The iPad 2 and kids, Portal and feminism, and the PSN outage.

Apple Computing and Gaming

• Apple has started actively rejecting updates to apps that offer any kind of virtual currency in exchange for downloading another app.
• The ratings board plans to allow machines to determine video games’ ESRB.
• Apple has asked that a judge dismiss their antitrust case.
• Toys ‘R Us is selling iPad 2s.
• There are connections between the WoW Corrupted Blood outbreak and the real world of disease spread and prevention.
• iPad 2 in kindergarten classrooms: A good idea?
• How important gaming is to many buyers of mobile Apple devices.
• What about iPhones and Androids?

   

More Gaming Stories

• PlayStation Network outage continues.
• In “The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim,” the experience system has been modified significantly.
• Video games can aid in stroke recovery.
• Valve: Digital games charts are a “step backwards” for the industry.
• Free-to-play is beginning to enter something of a golden age.
• Chrono Trigger rated by the ESRB for PS3, PSP.
• “Stream” is reportedly one of the possible names for Nintendo’s new system.
• Sony Computer Entertainment has reportedly stopped manufacturing of its PSPgo portable video game console.
• Portal’s GLaDOS as a feminist icon?

 

Our Posts

• Latest Civilization V Mac Patch Released
• An Interview with Omaha Sternberg of iGameRadio
• Portal 2: Immediate Thoughts
• How to Get Civilization IV 85% Off
• Civilization V Mac Polynesia DLC Now Available
• RTS Custom Map Experiences

 

 

Omaha is the executive producer of iGameRadio, “the original podcast about games on the Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch, and iPad.” She was gracious enough to allow me to prod her about her career within the gaming industry, social issues, and the future of Mac gaming. Can you describe your journey from studying oceanography to breaking into gaming? Omaha decided in fourth grade that she wanted to do something with the ocean. Everything she did through junior high and high school was about math and science to achieve that dream. Unfortunately, “college wasn’t as good as I expected,” and while in lab one day, “a friend came up and asked me if I wanted to write for a game company” because of her experience writing fantasy fiction. Omaha proceeded to work part-time and found that her job at the gaming company “got big and important” and that she “had an acumen for business and game design.” The game company was called “Pirate Software,” but they never released a game. From this experience, Omaha became knowledgeable and connected within the game industry, and found herself “less interested in oceanography.” At the turn of century and as the development studio was shutting down, “another friend came up to me for an internet radio show” and offered Omaha the chance to work on “the producer side of things.” Omaha responded, “Sure! I’ll do that!” and “ended up being a co-host and producer through 2003 and 2004.” She then “started up iGame radio” and “really enjoyed podcasting and internet radio,” expanding into new areas of technology and communicating with people. How would you describe iGameRadio? iGameRadio is the original podcast on Mac, iPad, and iPhone gaming. There is a weekly podcast that includes Mac news, new games, the app store, and what game development studio is or isn’t coming to the Mac. One to two times a week, Omaha reviews a Mac game. Between podcasts, Omaha conducts research and keeps her website updated. There is a section on the website entitled “Gamers Help Out.” This particular section was inspired by how the game industry steps up to the plate when funds for disaster relief are needed. She lists the game companies who have stepped up to the plate and how we can all help raise funds. Currently, Omaha is concentrating on relief efforts in Japan. (more…)

The Wii 2, mind-controlled games, and the beginnings of Steve Jobs’ biography all new this week.

Apple Computing and Gaming

The iPad 2 was recently awarded with a 3C (China Compulsory Certification) license; the iPad 2 is going to China. Analysts claim that Apple will lead the tablet market for years. Steve Jobs to tell his life story. Adobe listens to Apple, reluctantly. Apple has given the clearest indication yet that it’s gunning for the established games industry by hiring two of its top PR execs. Mind-controlled games hit the iPhone. Apple and Google steal market share from video game systems. Apple is quickly becoming a major player in the gaming industry.

More Gaming Stories

Worries about the launch of the 3DS and the results of the Japanese earthquake have dipped Nintendo’s stock price to the lowest it’s been in two years. Video games could help stroke patients recover Starting next year, Grammys will start recognizing video game music. MTV Networks Entertainment is starting a video game division to produce titles based on shows from Spike TV and Comedy Central. Jerry Lawson, creator of cartridge-based video game consoles, dies at 70. Nevada politicians key to U.S. push for Internet gaming. Wii 2 on the way. Philanthropic gaming is rapidly replacing traditional models of raising money for foreign assistance. Hacking group Anonymous pledges to continue Sony attacks. Nintendo announces a slew of new games for Q2. The International Game Developers Association has accused Amazon of setting pricing terms that could hurt developers over time.

Our Posts

How Games Travel Across The World F2P Games And The Microtransaction Model

Apple the gaming giant, how to clean up your mac, and how Minecraft became a hit.

Apple Computing and Gaming

More Gaming Stories

Our Posts

The Pitfalls Of World Of Warcraft The 5 Best Gaming April Fools Jokes Gaming With Friends Announcement: Apple to Purchase Aspyr Media

Apple and Nintendo at odds, proposed increases to the gaming population, and the iPad 2 launch

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Apple Computing and Gaming

• Blizzard Entertainment unveils Diablo III screenshots.
• All versions of Portal 2 will be the same, according to Valve.
• Apple spooks Nintendo.
• Game industry veterans publicly denounce practices by Apple and Nintendo at GDC (Game Developers Conference).
• Apple has no plans to acquire gaming companies.
• iPad 2 was developed with games in mind.
• With the iPad 2 launch, new accessories start pouring in.

More Gaming Stories

• Steam Guard is live beta; link your computer to your steam account. Just try logging into Gabe Newell’s account!
• EA releases Mass Effect 2 for digital download same day as retail, and brings in huge revenue.
• Nintendo warns they will BRICK your 3DS if they detect you’re playing pirated games on it.
• Nintendo’s GDC 2011 Keynote reveals their strategy to increase the gaming population.
• New Mortal Kombat has a 3D mode; a PS3 demo is being released next week.
• Game development may be at a crossroads.
• Intel says at GDC that SSD technology is the future in gaming for faster loading and less lag time.
• GDC 2012 dates are announced: 3/5/2012 – 3/9/2012.

Our Posts

• Aspyr Announces Mac App Mondays and GameAgent Discounts
• How FarmVille Can Save Us All
• The Sum Is Greater Than Its Parts: Silent Hill 2

The new iPad 2, Grand Theft Auto V, and a declining American economy a video game.

Apple Computing and Gaming

• Planet Stronghold has been released for Mac.
• Valve announces “Big Picture Mode” for Steam, though what that means is still unclear.
• We were right: the iPad 2 is coming out! And Steve Jobs (who is on indefinite sick leave) presented it.
• Apple iPhones are almost as popular as Android.
• Apple may be developing a system where customers can download music they’ve purchased across multiple devices.
• Apple is selling tech support to small businesses with a new program called “Joint Venture.”

More Gaming Stories

• New Portal 2 screenshots have been released.
• Nintendo lost 32% percent of sales in January.
• PSP cut its price down to $129.99.
• There are new clues about Grand Theft Auto V.
• Red Dead Redemption and Minecraft were the big winners at the Game Developers Choice awards.
• Angry Birds For Android passes 30 million download mark.
• Call of Juarez: The Cartel may be banned in Mexico.
• Edutainment in America today: can you survive on $1000 a month?
• A new blocks gaming system is compatible with your mac  and PC.

Our Posts

• 6 Ways Games Can Encourage Happiness
• GDC Day 2/3: Battlefield 3, iPad 2, 3DS
• GDC Day 1: “Big Picture” Interesting, Not Revolutionary
• GameAgent Deal of the Week: GDC 2011 Means Tiered Discounts

Please extend a warm welcome to Michael Simpson, our newest social media marketing intern.  Michael is a graduate of Westwood College with a degree in game software development.  He “aspyr”s to one day be a game designer, specifically in the areas of game mechanics and/or balancing.  Michael has always been into competitive gaming, and lately has been fairly obsessed with Riot Games’ League of Legends.  Some of his favorite games include Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Shadow of the Colossus, Limbo, and Silent Hill 2.  For his first entry, we asked Michael to comment on the future of Mac gaming, and the larger picture of gaming on Apple devices in general.

The future of gaming on the Mac is going to rely heavily upon choices made by Apple.  Looking to the past, one can see that Apple hasn’t made much effort to support gaming on its OS, until quite recently.  One of the largest breakthroughs was Apple’s shift to Intel processors and then later the release of Boot Camp, though this ultimately still promoted playing games through a Windows OS (part of the problem).  While this is a temporary way to satisfy fans of gaming, it’s not the answer to gaming natively on a Mac OS.  The laziness Apple has exhibited in the past with game software has been a large bane to gamers who also love Apple PCs and Mac OSX.

Problems of the Past

Historically speaking, Apple has taken too much of an ambiguous stance toward gaming on their platform.  A great example of this is an old interview with Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve Corp.  Gabe reveals that he and others at Valve had been in talks with Apple many times, trying to get the ball rolling on Valve software releases for Mac operating systems.  According to Gabe, Apple was hesitant to follow through with them on a repeated basis.  Given Valve is responsible for arguably some of the greatest games in recent history, Apple’s choice to not follow through on this opportunity should leave doubts toward their commitment to Mac gaming.

Full Steam Ahead

While choices like this have made Apple’s aim to make gaming “serious” on a Mac dubious at best, recent developments have been significantly more promising.  With Valve’s announcement that Steam would be available on the Mac, it seems that they were finally able to get through to Apple.  Though the number of games currently available through Steam is limited in comparison to the PC version, the fact that Steam is available for the Mac period is a huge boost to Mac gaming.  Steam makes games incredibly accessible and therefore offers increased exposure as well.  Both of these things are needed to increase the likelihood of game developers releasing Mac ports in close tandem with their PC counterparts.  Essentially, Steam makes a future where a Mac gamer is no longer logging into their Windows partition to play a given game a very viable possibility.

Gaming Alternatives

With Steam breathing life into Mac gaming, there’s some assuredness to its growth.  However, the future of gaming and Apple may be more closely associated with other apple products – namely, the Apple iPhone and iTouch.  The iPhone in terms of app support is fairly dominant among mobile devices, and experienced iPhone developers are highly sought-after in the job market.  Apple has the ability to take the iPhone and do to the rest of the phone industry what PCs essentially did to Macs in terms of gaming.  If Apple continues to put time into iPhone and iTouch graphics and app support, the sky is the limit as to what these devices could achieve.  When there are 99 cent games in the app store that are giving better experiences than ~$30 Nintendo DS/Sony PSP games, who is to say that such a device couldn’t potentially steal sales from the handheld industry?   With Nintendo’s 3DS launching at a $249 price point (slightly more than the base iTouch retail of $229), the iTouch and its future generations can be seen as a reasonable alternative, especially for more casual gamers.  This isn’t even taking into account the plethora of other features that the iOS can offer.

A Hopeful Future

While Apple has found a bit of a gaming niche with the iOS app store, there are still strides to be made if the Mac is to be considered a true alternative to PC gaming.  Fortunately with the launch of Steam for the Mac, Apple now has a stronger foothold to challenge PC dominance.  Most importantly, Apple must continue to make a strong push for gaming and continue to show that it’s a market they wish to capture.

How do you feel about Steam on the Mac?  Is Steam going to be Apple’s big ticket item toward driving Mac gaming, or just a small stepping stone in the right direction?  What about other online game services, such as Aspyr’s GameAgent Store or the Mac App Store?  How about the gaming support on Apple’s mobile devices?  Feel free to leave some comments below with your opinions!

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.

Macworld 2011 challenges the PC industry. OnLive’s PlayPack is available. The App Store incites frustration from parents.

Apple Computing and Gaming

This week, the participants at Macworld 2011 ushered in the new year with incredible new offerings from third-party vendors. As Apple straightens up to be the third largest PC vender in the world (as assessed by Canalys), more complaints are emerging about the App Store (especially among concerned parents), despite Apple’s push to include big-name video games for download like Bioshock. With the iPad’s glowing success in the past year, many are claiming tablet computers are revolutionizing the printing, mobile, and handheld gaming industry.

More Gaming Stories

Sony is exploring ways for NGP players to download old UMD games. OnLive’s PlayPack subscription service is now available for $10 a month (best of all it’s available for both Mac and PC), while Steam pushes their screenshots feature into beta. Finally, a Brigham Young University study finds teen girls may benefit from playing video games with their parents.

Our Posts

Lessons Learned from a Macworld Rookie Tacos, Futbol and Video Games: A Mexican Perspective on Gaming, Part Siete Life as a Female Gamer Part I: Make Your Own Damn Sandwich Deal of the Week: Bundle Up with New Gaming Bundles! Call for Comments: How Do Games Help You Connect With Others?

Our first user review in some time comes courtesy Dwight Dickinson, friend of GameAgent and all around swell guy.  Below, Dwight takes a look at the classic shooter Unreal Tournament 2004 for the Mac.  Final verdict?  Well, I think it’s safe to say he enjoyed the game–read on to find out why! By Dwight Dickinson So this is my first review, but I figured I’d do an older game. I’ve played a lot of games, both on a console and PC. I switched to Mac in early 2006, and never looked back. I was playing a few games over the weekend, like Counter-strike and so forth and figured I’d take a look at an older game. I dusted off my Unreal Tournament 2004 and popped it into my trusty MacBook Pro. This game is truly an amazing game, even for it’s age. With all sorts of game modes, it’s really an awesome first person shooter! The assault game is like a vehicle-race sort of deal where the majority of the game is done using vehicles. It’s a simple team-based assault game where you must co-operate with teammates and have a dedicated driver, gunman and so forth to reach the objectives in the game. It’s strictly team/objective-based gameplay with lots and lots of bullets and special weapons like shock weapons and snipers. And if you don’t feel like playing assault? Well, go ahead and play death match (similar to Call of Duty), or Capture-the-flag. The possibilities of game modes are endless! Okay, so the graphics aren’t up to snuff, and the game is not as popular as it used to be, but playing the game is definitely a fun chance if your WoW server is down, or if Call of Duty 4 (from Aspyr!) is getting too hardcore. It’s cheap, and it’s good awesome fun! Third party maps really increase the fun you can have in assault maps, as maps are still being created today for the game! You’ll always find friendly people (from what I’ve seen), on the servers. It’s got the team-based play you want from Call of Duty, the explosions you want from Halo and so much more. If you want to get away from realistic games set in war zones, come play Unreal Tournament 2004 which is set in space, and involves much more strategic play, or just plain shoot and kill! I also cannot stress enough how much fun the vehicles are to drive. From regular ground-based machines, to flying space machines with laser beams and rockets- it’s truly a game to remember. The maps are huge, and the gameplay is fantastic. I’d have to say that, while I rarely get a chance to play this game anymore (due to Cataclysm, school and whatnot), it’s still a personal favourite and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. What’re you waiting for?! Go pick up this game and try it out! It’ll tide us all over until Aspyr announces their next major game hit (which I’ll be looking forward to!). Unfortunately, I have no screenshots of the game, since I’ve been THAT much into it! (Editor’s note: Added some visual imagery for you!) But the best screenshot would be to get it and try it yourself! (They have a demo on Google). Thanks, Dwight Dickinson FINAL: 4.5/5