BioWare: Mac version of Star Wars: The Old Republic is something it's 'looking at next'

BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk are quite dedicated to their fans. At least that's a recurring theme for them when talking about their company's moves in new directions, to which both repeatedly referred during a recent interview in midtown Manhattan. "We know there's a big Mac audience of BioWare fans ... we know that's an important and large audience. And we want to serve that audience," Muzyka told me when asked about a potential Mac version of the his company's latest major release, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

"I'd say 'not yet,'" Zeschuk assured me when I told him that, as a BioWare fan, I'm unable to play The Old Republic on my less than two-year-old MacBook. Though Muzyka was quick to remind me that I can technically play the game on a Windows partition, he also admitted that it wasn't an ideal situation. "We've done a lot of Mac ports before of our games. We haven't announced any details yet for The Old Republic, but we know that's an important and large audience."

Neither would offer a strict timetable on the Mac version, but Zeschuk did note, "That's definitely one of the things we're looking at next. We want to get this launch under our belt and everything stabilized and happy, and then we'll look at other platforms, and that's obviously one of the first ones."

Reader Comments (75)

The Hero Engine isn't exactly Mac friendly, but considering how much of the engine BioWare ripped out and replaced with custom code, maybe we'll actually see a Mac client in 2013.

@djblewis the Hero Engine's roadmap includes Mac support by October of 2012.

@djblewis It isn't that huge of a deal to re-write Direct X calls to Open GL. Direct X provides hooks into common functions that Open GL provides as well. The main pain-in-the-rear is bug regressing the new calls and ensuring you removed all previous hooks to Direct X.

Bioware, of course, could take the easy route and just emulate Direct X, but the performance will be dismal considering the system requirements of SWTOR.

@djblewis It won't be native it will use Cider just like all the other EA games do. I knew this day would come even when BioWare stated the wouldn't do it, simply because EA has made a commitment to release their games for both PC and MAC. SWTOR will follow the path as all the other EA games and use Cider.

With that said I won't hold my breath, as we still need to see where the game is at in the next 3-5 months first.

No. Macs aren't computers. They are calculators with more RAM. They aren't for gaming. They will never be for gaming. When someone buys a Mac, they make a covenant to never play games on it.

@y0d4991337

That's just rude and an uneducated response.

@y0d4991337 You're so ... 10 years ago.

If a Mac had a comparable video card, what reason would Windows have over OS X? Apple stopped using RISC processors 6 years ago.

@y0d4991337 I'm playing SWTOR on my mac now. Haven a Intel Sandy Bridge 2600, 16gb ram, Radeon 6970m 2gb. Plays fine. Not sure how my imac isn't for gaming.

@archer75 So how's your second mortgage, because at those specs the Apple store charges $2,699.00. I have twice those specs, and payed more half the price, plus I don't need to have two OS's in order to play it.

@y0d4991337
Didn't cost me that much. I added the ram myself. But yeah, it's a lot. But the monitor alone is worth a grand. The rest of the computer specs don't make it that much more over building your own. And a 27" at 2560x1440 looks amazing.

@archer75 Have fun trying to run the game on max at that resolution with that video card.

@y0d4991337
I am gaming at max resolution with that card. I play all games at the native resolution of the monitor.

@kalipou134 Finially, someone who isn't under the influence of the "Reality Distortion Field"

@y0d4991337
There is no reality distortion field. I have many computers in this house and aside from the imac, i've built them all. I have no shortage of PC's I can game on. I also wanted a mac. The display is the best I own and it handles SWTOR maxed out, so why not use it?

@y0d4991337 told this to people hundreds of times, when was the last time you bought a computer DIRECTLY from HP, IBM, or any of the other brand names (which really mean only the casing is the brand and nothing else on a PC), I've been a mac user since i was 13yo and i have NEVER once paid full price for a mac. I've always bought them from the stores outside of Apple (online stores now) that all have a much lower price. There's a saying in the mac community. "A used Mac is better then any PC, it lasts much longer, and it does everything" I've bought used macs all my life, the moment i get a pc i'm forced to upgrade my OS three times, (not to mention the ten million mini updates for "security") I've had to replace parts in it twice now, and I'm coming up on having to replace the fans in it. Mine's an HP. My iMac is three years older then this PC and has only been turned off because for a time i left WoW which has a mac version of the game. Sad people like you will be paying four times more to replace defective parts for the rest of your life. The amount you spend repairing pc's equals what Apple charges one time.

@(Unverified) Oh, you're all still here? Sorry, I'm playing the Old Republic... on my PC

@(Unverified)

"A used Mac is better then any PC, it lasts much longer, and it does everything"

That's because surfing the web, listening to music and looking at pictures shouldn't really "use" the hardware bub.

Meanwhile, people with PCs actually make their machine work with games or 3d programming.

I wish we could take all the mac user excuses and myths and put them on a site somewhere, it would at least make your delusions funny.

@(Unverified) Totally agree, the Mac is just an over priced computer mainly used by geeky designer fanboys, rather use an xBox than Mac.

@ScottishViking

That's just double rude and a less educated response!

Mac users who want to play SWTOR already do. It's not hard, but this move isn't a surprise given WoW's track record.

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BioWare: Mac version of Star Wars: The Old Republic is something it's 'looking at next'

Reader Comments (75)

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 12:35PM djblewis said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 1:48PM LoganHunter said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 2:06PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 3rd 2012 11:23AM Unshra said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 12:44PM y0d4991337 said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 1:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 1:01PM Mike DPad said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 4:11PM archer75 said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 5:30PM y0d4991337 said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 6:01PM archer75 said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 6:11PM y0d4991337 said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 6:22PM archer75 said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 9:43PM y0d4991337 said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 10:44PM archer75 said

Posted: Jan 3rd 2012 1:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 3rd 2012 4:00PM y0d4991337 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2012 1:52AM kalipou134 said

Posted: Jan 4th 2012 2:11PM Mombasa69 said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 1:02PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 2nd 2012 1:07PM Riseyra said

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