If you ’re not a gamer , Valve Software is one of the “ big three ” when it comes to first - person shooter . Id Softwareis the society behind Doom and Quake . Epic Gamesmakes the Unreal - branded game . And Valve is the developer of the hugely popular Half - Life franchise .

Half - Life ’s absence seizure on the Mac has always been a glaring hole in the pantheon of Mac games — especially since the original game was , at one point , designate for a Mac vent , though Valve ultimately pulled the stopper prior to releasing it . So when Gabe Newell talks about the Mac , Mac gamers ’ ears perk up up and take notice .

Armchair quarterback

According to Newell , Valve has “ tried to have a conversation with Apple for several year ” about gaming on Mac OS X , and has n’t met with success . As Newell explain it , Apple runs blistering and insensate — tell his fellowship that it ’s concerned in making the platform well for game , then not acting on it . What ’s more , employee turnover in Apple developer relations seems to be a problem , as well .

“ I just do n’t call back they ’ve ever taken gambling seriously , ” Newell said . “ And none of the thing developers expect them to do are done . ”

There ’s a lot of verity in what Newell is saying , and it ’s things that I ’ve say and alluded to frequently over the years . Apple definitely does n’t “ get ” gaming , at least not in the same way that Microsoft does . Whether you consider that ’s a welfare or a hurt for Apple all depend on how much you like to play game in your spare time , I suppose .

But to say that ’s why Valve is n’t on this platform is a load of horse - hockey , as far as I ’m relate . Valve ’s absence seizure on the Macintosh ultimately has very fiddling to do with Apple ’s gaming scheme , and everything to do with money .

It ’s all about the Benjamins

Valve has sure been approach by Mac game publishing company in the yesteryear who need to see Half - Life 2 and Valve ’s core locomotive engine engineering come to the Macintosh . And Valve has either rebuff those advance instantaneously or asked for such an cockeyed amount of money that no Mac game publisher with an oz. of gumption — or any Bob Hope of make a profit — would ever say yes .

In fact , Valve , at one degree , even put the original Half - biography into development on the Macintosh . It farmed the project out to a now defunct Mac secret plan conversion developer and publishing firm called Logicware . Valve pull the plug on it after deciding it would n’t be deserving the potential money it ’d make to keep the Mac and microcomputer versions in lockstep so they could both play together online .

At least , that was the excuse Valve used at the time . If there is more to it than that , luck are we ’ll never know . Logicware has go mildly into that good night and the company ’s developer have long since move to other projects and other companies .

The bad part about Valve ’s absence seizure on the Mac political program is n’t necessary the passing of Half - Life 2 or any other Valve - specific game , though . Valve , like I d and Epic , licenses its plot - engine technology to other developers . So it ’s not just a case of Valve Software ’s games not being on the Mac — it ’s a case of every other developer who uses that technology not being capable to play their game to the Mac , either .

Doing it right

equate this , if you will , to the piece of work that I d Software and Epic Games do . I d and Epic both work with Mac secret plan publishers ( Aspyr Media and MacSoft , respectively ) to take their claim to the Macintosh . I d Software co - founder John Carmack has been known to talk with Steve Jobs in the past , and has for certain used his influence to make indisputable that Apple ’s efforts developing OpenGL as Mac OS X ’s substance graphics technology do n’t go to wastefulness . What ’s more , I d relies on the wit trust of Aspyr ’s own internal game growth studio apartment to check that that its game are well optimized for Mac OS X. Epic employs a very resourceful and enormously talented developer named Ryan Gordon who do by much of its Mac and Linux rebirth .

What ’s more , have a gander atBlizzard Entertainment , makers of the tremendously pop game World of Warcraft . For years , Blizzard has continue Mac and PC development find simultaneously , engage a diminished but gifted group of Mac programmers who work on their games and keep them up to engagement , making sure to expose new Apple technology whenever it ’s available .

Blizzard demonstrated World of Warcraft working as a worldwide binary the same workweek that Apple introduced Intel - based Macs in January , 2006 , for example , and was one of the first ship’s company to employ support for multithreaded OpenGL , which supercharge 3 - D computer graphic performance on multicore Intel Macs .

Some techno - literati point toward Valve ’s extensive purchase of Microsoft DirectX technology as a reason why its plot ca n’t work on the Mac . That ’s a red Clupea harangus — DirectX - intensive games issue forth to the Mac all the time . mack game spiritual rebirth developers have library that enable them to convince DirectX code to its Mac equivalent . It ’s a technical trouble , sure , but it ’s not insurmountable .

In each and every case , the developers and publishers I ’ve pointed to have chance ways to bring their games to the Mac platform , without do excuse or blaming Apple for a want of interest group . And they ’ve done it without any backdoor slew from Apple .

So what throw Valve extra ?

The response : Nothing .