I am a happy Mac owner, I enjoy my Mac in a bunch of great ways. It runs smooth, turns on super quick, can't hear it, great UI. But the game side of things is a bit thin, the Mac app store shows this. So I went on to the games section of the app store, and here are the top 10 paid games.

1. Bus Driver.
2. Real Racing 2.
3. Angry Birds.
4. Monopoly.
5. Grand Theft Auto Vice City.
6. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas.
7. Angry Birds Rio.
8. Gesundheit.
9. Race illegal High Speed 3D.
10. Limbo.

Now I don't know what you think, but that list is pretty weird, what does it say about the people that have Macs that a Bus driving simulator is the most popular games right now. Bus driver has a higher star rating than Angry Birds I would like to point out, which is just crazy. Looking down at the list there are a bunch of weird games that you look at and think why is this here but not this game. For instance Doom 3 is on here, I mean why do you choose to have the crap Doom on here instead of the good ones.

Do you see the games on here getting better and more fleshed out, or is it just an afterthought that Apple really couldn't care less about.

Steve Jobs didn't think games were very important. Since he's not around anymore, I could see Apple trying to get in on the huge industry. Problem is porting the games from PC, and the preconceived notion that Mac users don't even play games.

It's more likely that the iPhone and iPad get more support, in my opinion.

@Veiasma: I think that the iPad and iPhone have a good and varied game library, it has a bunch of great cheap games.

Without Direct X the mac will never have a considerable game library.

@AlexW00d: It does have some high quality games on it that make me wonder why similar games are not here, for instance Call of Duty 4 and Batman Arkham Asylum are on here.

@AlexW00d said:

Without Direct X the mac will never have a considerable game library.

It also helps that Windows device drivers are 5x more feature rich than their Mac brethren. That and the whole native support for the Wired/Wireless Xbox 360 controller.

@Hizang: CoD isn't a game that needs much oomph to run though, it being the Quake 3 engine. And Arkham Asylum runs on the Unreal Engine, which also runs on iPads. Neither games will be very optimised and probably have to be run at minimum settings. Unfortunately I doubt a couple of a high-ish name games won't change much. Unless Apple licenses out DX from Microsoft, which they won't, it will always be barren. Even Steam for Mac sucks. That and the people who want to play games not on a console will build themselves a PC which will cost them a quarter of what Apple would want.

Just this morning I opened it up again to discover they have a new feature called "BIG NAME GAMES - The Superstars of Gaming." This looks to be where they would put there big games right, well there part right as MW, Bioshock, GTA3, Borderlands, Limbo, Braid etc are in there. But also Doom 3, since when is Doom 3 a superstar in gaming?

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

I don't bother with Mac games, except those for both Win/Mac. As for PC games in general though, I play a lot of strategy games like Age of Empires and Civilisation (I don't care for shooters), so I just run them on Windows through Bootcamp and everything I want to play has not only run well on my iMac, but also my less powerful Macbook. Sure, it will won't run Crysis, but I don't want to play that anyway. I am not a fan of all these small games that seem so popular and I don't want to play Angry Birds.

@Sooty said:

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

The lack of Direct X is definitely the main factor in my eyes, of course you can relate this to money as Direct X support would make it much easier and cheaper to port over. The App Store is a horrible place for games though, they are so overpriced compared to Steam.

Well, most Direct-X games are portable using WINE or Cider, like Transgaming is doing. So if it just was Direct X, they could all go down that road, or at minimum, we'd see more Mac ports. No, the publishers, and maybe rightfully so, doesn't want to invest in the still relatively uncharted Mac platform.

@Sooty said:

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

The lack of Direct X is definitely the main factor in my eyes, of course you can relate this to money as Direct X support would make it much easier and cheaper to port over. The App Store is a horrible place for games though, they are so overpriced compared to Steam.

how much are they overpriced by.

@Hizang said:

Just this morning I opened it up again to discover they have a new feature called "BIG NAME GAMES - The Superstars of Gaming." This looks to be where they would put there big games right, well there part right as MW, Bioshock, GTA3, Borderlands, Limbo, Braid etc are in there. But also Doom 3, since when is Doom 3 a superstar in gaming?

The superstar in that case would be John Carmack or Zenimax. It's not the game itself so much as the publisher or developer.

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

The lack of Direct X is definitely the main factor in my eyes, of course you can relate this to money as Direct X support would make it much easier and cheaper to port over. The App Store is a horrible place for games though, they are so overpriced compared to Steam.

how much are they overpriced by.

Double the price in a lot of cases and their store never has deals like Steam does.

I remember being exited for Team Fortress 2 when it got ported to Mac. Turns out running TF2 in bootcamp ran better than on OSX.

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

The lack of Direct X is definitely the main factor in my eyes, of course you can relate this to money as Direct X support would make it much easier and cheaper to port over. The App Store is a horrible place for games though, they are so overpriced compared to Steam.

how much are they overpriced by.

Double the price in a lot of cases and their store never has deals like Steam does.

i've seen sales on the apps store. what games are double the prices, thats crazy!

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

The lack of Direct X is definitely the main factor in my eyes, of course you can relate this to money as Direct X support would make it much easier and cheaper to port over. The App Store is a horrible place for games though, they are so overpriced compared to Steam.

how much are they overpriced by.

Double the price in a lot of cases and their store never has deals like Steam does.

i've seen sales on the apps store. what games are double the prices, thats crazy!

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

The lack of Direct X is definitely the main factor in my eyes, of course you can relate this to money as Direct X support would make it much easier and cheaper to port over. The App Store is a horrible place for games though, they are so overpriced compared to Steam.

how much are they overpriced by.

Double the price in a lot of cases and their store never has deals like Steam does.

i've seen sales on the apps store. what games are double the prices, thats crazy!

KOTOR was like £15 at one point when on Steam it was £7 and down to £1.75 (in sales iirc) and Call of Duty 4 and Doom 3 both had big price inflations, I think Borderlands too. (?)

oh, so its not as bad as you first made out then if its just a handful. plus steam itself is really expensive too outside of a sale.

Unfortunately, support has been pretty poor so I think those who are traditionally interested in gaming, and as such those games which are traditionally considered "good", aren't trying to game on Mac platforms. I game on my MacBook Pro fairly often, but I use the Windows 7 partition of the computer to do it. I wish I didn't have to deal with the hassle, but the variety and support just isn't there.

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

Isn't a comparable Mac more expensive than a comparable computer to play games as well? I know a lot of people who own Mac's and do not play games on it solely for the reason of it being way to expensive.

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

The lack of Direct X is definitely the main factor in my eyes, of course you can relate this to money as Direct X support would make it much easier and cheaper to port over. The App Store is a horrible place for games though, they are so overpriced compared to Steam.

how much are they overpriced by.

Double the price in a lot of cases and their store never has deals like Steam does.

i've seen sales on the apps store. what games are double the prices, thats crazy!

KOTOR was like £15 at one point when on Steam it was £7 and down to £1.75 (in sales iirc) and Call of Duty 4 and Doom 3 both had big price inflations, I think Borderlands too. (?)

oh, so its not as bad as you first made out then if its just a handful. plus steam itself is really expensive too outside of a sale.

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

The lack of Direct X is definitely the main factor in my eyes, of course you can relate this to money as Direct X support would make it much easier and cheaper to port over. The App Store is a horrible place for games though, they are so overpriced compared to Steam.

how much are they overpriced by.

Double the price in a lot of cases and their store never has deals like Steam does.

i've seen sales on the apps store. what games are double the prices, thats crazy!

KOTOR was like £15 at one point when on Steam it was £7 and down to £1.75 (in sales iirc) and Call of Duty 4 and Doom 3 both had big price inflations, I think Borderlands too. (?)

oh, so its not as bad as you first made out then if its just a handful. plus steam itself is really expensive too outside of a sale.

Oh no it is, they are just off the top of my head, every game I've seen on there that is also on Steam costs considerably more. Steam isn't really expensive though, it's pretty much in line with retail prices and in some cases cheaper, if you think it's expensive check out the App Store and then compare.

not in the UK, almost everything is more expensive on steam if you compare to amazon.

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@jetsetwillie said:

@Sooty said:

@Jeaz said:

Well, Mac gaming content is obviously lagging behind Windows. Some will say its because of Direct X or drivers or that Macs cant run games. Neither is very accurate though, it just boils down to money. Traditionally, most gamers own PCs or a console, so that's where the money can be made. Over the last couple of years though, Macs has grown in popularity and so has the gamer community for it. The problem is though, developing big budget games is risky, even for PC so they don't dare to do it for Macs as well. If you look at the indie market, Mac versions are a lot more common. However, don't use Mac App Store as a benchmark, as it's only one of many ways to buy games for Mac, with Steam and GameTreeMac being the most popular alternatives. But, there are still more and more Mac versions of "big" game titles, most recently The Darkness II.

The lack of Direct X is definitely the main factor in my eyes, of course you can relate this to money as Direct X support would make it much easier and cheaper to port over. The App Store is a horrible place for games though, they are so overpriced compared to Steam.

how much are they overpriced by.

Double the price in a lot of cases and their store never has deals like Steam does.

i've seen sales on the apps store. what games are double the prices, thats crazy!

KOTOR was like £15 at one point when on Steam it was £7 and down to £1.75 (in sales iirc) and Call of Duty 4 and Doom 3 both had big price inflations, I think Borderlands too. (?)

oh, so its not as bad as you first made out then if its just a handful. plus steam itself is really expensive too outside of a sale.

Oh no it is, they are just off the top of my head, every game I've seen on there that is also on Steam costs considerably more. Steam isn't really expensive though, it's pretty much in line with retail prices and in some cases cheaper, if you think it's expensive check out the App Store and then compare.

not in the UK, almost everything is more expensive on steam if you compare to amazon.

Yeah the Mac App store does have weird lists, part of it is the iPhone/iPad crossover. Many of the games on there are iOS games ported to Mac. And then we have the few console/PC ported games in there also.

The list would probably look a bit different if all the games that are on Steam where in there too. And then again maybe not. The casual game market is just so big on that platform thanks iPhones, iPads and iTouches.

As much as i love my Mac and my ipad and iPod, i have yet to buy a game for my Mac. They are just not for me, and thats why i have a PC that i only use to play games on.

To those whining about DirectX. You don't need it. OpenGL works just fine.

Drivers are still a problem though. The quality of the driver basically depends on how much effort the video card makers put into optimizing them. That and Apple not like hardware vendors "going around them" - Apple to my knowledge handles the distribution of all hardware drivers for their systems. The good thing about Apple handling driver distribution is stability as Apple gets to vet all drivers and make sure it works well with the rest of the system before they hit the users (that said, Apple's QA has on occasion "drop the ball" but it's fine most of the time), the downside of course is you won't get any cutting edge drivers direct from the video card manufacturers.

Sooner or later Apple are going to have to pull their collective thumbs out of their arse and actually make OSX a viable platform for games.

I'm sick and tired of booting in to Windows to play modern games. And as everyone's said, even if a game is ported to OSX, it runs better on Windows.

I've got a large amount of Mac games on Steam - I like to buy them (even if I never get round to playing them) just to support developers that do hobble over to OSX.

@NaCl said:

To those whining about DirectX. You don't need it. OpenGL works just fine..

This is very true. A lot of high end games run on OpenGL.