Seifz wrote...
In all honesty, just how large is the market for this Mac port? How many people own Macs. Of them, how many game? Of them, how many like BioWare RPGs? Of them, how many won't just use Bootcamp or attempt to run it in WINE? Of them, how many will buy this version of the game instead of a console version?
I think at least the number of Mac owners isn't as low as many people would like to make it, at least internet statistics see the Mac close to 10%. How many of them are gamers? No clue, but I'm browsing the Bioboards for quite some years now and see many Mac owners, these days usually playing in Bootcamp.
As for Bioware RPGs, again no clue, but I used to hang around on some Mac boards back when I still felt I had to talk about computers, and I clearly remember how excited the people were about KOTOR and NWN. So Bioware is at last known.
The Bootcamp question is really the major one, because most Mac users who are interested in games don't really care for Mac versions anymore. If the companies did it right, there was a market. I'll speak for myself now: I would like to play a native game for a change, it's always nice not having to reboot into Windows. That is the one advantage a Mac port has, and some people will pay for it. However, as soon as I hear that some things will again not work for the Mac port (like DLC for example), I immeadiately turn away. Mac owners already pay a high tax for playing, because Mac games never get cheaper, they'll cost 50 Euros until they're just removed from the shelves after 4 years. So if you want to sell me a Mac game, you'll have to be fast, otherwise I see no reason to buy a game for 50 Euros when I can get the PC version for 20.
If you then remove content, I can just say "eat your stupid port and leave me alone with my Bootcamp". The lack of a toolset is something many casual gamers can still live with, but if we don't get patches anymore or can't download DLC like Return to Ostagar, or even worse, like in NWN2, you forget that Mac players would like to play online too, then it's too much and the port will be worthless. Companies usually blame the lack of sales then and claim that there's no Mac market for them, while it's actually the opposite: There is a Mac market, but not even the totally spoiled and oblivious Mac owner wants to be the milked cow who pays double for half the content. If companies don't want to acknowledge that (and these days it looks like they don't), then good riddance Mac gaming, Bootcamp is our friend.
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