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Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted at video game designer Valve headquarters

appleinsider.com

11–20 of 68 posts

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted at video game designer Valve headquarters

#11

I think that's a sign that Apple is starting to take games seriously on the desktop. It's, in part, what made the iPhone successful after all.

That's what many hoped when they announced their previous Mac Gaming push. But nothing much has come of that.

It was likely behind Steam being ported to the Mac, so it wasn't nothing. But that move hasn't borne nearly as much fruit as one might have hoped.

And the continued existence of the performance gap between OSX and win7 via bootcamp is not a good thing. Apple needs to take a much more proactive position on correcting that. Maybe the problem is with drivers, maybe it's missing frameworks, maybe it's third party developers starting with directx and not following through with an OpenGL port. Whatever it is, they ought to put more effort into correcting it.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted at video game designer Valve headquarters

#12
post #4

I'll tell you why I think he was there: Apple wants a 30% cut of all sales on the Steam platform. Steam purchases will soon be required to go through Apple's in-app purchase system.

I'd be surprised that Valve would even go for that, Apple hasn't been their market anyway.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted at video game designer Valve headquarters

#14
Another interesting possibility is mobile Steam with app purchases and Appstore interoperability. It would be awesome to buy a cross platform game on Steam and get it for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android all the same time. Ridiculously unlikely, I know, but I can dream.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted at video game designer Valve headquarters

#16

Also relevant: Valve has JUST started advertising for hardware jobs: http://www.valvesoftware.com/jobs/job_postings.html see "injection molding" etc in job descriptions.

It's interesting how a company known for games has basically no game developer positions open. Anyone know why?

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted at video game designer Valve headquarters

#17

Also relevant: Valve has JUST started advertising for hardware jobs: http://www.valvesoftware.com/jobs/job_postings.html see "injection molding" etc in job descriptions.

It's interesting how a company known for games has basically no game developer positions open. Anyone know why?

Maybe they already have all their positions filled?

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted at video game designer Valve headquarters

#18
post #4

I'll tell you why I think he was there: Apple wants a 30% cut of all sales on the Steam platform. Steam purchases will soon be required to go through Apple's in-app purchase system.

This is just ridiculous nonsense. Everyone who actually uses a Mac knows that the App Store is completely optional and can be deleted. So I fail to see how Apple could force Steam to hand over ANY money.

Apple's got a history of changing the rules. I thought it was ridiculous nonsense when I heard that Apple was going to force Amazon to pay 30% for books purchased through their iPhone app too, yet here we are.

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted at video game designer Valve headquarters

#19

Another interesting possibility is mobile Steam with app purchases and Appstore interoperability. It would be awesome to buy a cross platform game on Steam and get it for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android all the same time. Ridiculously unlikely, I know, but I can dream.

Mobile steam is already there so it wouldn't be a huge leap. Currently it's pointless except for the chat because, yeah I could buy that game on the go. But why?

Re: Apple CEO Tim Cook Spotted at video game designer Valve headquarters

#20
post #11

I think that's a sign that Apple is starting to take games seriously on the desktop. It's, in part, what made the iPhone successful after all.

That's what many hoped when they announced their previous Mac Gaming push. But nothing much has come of that. It was likely behind Steam being ported to the Mac, so it wasn't nothing . But that move hasn't borne nearly as much fruit as one might have hoped. And the continued existence of the performance gap between OSX and win7 via bootcamp is not a good thing. Apple needs to take a much more proactive position on co…

I believe Microsoft's gaming ecosystem plays a huge part in this gap.

If you develop your game in the Microsoft world, say, for XBox, almost nothing is left by the time you're done porting to Mac OS, while porting from Mac OS to Microsoft is much easier - not perfect though.

I can dig up links if anyone wants them.

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