civ5 itself. Then, let’s talk about Steam.

It’s really getting on my nerves to have this : “Initial installation requires one-time Internet connection for Steam authentication; software installations required (included with the game) include Steam Client.”

Gosh ! I only want to play Civ5 on my Mac ! If it’s Steam playable, better but not an obligation as it is for now.

Richard Maine

I happened to be up and noticed it was a little past midnight. Took a quick glance on steam. Let me be the first of many to say thank you for listening. And I’ll follow though on my prior comment; this certainly means I will buy a copy.

Trevor

First time using Steam and it’s a JOKE. I paid good money for this game and it will not launch. I want my money back and I want a regular disk based game that I can pop in and play. There appears to be no rational benefit and only an onslaught of stupidity associated with this. All I want is to play the game not to have it crash on me within the first 3 seconds of launching!

http://www.gameagent.com Russ Looney

@ Trevor: Sorry you’re running into problems with the game. If you’ve already downloaded and installed the title, I’m not sure there’s much we can do about a refund. Have you tried talking to our support team? You can check the support website at http://support.aspyr.com or you can find them on Twitter (@Aspyr_Support).

Trevor

I have ALL of the minimum specs, and internet connection and have not installed the game as it will not load. There’s no true installation if there’s no load. I want my money back and I’m certain there must be a ton of others in the same position. This is a PIECE OF GARBAGE.

Andreas Jodner

I have bought the PC version and the machine is not up to spec. Newer video graphics card on the way. Steam was crazy in that you downloaded the Steam application and then it took ages for it to be updated! Why have an out-of-date download? Then I could only get the intro movie and … waiting-to-see.

During that hassle received the email to preorder Mac version. Download took ages and I figured that was okay as there would be a high demand. Turned on assistive devices in Sys Prefs and when I double-clicked install Civ V app and when I logged onto Steam (Mac app with the same update problem as above) it asked to register the product and when I tried it told me I already had this product – er yes, the PC version – and well nothing.

So I created a new Steam Account and this time registration was accepted and the Game Library says it’s downloading but nothing is happening. I must say I am as unhappy as Trevor and will be going to Aspyr support. My wife agrees with another lister when she says why can’t you install and play it if you don’t want to play on-line with the Steam community!

Ben

I don’t really know what all the ripping on Steam is about. Between PC and Mac versions games I have 85. I have been using Steam since it came out on PC years ago, never had a problem. Mac since it came out, and haven’t had a problem. Order Civ5 on the Mac, downloaded no problem, very fast, and this was on black Friday. In fact it usually maxes it out the connection. When you download Steam it’s just an installer, just like a lot of applications you download the installer and then it downloads the actual application. Over the years I have had two have had to reinstall multiple times, gotta love Windows, but there DRM is excellent, and that is good enough reason to use steam rather than like SecureRom from Sony or some overly restrictive DRM. That’s why I don’t use game agent. As for speed, don’t blame Steam because it is fast, at least in SE WI it is. I would look at something else. Maybe support might have some tips, firewall, router, or something like that. So please stop ripping on Steam, it is an excellent online game delivery system.

Cheers,
Ben

Tim

As a mac user first, if the game is not available for Mac, its not available, I will never use a pc. After that, I am a long time Civ fan. The need to go online to ‘prove’ that I purchased a game is a hassle and represents a lack of trust on your part. Will I still buy Civ 5? depends on how much ‘registration’, giving out of my personal info, that I have to do.

http://www.trustedessays.net/ essay

I don’t totally realize what every last trace of the splitting on Steam
is about. Betwixt PC and Mac forms amusements I have 85. I have been
utilizing Steam subsequent to it turned out on PC years in the past,
never had a situation.. Well.. Got to go! I do really need to practice more on my custom essay writing.

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