At a clip when retail shelf space for game software system is as scarce as it ’s ever been while new Mac users clamor for game , Mac game publishing company Aspyr Media has come up with a bold novel first step to meet that demand . DubbedGamerhood , the software targeted for a late-2006 debut will get you download not only the modish and big Aspyr Media games , but casual games and older titles that might otherwise get squeezed off of brick - and - mortar retail shelves .
To see out about Aspyr ’s plan for Gamerhood and how it could potentially change the face of Mac gaming , Macworldsat down with Michael Rogers , president of theAustin , Texas - base biz Lord .
receive to Mr. Rogers ’ Gamerhood
Outside of Apple retail stores , Comp USA and other select Mac resellers , it ’s almost unsufferable to recover Mac games on the shelves of a store . And if you hold up far away from any of those option , your vulnerability to major commercial Mac games may be minimum — or totally nonexistent .
Gamerhood , announced Monday by Aspyr , get to alter that by providing a one - stop store for Mac gamers who want new games . But Rogers added that Aspyr also sees Gamerhood as a style to amend several elements of the Mac gameplay experience .
One such element is copy protection . CD and videodisk checks , necessitate by many secret plan , force Mac users to have their discs on hired man so as to play , even if they ’ve bought the biz lawfully , registered it , and entered the game ’s sequential number . That ’s particularly burdensome for laptop users , who have to gestate around plot discs if they want to play when they ’re out and about .
“ We ’ve been listening to people about CD stop , and we recognize that more people than ever have notebooks that they require to game on , ” Rogers suppose . “ Rather than forcing these folks to download a snap , we want to make it well-off for people to play . ”
Gamerhood will enable users to download games after buying them from Aspyr and back them up to another gruelling driving force , candela , or DVD , count on the size of it . Gamers wo n’t need a physical phonograph recording in their optic drives , though their machines will need to be authorized in parliamentary law to meet — Aspyr is still puzzle out on some of the detail on how that will work , Rogers say . But he envisions a system where one drug user can pass along a written matter of their game to another to save them the download meter — as long as that unexampled drug user is authorized to download games as well .
Another element Aspyr aims to improve via Gamerhood is the experience of playing and using a Mac game . Gamerhood will attend as a unified system for download update and patches to Modern games , so users wo n’t need to worry about cook trusted they have the a la mode version instal .
“ It needs to be easier to play a game and manage your experience , ” Rogers added . “ We want to make update , backups and maculation as simple-minded as potential . ”
Finally , Aspyr hopes to tackle the ever - present problem of game availability . With Gamerhood , Rogers think Aspyr will have the chance to lucubrate its library of uncommitted Mac game . “ If you go into any Mac software retailer , there are only a few games available ” he said . “ And that space is modified . In ordering to get new games on store shelves , we often have to pull older ace out of circulation , even if they ’re still sell o.k. .
“ We ’d wish to get more choices and more games into masses ’s workforce . thing that would n’t be usable at retail anyway , and other products that are more casual - style game — card game , puzzle games and so on . ”
By transfer physical ledge space from the equation , Aspyr could , theoretically , uprise older statute title that still have some marketability but are n’t viable in store . The troupe could also offer production like enlargement packs for exist games which also are n’t shelf - friendly , but still may hold a market , as well as effortless secret plan that Aspyr has n’t touched in a very long time .
Ai n’t nothin’ but a G thang
Gamerhood will launch in the fourth - quarter of 2006 with mostly Aspyr - licensed titles , Rogers explain . “ But we ’re trust this is n’t something that will be restricted only to our games finally , ” he added .
To that conclusion , Rogers said that Aspyr has had discussions with other primal Macintosh game developers and publishing house ; he hopes those initial talk will come to realisation before Gamerhood ’s launching .
Aspyr will debut Gamerhood for the Macintosh , but it ’s not go to be a qualified community . With Aspyr increasing its presences outside the Mac — it has about a twelve - and - a - half PC games in its current inventory — Gamerhood will finally be made for other platforms too , Rogers aver .
“ For us it ’s about getting the experience right first , and all of those experience I ’ve had on the Mac have been very positive , ” Rogers said .
Aspyr envisions Gamerhood as an alternative to the tradition retail channel , which Rogers said will remain to be of key grandness to the party . “ storage are still the biggest driver of our sales event , ” he add up .
To that end , do n’t expect a price incentive when you buy top - level commercial games from Gamerhood — chances are that game purchased and download online will cost the same as the store - bought transcript , at least if the top - tier game is released simultaneously on Gamerhood and in stores . support like game manuals , will be included as PDF files that you’re able to look at on your computer screen or impress out .
iTunes the modeling , Mac game sale on the rise
William Penn Adair Rogers aver that Apple ’s iTunes Music Store is the model for Gamerhood — notValve Software’sSteam engineering , which is required in ordination to play the hit Windows game Half - Life 2 . While Steam similarly allows you to download and make for games without require a disk in your drive , it ’s been criticized for problematic connections and accused of have haywire anti - cheating and anti - piracy technology .
“ Unless they have microcomputer , Mac gamers have n’t had that experience on the Mac , ” say Rogers , referring to Steam . “ So we ’re trying to more closely pose the iTunes Music Store , because it ’s elementary and easy and square about what happens and how it works . ”
Another fundamental divergence between Gamerhood and Steam , Rogers noted , is the absence of a multiplayer portion — Gamerhood does n’t seek to put back the multiplayer mechanisms found in Aspyr games . ( Steam incorporates its own game finding , trailing , and confabulate service . )
Rogers was pleased to note that Aspyr ’s Mac game sales are up for the class . “ Is that because the great unwashed are buy more game for the Mac , or the games we have are better ? We put that right wing at Apple ’s substructure , ” he say . “ There ’s more pastime in Macs than ever . More new Mac users are coming into the Apple stores , they ’re buying new Macs , and they ’re bringing them home and desire to see what they can do . And we ’re hop to appeal to them with novel games and an easier way of get game onto their Macs with Gamerhood . ”
