Gamespy Phases Out Mac Support

[hal]

PC to Mac gaming may be in trouble, thanks to Gamespy, according to Inside Mac Games.

According to one industry source, GameSpy recently significantly increased the licensing fees for Mac gaming companies. According to the source, this may be a squeeze play on GameSpy part to "get out of the Mac business all together. This is basically GameSpy's way of dropping Mac support". The situation is so dire that one Mac game company we talked to recently is considering cancelling a port of a "major PC" title unless a workaround to GameSpy can be found.

Epic Games' Ryan Gordon, comments on the delays in America's Army development:

The Mac build is suffering from a serious problem...we don't have a license to use GameSpy's SDK on the Mac anymore, for reasons I won't get into here. For a purely-multiplayer game, this complicates things, to say the least. There are some minor contingency plans in place, but this means more delays. I know you all love waiting, sorry about this.

Games utilizing Gamespy, such as U-Engine title Men of Valor, as a game matching service may be forced to find other alternatives, drop PC to Mac gaming support, or even scrap Mac ports.

[FluXs]

Now what would be funny is if people like EPIC drop gamespy support totally to develop their own service.

[SanitysEdge]

[Israphel]

Gamespy sucks anyway. One more reason to think so.

Strange, cos Mac sales seem to be on the increase, and despite MMIs cartoon above (seen it before matey, is that the only one you've got ), Mac gamers, and Mac games are on the increase. Looking at the top 20 online games according to Csports, and the only games that don't appear on Mac (I'm pretty sure) are DoD, HL2 and CS...everything else has been ported.

So I wonder why they're pulling out.

[qazix]

That does suck, but we've known for a long time that Gamespy is, on the whole, a large group of a$$holes. Why such a company was ever allowed to gain such influence I don't know, but it's apparent that some competition needs to be introduced here quite desperately. Ryan Gordon seems to agree:

Originally Posted by http://icculus.org/cgi-bin/finger/finger.pl?user=icculus

The longer term solutions involve an act of subversion. Namely, someone needs to step up: develop and market a product that replaces GameSpy. It's not a secret that GameSpy's SDK doesn't really have any real competition at the moment. It's also not a secret that most PC developers would shed no tears for GameSpy if a better alternative came along. I will be daring and say a small, modestly-funded team could pull this off, and if they hit the right PC developers, could gain critical mass with a quickness. The obvious choices for this, if we're being Mac-centric, are either Aspyr or Destineer. I would suggest this might be best done by an independent company that has no sort of Apple affliation as their primary interest. After all, there're plenty of reasons to ditch GameSpy on the PC, too; this Mac episode just illustrates it...they could always inflate their prices universally. Smart developers will take notice now when it's still someone else whining.

However, it appears that all will be well again if Gamespy lowers the SDK price back to what it was so that Ryan's check clears:

Originally Posted by http://icculus.org/cgi-bin/finger/finger.pl?user=icculus

I know I sound like I'm attacking GameSpy here, but I'm just being practical...I'm a Mac developer with two projects in the pipeline that are screwed at the moment. If I get a call tomorrow telling me the SDK is reasonably priced again and the check has cleared, I'll delete this whole rant and sing GameSpy's praises.

[Rodzilla]

Brilliant. Maybe gaming companies will wise up now and stop using ****ty ol gamespy.

[jc!]

F*** GaySpy…

[Bot_40]

Just confirms what I thought of gheyspy when the ol' pu forums got raped and nalicity got booted off...

[BlackDragon323]

Originally Posted by ScourgeX

I HATE all you F**KING stereotypes saying mac sucks...Get a life, seriously.

HAHA!

[rajput_warrior]

screw u gamespy, i lvoe my mac and thank god epic ported unreal because its the only game i got on my iBook!!! (even though the game in my opinion is better on pc, maybe its because my PC is a lot better) DONT SCREW MAC GAMERS, WE DO EXIST AND THEIR ARE MORE OF US COMING!!!!

[Shrimp]

I really wouldn't mind GameSpy being replaced with something new... In fact I'd rejoice if it was.

I think all the leading developers should get together and define their own standard, built around their own needs, and release the specs of what they require, and see who comes up with the best implimentation . Even Open Source it to ensure it's always up-to-date and if it's all built around a common set of 'rules', developers could build their own implimentations or use existing Open Source ones without the hassle of licensing. It'll also ensure it'll always be cross-platform since anyone could impliment it on any OS, platform, etc.

Or something

[1337]

Originally Posted by FluXs

Now what would be funny is if people like EPIC drop gamespy support totally to develop their own service.

I game on a mac

[Dragon_Myr]

I had to get a Gamespy login for updating Rise of Nations and downloading some other crap. How annoying because it was required. X_X Great, another company spamming my email and whining about their servers being too busy. That and trying to download anything like them is like downloading things on dial up. Sure, it comes through in a couple minutes, but you're in line for hours waiting.

Originally Posted by FluXs

Now what would be funny is if people like EPIC drop gamespy support totally to develop their own service.

This must be done ASAP!

[JaFO]

Is crossfire and that other browser an option ?
Or do both rely on the gamespy 'services' to get their data ?
And what about UT's own browser ? I thought that didn't require any extra 'services' either ?

A really smart developer would have realised that in a market with only one supplier the chances of them dictating the contract are pretty big ...
I mean ... ghee ... who'd have thought that Gamespy wouldn't try to increase the cost for their SDK once it looked like the competition was nowhere to be seen ?

[elmuerte]

What you need is:
- an open standard for the protocol
- an open source implementation for this protocol (or simply a proof of concept)

The open standard is the most important part, and afaik people are working on something (however I have my doubts on that protocol).
This protocol should include more than just server quering. Read Ryan's finger for some of the things that are also needed.

[pjmodos]

Open Game Protocol (www.open-game-protocol.org) looks promising

[ShortCutMan]

Death to GameSpy.

[elmuerte]

Originally Posted by pjmodos

Open Game Protocol (www.open-game-protocol.org) looks promising

that was the protocol I was refering to.

I don't like the design of the protocol (but at least it's a try).
also that protocol is missing some vital functionality in order to replace the gamespy protocol (for some games). And other things are missing (like a master server and stuff).

[Israphel]

Originally Posted by ScourgeX

I HATE all you F**KING stereotypes saying mac sucks...Get a life, seriously.

????

No-one here is saying Mac sucks. MMI had his little cartoon, but that's not enough really to be getting so uptight about. In my time posting here, no-one on these forums has acted like you say people do.

We're saying that Gamespy sucks...and Mac and PC gamers are pretty much in agreement on that one.

So chill out, you'll give the rest of us Mac uses a bad name acting like that.

[SkaarjMaster]

I was going to ask why this was such a big deal, but while reading this thread I saw this posted by Dragon_Myr:"I had to get a Gamespy login for updating Rise of Nations and downloading some other crap. How annoying because it was required."

I never knew SpameGy had such a stranglehold on some games. I think it's time for Mac games to break the chains. I'm glad my favorite online games are all UT ones!