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Half Life 2's OS X Port Costs $ 1 Million

10 posts · originally from https://geek.digit.in/community/threads/half-life-2s-os-x-port-costs-1-million.70152/

Third Eye
Third Eye Original post #1
Oct 8, 2007 at 5:25 PM
EA have recently hit the market with NFS and Battlefield ports for the OS X, so Valve couldn't wait to seize the opportunity and make an OS X port of their own. Of course, Half Life 2 seems to have been
the chosen title and the talks with Apple were on their way when suddenly...they stopped. The reason? A million dollars... This was the price asked by Valve in order to develop a port of the acclaimed HL 2 title.

I can see that porting such a title on Macs can be pretty tough, but still a million dollars is quite a lot of money even for a huge company like Apple. Also, Valve would be betting on a game that won't sell as well as the PC version did, in fact it won't even reach 1% of the original version's sales. Does Valve know something that we don't? Have they read the future in the crystal ball seeing that the Mac is the platform of the future and not the average PC?

Considering that Apple will soon launch a new operating system, most gaming companies will probably try to take advantage of it and the hype generated by such an event. Siding with Steve Job's company when everything's going perfect is a good move and Valve was just about to perform it, being however cut off by financial issues. What do you think? Will they make a second demand, asking for less money or will Apple finally be willing to pay?

While we're waiting for the second episode of Half Life 2, those poor Mac users are still hoping to play the first title on their platforms. Is it really that tough to develop a port? So far there are 2 platforms that are always mentioned as developers' worst nightmares when it comes to producing games: the PS3 and Mac OS X.

Source -> Softpedia News
shantanu
shantanu #2
Oct 8, 2007 at 5:34 PM
there should be another movie in the million dollar series.. :D
A Million Dollar Game :p
RCuber
RCuber #3
Oct 8, 2007 at 5:36 PM
I had seen in youtube that HL can be played verywell on a Mac but with Boot Camp. Where as this porting is something different. BTW how many big titles does OS X have?
[xubz]
[xubz] #5
Oct 8, 2007 at 5:47 PM
Um. Its just $1 Million.. They asked for it because Valve wants its investment back. Its never easy to port a DirectX game to OpenGL.

In Fact, Microsoft paid Take-Two $50 Million for making GTA4's Downloadable Content exclusive for XBOX360 [1]

First, Bungie was a Apple-only Developer, They went directly into Microsoft's Money hands.

And its not 'Million Dollar Movie', 1M$ = 4Cr Rs. Not even a Hindi Blockbuster can be taken that cheaply!

*digg.com/apple/Valve_wanted_1m_Apple_to_port_Half_Life_to_OS_X
RCuber
RCuber #6
Oct 8, 2007 at 5:53 PM
hmm only a few top of the line games available .... what about previous generation macs? what games did they have?

goobi, arya, what games did you guys play on you macs?
[xubz]
[xubz] #7
Oct 8, 2007 at 5:57 PM
Many!
*en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_games

I've personally seen my friend playing Warcraft III on Mac.
RCuber
RCuber #8
Oct 8, 2007 at 5:59 PM
^^^ thats quite a list :D .. he he never bothered to check wiki .. :p
praka123
praka123 #9
Oct 9, 2007 at 5:39 AM
may be a common std like opengl works for all games unlike M$ locked directx.Mac and Linux users too can enjoy!
for many users,main reason to use windows may be for games and the locking of games to M$ platform via Directx which is exclusive to M$.ppl consider upgrading to vista also are woed by future games for directx10.1& goes on!evil monopoly!@#$
RCuber
RCuber #10
Oct 9, 2007 at 11:50 AM
^^ its the game companies which selectes the platform of DirectX or OpenGL.. not the end user. And the game company choses DX cause they think it has something more than OpenGL.

Prakash we are discussing about games for OS X and not about M$.