Lego games and the MAC

[Nemonyte]

How come none of the MAC versions of LEGO games are on Steam? They are available in the Mac App Store, but I like to buy everything from Steam. Especially since I can play on both Mac and PC.

[rotopenguin]

The usual. The Mac version isn't written by the original developer, instead the dev licenses out the right to make a port to Feral or Aspyr. Those porting companies pay a handsome fee up front, and a percent or fixed $ per copy they sell. The terms of that contract are traditionally bad enough that the Mac version never manages to go on much of a sale.

If you have a Mac with a better graphics card (get gfxCardStatus and see if you have a Discrete GPU), then consider buying a copy of Parallels 8 and Win 7. You get to ride along on the better pricing of Windows games this way. On my Radeon 6750M, Lego Batman 2 worked fantastic. A more strenuous game like Darksiders 2 is still playable at 20-40FPS. You can get a time limited demo of Parallels, and I think you can use Windows 7 for a while before registering. Get the 7 iso from DigitalRiver (the official, unofficial download that Microsoft provides) and try before you buy.

Finally, buy more Steamplay titles. Aspyr did something different with Borderlands 2 - instead of them importing the game into Macland (and adding a markup), they are apparently being hired to do the port for the benefit of the whole PC/Mac bundle. This is definitely a good trend and we need to encourage it.

[Winchester7314]

No offense to your choice, but mac is way over priced, for no particular reasons, and has no advantages over pc, and don't tell me they don't get viruses, because they do, thats a myth. I would suggest switching if you have the money or can sell yours, if you prefer the docks on the desktop, just get object dock from stardock free trial for one dock, or $20 for unlimeted docks, try to get the alienware x51 desktop for 900 or so, with more power than most macs, or the alienware m14x laptop for 1000. or for cheaper atleast look for a quad core desktop/laptop on amazon if you dont wanna spend alot. But if your gonna spend a but load on mac, and get nothin for your money, atleast spend it on alienware. Now please im not tryin to spark a pc vs. Mac war, I'm just stating thaat you get more bang for your buck with PC.

[Nemonyte]

I don't believe this is a discussion about Mac versus PC. Feel free to start another thread if you would like to discuss that.

Originally posted by Winchester7314:

No offense to your choice, but mac is way over priced, for no particular reasons, and has no advantages over pc, and don't tell me they don't get viruses, because they do, thats a myth. I would suggest switching if you have the money or can sell yours, if you prefer the docks on the desktop, just get object dock from stardock free trial for one dock, or $20 for unlimeted docks, try to get the alienware x51 desktop for 900 or so, with more power than most macs, or the alienware m14x laptop for 1000. or for cheaper atleast look for a quad core desktop/laptop on amazon if you dont wanna spend alot. But if your gonna spend a but load on mac, and get nothin for your money, atleast spend it on alienware. Now please im not tryin to spark a pc vs. Mac war, I'm just stating thaat you get more bang for your buck with PC.

[Nemonyte]

Agreed! I hope a trend will start like borderlands 2. I would be willing to pay a reasonable premium for access to a Mac version. Of course, that is not in line with Valve's thinking.

Originally posted by rotopenguin:

The usual. The Mac version isn't written by the original developer, instead the dev licenses out the right to make a port to Feral or Aspyr. Those porting companies pay a handsome fee up front, and a percent or fixed $ per copy they sell. The terms of that contract are traditionally bad enough that the Mac version never manages to go on much of a sale.

If you have a Mac with a better graphics card (get gfxCardStatus and see if you have a Discrete GPU), then consider buying a copy of Parallels 8 and Win 7. You get to ride along on the better pricing of Windows games this way. On my Radeon 6750M, Lego Batman 2 worked fantastic. A more strenuous game like Darksiders 2 is still playable at 20-40FPS. You can get a time limited demo of Parallels, and I think you can use Windows 7 for a while before registering. Get the 7 iso from DigitalRiver (the official, unofficial download that Microsoft provides) and try before you buy.

Finally, buy more Steamplay titles. Aspyr did something different with Borderlands 2 - instead of them importing the game into Macland (and adding a markup), they are apparently being hired to do the port for the benefit of the whole PC/Mac bundle. This is definitely a good trend and we need to encourage it.

[Noah]

Originally posted by rotopenguin:

The usual. The Mac version isn't written by the original developer, instead the dev licenses out the right to make a port to Feral or Aspyr. Those porting companies pay a handsome fee up front, and a percent or fixed $ per copy they sell. The terms of that contract are traditionally bad enough that the Mac version never manages to go on much of a sale.

If you have a Mac with a better graphics card (get gfxCardStatus and see if you have a Discrete GPU), then consider buying a copy of Parallels 8 and Win 7. You get to ride along on the better pricing of Windows games this way. On my Radeon 6750M, Lego Batman 2 worked fantastic. A more strenuous game like Darksiders 2 is still playable at 20-40FPS. You can get a time limited demo of Parallels, and I think you can use Windows 7 for a while before registering. Get the 7 iso from DigitalRiver (the official, unofficial download that Microsoft provides) and try before you buy.

Finally, buy more Steamplay titles. Aspyr did something different with Borderlands 2 - instead of them importing the game into Macland (and adding a markup), they are apparently being hired to do the port for the benefit of the whole PC/Mac bundle. This is definitely a good trend and we need to encourage it.

But they already hired feral interactive to make a mac version. You can buy it on the mac app store. Steam is better though because you have all your games in one place. Plus if you're ever limited to PC, you have the windows version too.