Topic: Scrap Vista and DirectX 10? Mac OS X the Next Gaming Platform!

[Amker]

Why does the association between Apple's Mac OS X operating system and the term gaming platform equal comedy? Well, the answer to this is rather simple. Mac OS X from the perspective of a gaming platform is simply a funny concept. There is no other way to describe it. Gaming has never been Mac OS X's top appealing aspect. By all means in fact, it is the one anodyne detail that is deterring gamers away from the Apple platform and onto Linux. But just for the fun of it... Do you want to know what would happen to a 
gamer that switched from Windows to Mac  OS X? Then simply watch the video fragment embedded at the
bottom of this article. Long story short... he would no longer be a gamer.

According to estimated presented by Kevin Unangst, global director of Games for Windows, in excess of 200 million gamers around the world are using Windows as a main platform. Considering that, following the first 100 days of availability, Windows Vista has an installed base larger than any rival does, with just 40 million licenses sold, Mac OS X does not even come close to Windows. And in this context it isn't the platform itself; it is the game developers. Vista for example, has made its way to over 10 million gamers around the world looking to benefit from the DirectX 10 technology. It is a huge gambit to create a game for an operating system that struggles on the periphery of anonymity. There is simply no audience to target.

And while Microsoft announced at the E3 Media & Business Summit (E3) in Santa Monica on July 10, that approximately 30 titles will be released under the Games for Windows brand umbrella, with Xbox 360's bestseller "Gears of War" coming to both XP and Vista, Apple announced zero new games for Tiger and Leopard (scheduled for October). Well, in all fairness there's Warcraft III and that puzzle game with the Apple logo. It's funny because it's true. This situation is reflected by the market share of each operating system. Windows XP accounts for 81.94% of the market, Windows Vista for 4.52% and Mac OS X is at just 6%, according to data from Market Share by Net Applications.
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