Besides Blizzard, there aren’t many companies not only making games for both PC and Mac, but also releasing them on the same media. It is so nice to buy a Blizzard game and be able to install it on either a PC or a Mac. With my recent moves to more Mac computers, I even had to install WOW on my Mac Book Pro so my son could play while we were on a trip over the summer. The only other companies that I’ve seen release games like this are ones that make casual games. Some recent ones I’ve seen are Diner Dash and the soon to be hit Spore (Creature Creator in this case).
What irks me about this lack of dual game media is that I have many games that have Mac versions, but I’m certainly not going to repurchase those games just to play them on the Mac. With the popularity of the Mac rising, maybe companies that release Mac versions of their games could follow in Blizzard’s footsteps. It would certain cut down on packaging and media costs to have both versions in one box on the same media.
At the very least it would be nice if the companies could offer the alternate version at a discounted rate. For example, my son likes this game called Pocket Tanks (I believe it’s a new take on the old basic game where two people take turns firing at each other from different sides of the screen while blocked by some obstruction. In fact my good buddy Chris used to go bananas (no pun intended) over the Gorilla Basic game that came with Windows in the mid-1990’s). Anyway, since I recently gave my son my old MacBook, I’ve been trying to find some Mac games for him to play. Well, the company that makes Pocket Tanks (BlitWise) sent me an email about Mac versions of their games. Naturally, I inquired about potential discounts since I already owned the PC version of Pocket Tanks and they were nice enough to oblige. Maybe other companies could offer rebates or some way to sell their games at a discount if you already own the game on a different platform.
Maybe this is all a pipe dream since game companies seem more interested in making console versions of their games than Mac versions, but a guy can always hope.