Cities XL not for Mac?

[USA Patriot 49]

I listened to a interview of the creators, and they aid the game was not going to be for Mac. Now I know a ton of Sim City 4 people who play the game via Macintosh. How could they not make the game for all the Mac players out there? I am really saddened by this. I have been looking forward for this game, for as long as it has been known. They also never made City Life for Mac, and still have not, which makes me worry, they may never make Cities XL for Mac. :-/ Thoughts...comments...

[toxicpiano 125]

They could get it ciderised by transgaming. People can do that themselves if they want or even install windows. Of course all this requires an Intel mac. If you a powerpc machine it's unlikely there will be any games available to you in the future

[Kevin 101]

Originally posted by: USA Patriot Moderators, please delete the other posts. Sometimes this site is so laggy, you click to post it, and it does nothing, then you click post again, and again, and then itappears with them all. Never understood that. :-/ Sorry.quote>

Took care of it, no prob

[dasilva 3]

USA Patriot, making a game for multiple platforms is very expensive and we prefer right now putting all our efforts on the Windows version and make sure we make a good game.

Now, it doesn't mean we someday make a Mac version but USA Patriot, I'm sorry and I don't want to give you too many hopes but you'll have to wait...

[SimRabbit 48]

Boot camp or parallels is an option for playing Games. Plus you can install Windows only software.

[Siguy 0]

All of the new Macs can dual boot Windows, and an OEM copy of Vista Basic or XP Home is like 80 bucks, a lot compared to a typical game, but considering the price difference between PC and Mac games, you'll be saving a lot more than that in your next few game purchases.

[LocustManor 0]

CitiesXL is officially dead to me.

I for one will not placate lazy software developers and pad the pockets of Redmond with the tired mantra of "you can just run windows on a mac".

Windows XP is old in the tooth and being pushed out the door and Windows Vista is a horror. I know myself and many other mac users feel the same way and will not lock up 15GB of Hard Drive space and pay $219.00 (for Vista Ultimate) $130.00 (for Vista Home) just to play CitiesXL.

What mac users feared most when Apple switched from the superior PowerPc has now come true.

I'm on a core2duo MBP BTW.

[toxicpiano 125]

Originally posted by: LocustManor CitiesXL is officially dead to me.

I for one will not placate lazy software developers and pad the pockets of Redmond with the tired mantra of "you can just run windows on a mac".

Windows XP is old in the tooth and being pushed out the door and Windows Vista is a horror. I know myself and many other mac users feel the same way and will not lock up 15GB of Hard Drive space and pay $219.00 (for Vista Ultimate) $130.00 (for Vista Home) just to play CitiesXL.

What mac users feared most when Apple switched from the superior PowerPc has now come true.

I'm on a core2duo MBP BTW.

quote>

oh please get over yourself. it costs developers valuable time and money to port games to a different operating system. Intel is the future for macs whether you like it or not. I'm on a 2007 imac.

[Cleaner475 150]

Originally posted by: toxicpiano

Originally posted by: LocustManor CitiesXL is officially dead to me.

I for one will not placate lazy software developers and pad the pockets of Redmond with the tired mantra of "you can just run windows on a mac".

Windows XP is old in the tooth and being pushed out the door and Windows Vista is a horror. I know myself and many other mac users feel the same way and will not lock up 15GB of Hard Drive space and pay $219.00 (for Vista Ultimate) $130.00 (for Vista Home) just to play CitiesXL.

What mac users feared most when Apple switched from the superior PowerPc has now come true.

I'm on a core2duo MBP BTW.

quote>

oh please get over yourself. it costs developers valuable time and money to port games to a different operating system. Intel is the future for macs whether you like it or not. I'm on a 2007 imac.quote>

I agree with Toxicpiano - It takes a lot of money to go multi-platform on games and its not always possible. It wouldn't make much sense for a business (which like all business is built to make money) to spend money and resources developing for a platform which is in the minority. The profit margin wouldn't normally be high enough to make it worthwhile and thats the simple truth of it which is why not every game is on everyplatform and why even though there are people with PS2's they don't make many games for them anymore.

To make your product suceed you have to take note of the majority of your consumers,

Richard

[TV-VCR 15]

Let's see, you have several things you could use. VMware, Parallels, Bootcamp, and WINE. Why not try one of those for when Cities XL comes out? They are all good. WINE for Mac doesn't require a Windows XP license, although not everything under the sun will work with it. VMware allows you to use windows while using OSX at the same time, but I hear it's slightly unstable. It also doesn't support the latest versions of DirectX. I recommend Bootcamp to be honest.

Originally posted by: LocustManor CitiesXL is officially dead to me.

I for one will not placate lazy software developers and pad the pockets of Redmond with the tired mantra of "you can just run windows on a mac".

Windows XP is old in the tooth and being pushed out the door and Windows Vista is a horror. I know myself and many other mac users feel the same way and will not lock up 15GB of Hard Drive space and pay $219.00 (for Vista Ultimate) $130.00 (for Vista Home) just to play CitiesXL.

What mac users feared most when Apple switched from the superior PowerPc has now come true.

I'm on a core2duo MBP BTW.

quote>

Please learn to be more open minded than that. That's one of the main reasons I am not fond of Apple's userbase, too many people treat "owning a mac" like it's a religion, and anything even remotely related to Gates/Torvalds is something spawned from Satan himself. Give me a break.

Chris.

[SimRabbit 48]

LocustManor:You are just being selfish.

If you don't like how things are, move on. Who cares if you don't like this great game anymore.

I hate Mac users that act like that. The world doesn't revolve around Mac and Apple.

[dasilva 3]

You guys should calm down

I think LocustManor has the right to express its opinion and he is doing so without being actually agressive. He says he doesn't like to give money to software made for Windows because it's somehow increasing Microsoft's domination over Operating Systems, fair enough: that's his money

However, it doesn't forbids me to express mine: I feel disappointed seeing a Mac user being so close minded. If you do not own a Windows box, I do understand you don't want to buy a Windows version to install it on your Mac and therefore get a copy of CITIES XL. Now if you do have a Windows box, that shouldn't forbid you to get one

And by the way, I'm also a MBP user too

[toxicpiano 125]

Originally posted by: dasilva You guys should calm down

I think LocustManor has the right to express its opinion and he is doing so without being actually agressive. He says he doesn't like to give money to software made for Windows because it's somehow increasing Microsoft's domination over Operating Systems, fair enough: that's his money

However, it doesn't forbids me to express mine: I feel disappointed seeing a Mac user being so close minded. If you do not own a Windows box, I do understand you don't want to buy a Windows version to install it on your Mac and therefore get a copy of CITIES XL. Now if you do have a Windows box, that shouldn't forbid you to get one

And by the way, I'm also a MBP user too quote>

Hi dasilva, had you considered using cider like EA did with spore? http://www.transgaming.com/products/cider/

[BurroDiablo 222]

The lesson here is simple > use the more popular medium. You wouldn't buy a Black and white TV then complain because its not in Colour.

[lunomaa 0]

I'd love if games and other programmes could be available for most platforms but maybe in the future. Well at least my iMac has Bootcamp with Windows Vista. I'm thinking of getting Parallels in fact. Doesn't bother me which platform I use as long as I can play the game! I know what you mean about certain Mac users being all superior and *****e! It annoys me. I love Mac but I owned PCs for years too. I read in the FAQ on the site and they said that the game will be available for Mac and Linux in the future.

[lunomaa 0]

I'd love if games and other programmes could be available for most platforms but maybe in the future. Well at least my iMac has Bootcamp with Windows Vista. I'm thinking of getting Parallels in fact. Doesn't bother me which platform I use as long as I can play the game! I know what you mean about certain Mac users being all superior and *****e! It annoys me. I love Mac but I owned PCs for years too. I read in the FAQ on the site and they said that the game will be available for Mac and Linux in the future.

[LocustManor 0]

I would like to say a big hello to all the mac users on this thread and to SimCity users in general. I have been playing this great franchise since SC2K and SimTower. I would like to say that the same thing that brought you here brought me here. My love of SimCity.

Four and a half years and I finally decide to speak.

Ok, lets get on with it.

Selfish, closed-minded, full of myself, something about a black and white television...hmm.

Lets see here, SimCity since 1989 has always had a mac version. SimCity, SimAnt, SimTower, SimCity2000, SimCity3000, SimCity4, etc.

Take a look at those dates again 1989 to present, for most of this time Apple's world-wide market share plummeted to new lows, especially in the mid to late '90's, and yet these games were all ported to the mac. Why?

Now in 2008 soon to be 2009 with Apple commanding nearly 25% of the US laptop computer market and 8% market share amongst consumers. Of even more importance than that however is the fact that for the first time in a generation Microsoft Windows world-wide market share will dip below 90% within the next year or two.

Now can anyone honestly and with a straight face tell me that the mac market is two small to make a mac port profitable? A game that will undoubtably be very profitable for Monte Cristo? After nearly twenty years of SimCity on a mac?

Honestly, I think not!

BTW, I don't hate windows. I do use MS '08. Out of choice.

[Siguy 0]

I don't think there will never be a Mac version, but it probably won't be released until after the PC version.

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: LocustManor I would like to say a big hello to all the mac users on this thread and to SimCity users in general. I have been playing this great franchise since SC2K and SimTower. I would like to say that the same thing that brought you here brought me here. My love of SimCity.

Four and a half years and I finally decide to speak.

Ok, lets get on with it.

Selfish, closed-minded, full of myself, something about a black and white television...hmm.

Lets see here, SimCity since 1989 has always had a mac version. SimCity, SimAnt, SimTower, SimCity2000, SimCity3000, SimCity4, etc.

Take a look at those dates again 1989 to present, for most of this time Apple's world-wide market share plummeted to new lows, especially in the mid to late '90's, and yet these games were all ported to the mac. Why?

Now in 2008 soon to be 2009 with Apple commanding nearly 25% of the US laptop computer market and 8% market share amongst consumers. Of even more importance than that however is the fact that for the first time in a generation Microsoft Windows world-wide market share will dip below 90% within the next year or two.

Now can anyone honestly and with a straight face tell me that the mac market is two small to make a mac port profitable? A game that will undoubtably be very profitable for Monte Cristo? After nearly twenty years of SimCity on a mac?

Honestly, I think not!quote>

I'm quite sure in the end it would be profitable. However, Monte Cristo is not Maxis. And I imagine they would want to make sure people like and are willing to buy their game before porting it over to OS X. There are several ways they could do that (do it their selves, have another company do it like Aspyr, etc.). In the end I'm quite sure there will be a version for macs.

Originally posted by: LocustManor BTW, I don't hate windows. I do use MS '08. Out of choice. quote>

What you said about the two most popular versions was pretty derogatory.

Chris.

[jikopooooSC 0]

I think it's a good that games come out a little later for Mac OS X, albeit sometimes they still take far too long. This gives Mac users the chance to research the game by reading reviews from Windows users before they decide to buy it.

I do have to say though, I think it's mad not to develop for the Mac as its share in the market has increased quite substantially. I also understand that EA is a much larger company than Monte Cristo so they have much more money to spend.

I don't agree with the minority of Mac users on this forum being narrow-minded, by choosing a Mac you are supposed to think differently, and by the looks of it you are thinking more like a Windows user. :\

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: jikopooooSC I think it's a good that games come out a little later for Mac OS X, albeit sometimes they still take far too long. This gives Mac users the chance to research the game by reading reviews from Windows users before they decide to buy it.quote>

Usually they take a while because creating a version for another OS can be a time-consuming process. There's quite a few differences between Windows and OSX.

Originally posted by: jikopooooSC and by the looks of it you are thinking more like a Windows user. :\quote>

Mind explaining what exactly that means?

[Hamish 1,370]

Ok, it is now becoming a Mac vs Windows war. Lets keep it on the topic. Which is, that Cities XL might not come out on Macs.

So, I think you have a few options, if you really want it you could you could put it on bootcamp, or wait for it to come out on mac, or you could just not get it at all...

In my opinion, I think Aspyr will get their hands on Cities XL after a bit...

[Corner 0]

On the matter of games, I'd like to share my thoughts. I'm not a games programmer, but I do wonder why releasing games across platform is still such a pain in 2008. Surely APIs like OpenGL and pusleaudio, compatbility layers like wine and virtualisation can take away much of the pain? Is there really that much low level code in there? It's not like their trying to squeeze every drop out of a genesis's 68000. Granted, there's testing etc. which might be expensive.

I guess it's ease and good marketing. I know there's a huge Windows segment and it's been ubiquitous for a long time, but times are changing and other systems are becoming increasingly popular. OSX is trendy and I see Linux in use on the desktop more and more these days (I am using Ubuntu as I type this ). if id software can get Quake IV to compile across the board, why not Cities XL?

[ididntdidit 0]

A lot of you guys who are attacking the Mac users for wanting the game to also be built for Mac don't know what it's like. Mac users are lucky that even SimCity4 was built for Mac as well (even though it is full of defects). And now to have yet another game not be built for our platform sucks. I've been looking forward to this game for a very long time and now that it's not Mac based is a horrible thing to hear. I'm on a laptop and to get parallels and/or bootcamp would lock up my hard-drive and make the game run all laggy. The reason it should be made for Mac as well is because not everyone wants to or can afford to get all the stupid software you need to run a game. A computer shouldn't revolve around a game, a game should revolve around a computer.

Jarrett.

P.S. Macintosh is not a small company why should it be neglected?

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: ididntdidit Macintosh is not a small company why should it be neglected?quote>

Two words: Market share. If OS X actually manages to gain a large enough market share I'm sure more companies will also port their software over to OS X.

And I know what it's like. If all windows software suddenly worked perfectly on linux one day I would never use windows again. 

[ididntdidit 0]

So your saying that you prefer a mac but unfortunately there are too many programs essential to gaming that only windows provides

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: ididntdidit So your saying that you prefer a mac but unfortunately there are too many programs essential to gaming that only windows providesquote>

Um, I don't prefer macs. I prefer a linux distro such as OpenSuse.

But yes, although it's not just gaming. Almost all programs I use in Windows aren't for linux, and quite a few don't work in Wine right. Programs like Sketchup, Office 2007, and SimCity 4 are a bit glitchy. Programs like 3ds Max don't run at all.

[Zelgadis 638]

Well, it is an unfortunate truth. That which prevents us from getting overwhelmed by viruses also causes situations like this. It's a trade off. A trade off I'm willing to endure.

Monte Cristo is not EA. Which is both a good and bad thing. They don't have the same resources a large company would have to just start putting out Mac versions of everything. Again, it's the trade off we make.

Those of us who choose not to install Windows have their reasons. For me, it's a waste of money to install it just to run one or two programs that I would like to run. Cities XL would have been one of them. But there ya go. But... that'd have to wait anyway, since I'm on a PPC G4. I still think Apple should have stuck with the Motorola chips, but what's done is done.

So, according to dasilva, there are two issues with making a Mac port:

Time

Money

I'm willing to wait for the Mac port. Not that I have a choice. I couldn't run Cities XL on my current computer. I'll probably have a new one by the time the Mac port made it out. It's pretty much par for the course. We Mac folk usually have to wait a bit for our games. I can deal with that.

As for money... well, I reckon there's no way around that. If the game is released and it is successful and y'all at Monte Cristo think that there could be more money made on a Mac port, I do hope you'll consider it. There are plenty of good outsourcing companies out there. I'm not particularly thrilled with how Aspyr sort of abandoned their port of SC4 before the final patches were made, but I'm sure there are other options.

In short, we Mac people are here, we like good games, and we have credit cards. Don't forget us! We'll wait. We always do.

ISF

[toxicpiano 125]

Originally posted by: ididntdidit

P.S. Macintosh is not a small company why should it be neglected?quote>

'macintosh' isn't a company which is probably why they neglect it

[dasilva 3]

Hi guys,

We neglet nothing and nobody otherwise should we be present in here

More seriously, as some of you already stated, we are a small developer and we are putting all our "guts" in this project. We do not have any big publisher supporting us and we are facing it on our own with money we raised alone to let you have a chance to play CITIES XL.

Therefore, every penny we spent in development is really important and when we obviously thought about porting the game to another platform such as the Mac, we decided to focus on PC Windows first because it has the biggest market share which, if successful will let us put some more money to port the game to Mac.

That's our plan for now