Intel, market share growth ‘hugely beneficial’ to Mac gaming market

The Mac gaming market has been a mixed bag for publishers and Mac users over the last decade. But in an interview with Gamasutra, MacSoft President Peter Tamte reiterated his belief that “the movement to Intel processors will narrow the gap between when a game ships for Windows versus the Macintosh, and this will be hugely beneficial to the Mac market.”

Tamte founded MacSoft before working with Apple as senior director of worldwide consumer marketing and with Bungie Software as executive vice president. He left the Bungie shortly after it was acquired by Microsoft. He founded Destineer in 2000, which publishes game titles through four different labels.

One of those labels is MacSoft, which he bought back from Atari in 2003. MacSoft’s current titles include Age of Empires III, Zoo Tycoon 2, Rise of Nations Gold Edition and Halo. Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs is slated for release in Spring.

When asked to describe the state of the Mac gaming market at this point in time, Tamte said:

Apple’s market share is growing so quickly now that it virtually guarantees prosperity in the Mac market for most big-budget games. The biggest tricks to manage in the Mac market are keeping system requirements down, especially because there are too many machines with Intel-integrated graphics, focusing on content that’s appropriate for the Mac market—because the Mac market responds to certain kinds of content better than others—and distribution, because we need Mac software to get sold through more outlets.

When Apple first announced the switch to Intel processors, some were concerned that the ability to run Windows on a Mac might reduce the amount of games ported from Windows to OS X. Has the ability to play Windows games natively on your Intel Mac via Boot Camp changed your gaming purchases?

Q&A: Tamte On Destineer’s Four-Pronged Approach

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