We just wanted to give a quick heads up that classic WWII shooter Call of Duty 2 has just been released on the Mac App Store.

The sequel to Call of Duty, the 2003 Game of the Year and winner of more than 80 awards, Call of Duty 2 offers more immense, more intense, more realistic battles than ever before, thanks to the stunning [2006] visuals of the Call of Duty 2 engine. Call of Duty 2 provides an amazing experience with all-new enhancements, ranging from stunningly realistic graphics to seamless gameplay, a new engine, groundbreaking AI, and choice-based innovations that allow players to experience the closest thing they’ll ever get to real warfare. Beautifully rendered snow, rain, fog and smoke, combined with dynamic lighting and shadows, make this the most intense WWII first person action title yet.

Click here to purchase the game now, or you can check out a Macworld review of the title here.  

“Casual gamers are going to save the video game industry.” I first suggested this idea to a hardcore gamer friend a few weeks ago. After snorting into his Coke, he quipped, “Right, Rachel. Your mom is going to save the industry.” My mother actually doesn’t qualify as a “casual gamer,” despite her love for Angry Birds, World of Goo, and Solitaire. Casual gamers typically:

• Play games to pass the time
• Enjoy simple gameplay controls
• Do not invest time in increasing gaming skills
• Do not tend to define themselves as “gamers”

Mom enjoys her World of Warcraft raids and beating me at Civilization V far too much to be a “casual gamer.” However, my friend’s assumption was not entirely ungrounded: the average casual gamer is a woman in her 50’s. By 2013, casual gaming revenue will likely top $1 billion.

Does the video game industry need saving?

In short: yes. Just like almost every other industry, game companies are suffering in the recession. In fact, ex-Sony executive Chris Deering claims that 70% of all games lose money even though the gaming industry is growing at seven times the rate of the economy as a whole. Essentially, the production of “hardcore” or “core” games is not turning enough profit for the gaming industry. That’s where casual gaming comes in. (more…)

Please welcome Jonathan Cohen, a social media marketing intern here at Aspyr. “J5″ is an MBA graduate student at St. Edward’s University, specializing in Digital Media Management. Jonathan has an extensive film & television background, but moonlights as a gamer! His favorite games include FIFA 11, Pinball FX, God of War, and Call of Duty 4. We’re excited to have J5 with us, and here he pens a response to RBurger’s post of the same title on why Mac is losing the battle with PCs, and what Apple can do to fix the problem… Enjoy! The Apple brand is universally associated with innovation, stylish design, and operating simplicity. With the success of the iPod, iPhone, and now the iPad, Apple has arguably become “THE” hardware manufacturer for mobile devices. However, when it comes to gaming, Macs don’t have such a positive reputation. The three main issues are: universality, performance, and scalability. The reason gamers like to talk about OpenGL versus DirectX is because content IS king. Let’s face it, hardcore computer gamers shy away from Macs because there are more games available for PC, and only PC. This lack of universality forces Mac owners to run PC virtual machines and emulation software’s just to play incompatible games. As a result, the Mac uses more power, exhausts its resources for performance, and in the end the game is about as stable as Lindsay Lohan on a Saturday night. Gamers also believe that the Mac’s system performance is not up to par with its PC counterparts. Without getting into all kinds of nerdy technical specifications, while the Macbook Pro and Mac Pro tower have enough processing power for resource-heavy creative applications like Final Cut Pro and Pro Tools, they sputter and fart in comparison to a PC. Check out this Mac OS X versus Windows performance comparison for Half Life 2 on Anandtech.com. Gamers don’t want a Colecovision when they can own a Playstation 2 for less money. (It’s no secret these Macs are extremely expensive.) Gamers know that they can build a PC from the ground-up for less than it costs to buy a Mac mini. This highlights the scalability issues of Macs. Its much more difficult to upgrade and personalize a Mac than it is a PC because of the Mac’s lack of flexibility. Ever try upgrading the hardware on an iMac? I’d rather rebuild the Death Star… Macs have more proprietary system components, and because gaming technologies are constantly advancing, gamers prefer the ease of updating their systems to maximize performance. And the circle of life continues… So how can Apple change this negative perception of gaming on Macs? Last summer, Apple had some good fortune when Valve released a Mac compatible version of Steam. One of the most popular online gaming platforms in the world, Steam will build awareness to gamers that Macs “can” perform as gaming systems. It will also allow current Mac users to explore and expand their game libraries to include more titles than just your browser’s “Minesweeper” plug-in. Mac owners can also explore video games through the newly released App Store. The App Store is similar to the iTunes Store, but it is located directly on the Mac operating system and allows Mac users to easily purchase Mac compatible games (ahem, like Aspyr’s Call of Duty 4, Civilization IV: Colonization, and the newly-released Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition!). You can make these purchases with one click of a button. After all, simplicity is Apple’s bread and butter (where it’s Microsoft’s ever-hard-to-find Nutella croissant). The success of the iPhone and iPod as gaming devices can allow Apple to vertically integrate itself into the gaming industry as well. If Apple were to release a Mac gaming console or a new Mac computer, one that’s specialized for gaming with amazing graphic and sound components, it could gather a huge chunk of the gaming market share. This would establish Apple as an all-purpose industry player, much like Sony and Microsoft are today. The bottom line is that the gaming industry would gladly accept Apple if it wished to penetrate the environment, however, whether Apple will dedicate itself to changing its gaming perception is up to them. Apple seems content with its current focus on mobile technologies, and because of this it may wish that the gaming industry comes to it.

With Snowmageddon/Blizzaster/Choose-Your-Own-Wintery-Apocalypse hitting the US hard, many of you are holed up in your homes with little or nothing to keep you entertained.  If you’re like us, you’ve already blitzed through your Christmas gaming haul and are now looking back through your catalog of games, trying to determine which one will offer the most replay value. That’s where we come in!  We’ve put together several new gaming bundles that are sure to keep you entertained not only through the current slate of winter weather, but potentially all the way through next winter! From now through this Sunday, February 6 (11:59pm CST), we’re offering three amazing bundles that are sure to warm your spirits:

1. In one bundle, we’re offering ALL of our digital Call of Duty titles at 36% off the sticker price–that’s $40 in savings! This bundle includes
   • Call of Duty: Deluxe Edition (Mac)
   • Call of Duty 2 (Mac)
   • and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Mac)
2. In another bundle, we’re offering ALL of our digital Star Wars titles, also at 36% off the sticker price–that’s $47 in savings! This bundle includes
   • Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (Mac)
   • Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (Mac)
   • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Mac)
   • Star Wars: Empire at War (Mac)
   • and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition (Mac)
3. Finally, we’re offering an absolutely HUGE bundle that includes every single one of our digital PC titles, all at a blizzard-busting 75% off–that’s 14 games for only $71 and $214 in savings! The bundle includes
   • 1701 A.D. (PC)
   • 1701 A.D.: The Sunken Dragon (PC)
   • 4×4: Hummer (PC)
   • Cryostasis (PC)
   • Death to Spies: Moment of Truth (PC)
   • Death Track: Resurrection (PC)
   • Defense Grid: The Awakening (PC)
   • FutureU: The SAT Prep Game (PC)
   • Made Man (PC)
   • Men of War (PC)
   • Men of War: Red Tide (PC)
   • NecroVision (PC)
   • Puzzle Quest: Galactrix (PC)
   • and XIII Century: Gold Edition (PC)

Are you snowed in?  What do you think of the bundled offerings?  Let us know in the comments! - Note: This deal is active for North America only. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Introducing… our new social media marketing intern, Rachel Burger! Rachel is a student at Agnes Scott College and will graduate in May with degrees in creative writing and Sino-American relations. As a second-generation Mac enthusiast and first degree gamer, Rachel’s favorite games include Fable II, Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, Dragon Age: Origins, and World of Warcraft. As her career progresses, Rachel hopes to specialize in creative game design or advertising. For her first entry, we asked Rachel to take a look at the Mac gaming market, both current and past. Below, she explains why Macs have not always been considered gaming machines and what can be (and is being) done to change this.

The Market

As the Mac versus PC battle wages into the next decade, Mac enthusiasts continue to struggle with the dismal volume of computer games available to them. While most of the world’s most popular games are available only for PC, Macs have a serious disadvantage in appealing to their gaming consumers because when a new game becomes available, there is commonly a wait for the Mac release (Halo lost the Mac community because it was not available until two years after its original Windows release date). Because of the discrepancy in available titles, Macs are not typically associated with gaming. In previous years, the computer market discouraged game designers from developing for Macs. In 2005, Apple only made up 4.6% of the PC market. However, now that Apple makes up 10.6% and has inspired unprecedented sales despite the unyielding recession, gaming companies have started to create multiplatform products (Blizzard, naturally, at the forefront of the charge). Still, Macs are not the standard in personal computers, and thus designers continue to refuse to invest in multiplatform products. Fortunately, port companies like Aspyr began to address the Mac consumers’ gaming needs. Because of their efforts to produce award-winning titles (like Civilization V and Call of Duty® 4) and crunching Mac release dates within weeks of Windows, Macs are slowly gaining ground with gamers internationally.

What about Boot Camp?

In 2007, Apple released Boot Camp to support dual booting with a copy of Windows (Windows Vista and XP were available at the time). The latest version of Boot Camp allows the installation and use of Windows 7 as well as the previous two versions of Microsoft’s operating system. While Boot Camp has its advantages, like tapping into the vast games available for PCs, it is only a patch for the greater problems that occur when playing PC games via Boot Camp. Gaming via Boot Camp utilizes limited graphics (dependent on PC compatible graphics drivers) and drains the battery quickly, not to mention that users still need to purchase a copy of the Windows operating system. For example, while running Civilization V on Boot Camp, graphics settings are barely tolerable and the game process is slow. However, running Civ V on the Mac is smoother than Pierce Brosnan in a suit. Playing games made for the Mac and on a Mac is going to remain the superior alternative to playing PC games via Boot Camp.

Macs as Gaming Computers

Macs are capable of being entertainment machines in addition to fulfilling their role as workhorses in many forms of development; they are known for their phenomenal graphics handling that allows for detailed, quick-running games. There are not enough gaming companies that take advantage of Apple’s innovations in personal computing. Until gaming companies develop Mac-compatible games in larger numbers of their own accord, increasing the availability of current titles through porting companies is the best way to change the perception of Macs as non-gaming computers.

It’s official:  The Auburn Tigers are your new BCS Champions! The Tigers kicked a game-winning field goal in the final seconds to beat the Oregon Ducks 22-19.  In a game that many expected to be a high-scoring affair, it was the defenses that really stole the show.  Both offenses struggled through much of the game because of high-level play from each team’s defense.  However, it was the Auburn running game that eventually wore down the Oregon defense to help cement the victory. In particular, there was one play that put the Tigers in position to win the game.  The Ducks had tied the game at 19-19 with around 2 minutes to play, but the Tigers were not ready to give up the game to overtime.  On the play in question, Auburn freshman running back Michael Dyer took the ball and scooted around to the right side of the field before being brought down by an Oregon defender–or so it seemed.  The whistle never blew, so Dyer got up and kept running before eventually being brought down again deep in Oregon territory.  While Dyer had indeed been brought down, his knee never hit the turf; instead, he simply rolled on top of his would-be tackler before getting back up to make the championship-winning run.  That run lead to the game-winning field goal. With that victory, there is much celebration by Auburn fans everywhere.  But that doesn’t mean they alone get any benefit!  Because the Tigers won, we’re launching our final CFB Game of the Week promotion of the season, and as previously discussed, it’s a big one! Starting now and running through the end of the day (11:59pm CST) Thursday, January 13, you’ll be able to grab Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Mac) as well as our Call of Duty Bundle (Mac) (includes CoD4: Modern Warfare, CoD Deluxe, and CoD 2) at a championship-caliber 40% off!  Plus, you’ll get FREE domestic shipping on the boxed bundle!  Just add any of the titles to your cart and use the coupon code #TigersWin (including the hashtag!).  Grab these discounts now–you won’t see any more CFB GotW discounts until next season!

Aspyr Media was founded in 1996 with the basic premise of bringing great gaming to the Mac.   At first it was the sales and distribution of other people’s Mac games but then the idea to port great PC games to the Mac came abou,t and the public got to play Tomb Raider II on the Mac.  The release of Tomb Raider II was the foundation of what has been Aspyr’s business since – bringing great PC brands to the Mac natively. Below is the latest installment in our Aspyr Interviews segment, featuring our own Ted Staloch, Executive Vice President.  His role oversees all Sales, Marketing and Content Acquisition -  so finding and licensing Mac games, selling the Mac games and marketing the Mac games.  We get lots of questions about upcoming content, what we think of various industry topics, how we feel about the content we sell,  so we thought we’d shoot some questions up the chain and share them with you guys.

What games do you love these days. I’m playing a ton of iPhone games right now, with Chillingo’s Cut the Rope leading my portable distraction time. Civilization V is simply awesome on the Mac! Anything Mario or Lego on the Wii is on my weekend list with my 2 boys. Like millions of other people, I play COD:Black Ops.  I also really enjoy my sons baseball and Flag football games on weekends.

A guy walks into your office with a MacBook under his arm, sits down, and tells you to explain Aspyr to him in six words. What do you say? Biggest Brands, Highest Quality, Dedicated People!!!! Digital distribution: Blessing? Curse? A bit of both, maybe? Blessing without a doubt, but you have to reset your company around embracing it. Meaning, Aspyr has had a 3 year transition period from 100% boxed game sales to today about 75% boxed. By the end of 2011, Aspyr will be closer to 25% boxed and 75% digital. But, for the first time ever almost 4 million Mac computers are being sold every quarter and soon everyone will be able to download the game through one of their favorite sites. (Mac App, GameAgent, Steam, etc) I still buy some boxed games and think there is great opportunity for a retailer like Target or Best Buy to create a Mac “Top 10” game section and be a category leader. As Apple continues to shrink game shelf space and move online, this is the time for a more traditional retailer to step up and create a Mac destination with iPhones, iPads, Mac games, etc. So for us, we are thrilled that the Apple platform is growing, the distribution is growing and our potential to reach 100% of our audience is a reality. Some people think that video gaming isolates family members from each other while some think it brings them together. What’s your take? I don’t think games should do either with families. If you are relying on games to bring your family closer, it seems like you’ve already missed the boat. Some people tend to over think the role of what games, movies, music, the internet, etc, should do to families. My belief is you have a set amount of distraction time everyday and that if you try and tie it to education, family time or work, you just re-defined it as not being fun or a place to be distracted. It’s OK to play RollerCoaster Tycoon, Call of Duty, Lego Star Wars, etc, for 20minutes on a Sat morning. Now a different conversation can be had about how to incorporate gaming design and play into today’s workplace and education, but that wasn’t the question Who are some of the people at Aspyr that you’d want to tell the OS X gaming world about? We are a small and hardworking team, so this is a tough question.  Let me start with 2 people. Lori Durham is our VP of Operations and she can manage anything. Seriously, she can Produce a work-for-hire development project, while certifying a XBOX 360 game, while managing a couple Mac games being launched world-wide, while helping the company look at new Health Insurance Policies, while interviewing new staff for next years projects, while, while, while….the best juggler we have at Aspyr. Next is Andy Brazell, our fearless Director of Services at Aspyr, including our QA. Everything at Aspyr starts and ends in our QA depart. Andy has assembled a team that is best in class on Mac gaming (as well as other platforms) and absolutely will not allow us to cut corners. Several times throughout the years sales guys or business development guys like me have requested to push something to a patch or update after we release and Andy will simply just say “NO…our customers deserve better”. When I defined Aspyr in six words above as “highest quality”, it’s due to people like Andy at our company. One more shout out is to Ken Cobb, who is one or our Senior Engineers. I appreciate brilliant engineers as much as anyone and Ken is certainly one of our Rock Stars here. But, what really separates him into the Rock Star category is his lack of ego. Different than confidence. He has a calm and reliable confidence on every project and everyday of the week. But that fact that he does such amazing work and remains so level headed is somewhat unique in game development. He really sets the stage for all of us to love and appreciate what we do for a living, while remaining humble. Dedicated people (above), certainly defines Ken Cobb. Aspyr has brought out tons and tons of games, but also some of the biggest and most popular games ever made (like The Sims and Civilization). Where do you go from here? And don’t just give us the stock “bigger and brighter” answer on this one! Clearly we want more of the same, which is big-big brands with gameplay beyond reason. But with the adoption of Apps vs Games, size is less of a driver and game companies can have tremendous success with bite size game-play. Aspyr will introduce more of this type of gameplay in the future, while supporting the biggest and the best. Angry Birds is today’s example, but within the next 18 months, there will be an App that sells 25 million downloads, maybe even 100 million downloads. These huge download events may or may not be with established brands current in the games industry. So, that size opportunity, on an OS or iOS that Aspyr holds expertise, is an area that we are very excited about and that we are perfectly positioned for future success. To be specific, are you doing Black Ops for the Mac? We would love to and are working on making that answer “yes”, but are open to suggestions on how to get full attention and sign off from a publisher experiencing the largest product launch of all time!

Maybe you heard, but there’s a new Call of Duty game hitting the market today, and they’re calling it Call of Duty: Black Ops.  We didn’t think Activision put enough marketing dollars behind the game, so we thought we would help them by hyping the release in our own special way.  It just so happens that “our own special way” benefits Mac gamers as well! From now through next Monday, November 15, we’re discounting ALL of our Call of Duty titles by 25%!  These include Call of Duty: Deluxe (Mac), Call of Duty 2 (Mac), and the modern classic Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Mac).  Show Activision that Mac gamers want more Call of Duty and purchase your favorite Call of Duty title from GameAgent today!

We’ve already sent out a newsletter, but in case you haven’t heard, we’re featuring a variety of FLASH SALES all weekend!  Starting today and running through Monday, October 4, we’ll be Facebooking and tweeting different flash sales that feature all of your favorite Mac and PC games, including franchises like Call of Duty, Civilization, and Star Wars!  These sales will all be limited in nature, whether in length of time or via a limited quantity of game copies available.  We’ll be posting special links and coupon codes all throughout the weekend–that means if you want to participate in these awesome discounts, you’ll need to be following us on either Facebook or Twitter! In addition, we’ll be giving a few lucky followers on Facebook and Twitter each a chance to win a FREE download of one of our most popular games!  Therefore we recommend you follow us on both networks to double your chances.  So what will you have to do to win?  We’re keeping that to ourselves for now, but we can tell you one thing–you’ll have to be quick! Loondogiv, out!

Hey there, GameAgent, fans! What’s better than a discounted Mac game on the weekend?  How about FIVE discounted Mac games!  That’s right, we’ve got a handful of shooters to offer this weekend, all on sale for 33% off! First, we’re offering discounts on all of our World War II shooters.  As noted, all titles will be 33% off.  However, in addition, each title will take off half of your shipping costs, meaning that buying any two will get you FREE shipping for your entire order!  The games we’re featuring include: Battlefield 1942 Deluxe Edition (Mac) - Featuring both Battlefield 1942 and The Road to Rome, Battlefield 1942 Deluxe Edition (Mac) features the four main theaters of World War II, including the Pacific, Eastern and Western Europe and Northern Africa, as well as the key, yet largely underpublicized, Italian and Sicilian campaigns of World War II. Call of Duty Deluxe Edition (Mac) – Call of Duty Deluxe Edition (Mac) contains the original Call of Duty and its expansion pack Call of Duty: United Offensive.  Experience the cinematic intensity of World War II’s epic battles including D-Day, the Russian Charge at Stalingrad and the Battle for Berlin. Call of Duty 2 (Mac) – The sequel to Call of Duty, the 2003 Game of the Year, Call of Duty 2 offers more immense, more intense, more realistic battles than ever before.  Call of Duty 2 also provides an amazing experience with all-new enhancements, ranging from stunningly realistic graphics to seamless gameplay, a new engine, groundbreaking AI, and choice-based innovations that allow players to experience the closest thing they’ll ever get to real warfare. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault War Chest (Mac) – This Medal of Honor collection includes the original Medal of Honor Allied Assault as well as both expansion packs, Spearhead and Breakthrough.  Players will visit stunning locations from North Africa to Norway, occupied France to the heart of Germany. In addition to our World War II games, we’re also offering Doom 3 (Mac) for 33% off, too!  What’s the occasion, you ask?  We’re using the premier of the new Resident Evil movie as a loose excuse.  But really, we just want to offer you guys more discounts on more games!  Doom 3 will also come with the aforementioned shipping discount, meaning two featured games in your cart (boxed or digital) will get you FREE shipping.

These deals are good through the end of the day (11:59pm CDT) Sunday, September 12, so warm up that itchy trigger finger and act fast!